Celluloid captures Miss Saigon’s heart
MOVING legendary musical Miss Saigon to the big screen is a triumph.
The raw emotional story, which moved many to tears, was presented in Sunday’s nationwide screening of the 25th anniversary revival show from the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End.
Lenses, though, cannot create the experience of seeing something live on stage, which is why theatre has survived in the movie and internet age.
That is not to say there is anything wrong with this fivestar production.
It gave a Campbeltown audience a chance to hear and see an amazing theatre musical which, with the current lack of a theatre, can never appear in Kintyre.
This film, on a big screen, is yet another way to experience the awe of the show. Soon it will be out on DVD, which, for the addicts is a third way of savouring Miss Saigon.
Of the play itself, the cast were superb, particularly Jon Jon Briones’s Engineer and Eva Nobiezada as young Kim.
Her love interest, Alistair Brammar as Chris, is likeable despite his part which casts him in the middle of a moral dilemma.
The camera immersed the viewer in the production in a way which is certainly hard to achieve from the sixth row of the circle or even the front row of the stalls.
Sometimes the camera is just too close so we can see the microphones clearly on the players’ foreheads, which surely would not be visible at the theatre.
It is necessary to keep remembering this is a film and not theatre. At no time is the orchestra visible and it needs quite close focus, in some scenes, to realise spotlights are on.
Film also allows out of focus highlights, cutting to close-ups and overlaid sequences which are not possible in theatre.
Victoria Hall’s sound system was more than up to the job and, hopefully, once the Picture House is completed and such shows become a regular feature, its state of the art sound will be more than up to the job.
In next month’s films at Victoria Hall, on Friday November 18, there will be a three-hour screening of Dutch violinist and conductor André Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Encore at 7pm.