Miss Saigon - Theatre Royal / Prince Edward / UK Tour

These are the muck-ups & changes I can remember from the matinee:

- In Backstage at Dreamland Marsha (Gigi) shoved Eloisa Tan (Yvette) on the floor when all the girls came in bickering

- When Christian (Engineer) went “a virgin will give them a treat” one of the bargirls said “virgin my ass!”

- All the GIs took their shirts off in the Dreamland sequence, Kurt Kansley started it right near the start then Aaron Lee Lambert and by the end of it all of them were shirtless

- In Movie in My Mind one of the barmen got some… pleasuring from Denise Baaij (Mimi)

- After Sun and Moon the applause went on longer than usual so Chris and Tanya (Kim) had to keep kissing

- In Dju Vui Vai Eloisa started taking Tanya’s shoes off her while she was still wearing them, then went “ugh, they stink!” when putting them in the bag. Also one of the bargirls/men took a photo of the barman on the far right eating his noodles.

- In Morning of the Dragon when Ethan Le Phong and Romeo Salazar (both ensemble) brought Christian out they shouted their instructions in English rather than Vietnamese: “move it!”, “kneel down!” etc.

- Tanya did a lovely little riff at the end of I’d Give My Life For You

- At the start of What a Waste when Romeo (club owner) comes through to yell at the club promoters he said to Christian “do something about your hair, you look like a hairdresser” which prompted Christian to say “what an asshole!”

- Sooha Kim (street vendor) was being overly pushy about selling her food and repeatedly spinning the tray on her hand, then David Kar-Hing Lee (club promoter) pulled her back from the crowd by her plait

- After Eloisa’s ping-pong trick a tourist lay down underneath her to look at where it’d come from, also 2 ensemble guys kept grabbing on to Eloisa’s hand and not letting her go back up the stairs afterwards

- By the time the scene transition to Too Much For One Heart 2 of the Moulin Rouge dancers were wearing 2 of the boys' tourist hats and one of the boys had got onto the platform and started dancing as well

- After TMFOH and Romeo comes in he did a flouncy little backbend on “Sir! Would you like a massage?” which Hugh (John) imitated when he responded “No thanks it’s not my scene”

- Chris did a huge Spiderman-style jump from the top of the embassy stairs at the start of the Nightmare

- Marsha plays her Nightmare character as Gigi recognising Kim so just before the helicopter appeared she and Tanya had a lovely little moment together before Tanya ran off

- Christian said sh*te instead of sh*t at the end of American Dream

- The ensemble boys hi-fived each other while running downstage for their bows, and all the ensemble clapped too when Natalie (Ellen) & Tanya came out for their bows

- When Christian did the standard “bend down and point to the right” for Tam’s bow, instead the standby Tam ran on in costume from the other side for a bow then the actual Tam came on from the right with flowers for Tanya

Some hints from Cameron Mackintosh at the curtain call!

I assume Universal and Working Title will be behind the eventual Saigon movie much like they were with Les Mis.

From reports on here (or the old forum - can't remember which) it seemed to be old cast members were coming back for filming in the days. I'm speculating on the final product though - but there was definitely several accounts of seemingly extensive filming in January.

It was indeed filmed. Alistair and Rachelle Ann were brought back. Typing before I shut off and sleep before an early flight tomorrow! Terrefic two show day. I filmed the entire curtain call and speeches from my first row seat (wasn't stopped and everyone was doing all sorts of filming and picture taking!) and will try to upload it..somewhere..?

I also caught the very last ping pong ball! Landed straight into my Whole Foods brown paper bag

Looks like twas a fantastic night for everyone.
Speeches have already been uploaded on Youtube.

I saw this for the first time last week and thought it was a spectacular show. I have seen people say it's a stripped back version and moan about the sets/production but i can't see where they are coming from. I thought it was a visually stunning and spectacular show with great sets and set pieces. It seemed worthy of the stage/theatre to me.

Thanks for that amazing clip!

So Cameron is talking about 2 different projects, the cinema release (25th Gala performance with the additional footage recorded last month) and an actual feature film version.

Both projects are extremely exciting.

I've wondered about that too. I can't see any reason why this piece couldn't be staged in a small theatre, even a fringe space. It's a love triangle with many scenes involving a small number of actors. Productions so far have used a large ensemble (a bit less on tour) to give some scale to the bigger scenes - bar, This is the Hour, nightmare scene and so on. But that could all be scaled back. The piece might even benefit from it. I know the last helicopter leaving is an important historical point, but there's no reason we have to see the helicopter. Sound & light can sometimes do a better job of creating an image in the mind. The Watermill has done a great job of tackling shows that have played big theatres - Sunset, Martin Guerre, Witches of Eastwick. I'm not sure I'm ready for the actor-musician version of Miss Saigon just yet, but I can see a small theatre tackling it some day.

Well id rather something else but I'm not the one booking the shows!!

At least there is a scale and spectacle to Aladdin