Miss Saigon is an epic show
THERE have been some big shows on the stage of the Curve over the years which have blasted out top tunes and entertained the crowds.
But Miss Saigon must be the biggest of them all.
This is a show that has set a new level when it comes to size, performances and the epic nature of the stage setting.
For a start, there is a company of 60 who perform this show which is almost as big as the annual panto at the Concordia Theatre in Hinckley.
A live mini orchestra sits in front of the stage in order to produce the beautiful music. In fact, several rows of seats have been taken away to accommodate them.
And the stage setting is also on another level as well.
Just for a small part of one scene, a helicopter appears to fly overhead and then arrives at the top of the stage before coming into land and take some of the cast away.
It then flies off never to be seen again.
It was really awesome and the show must have cost a fortune to create.
The storyline to Miss Saigon is a bit special as it manages to be both majestic and intimate in equal measure. Politics and history are intertwined by a simple story of love.
The show originally premiered in 1989 in London and continued for 10 years before taking a break.
This revival came in 2014 and it has been “touched up” for the modern day with a new song and a few other changes.
The story opens in Dreamland which is the name of a brothel in Vietnam in 1975.
An American soldier called Chris falls in love with a 17-year-old bar girl called Kim who has just arrived from elsewhere in the country.
Love ensues - as you would expect in a stage musical.
But when Saigon falls, the two are separated.
A few years later Chris comes looking for Kim only to find she has a secret.
The two leads of Chris (Ashley Gilmour) and Kim (Sooha Kim) were suitably amazing, as were the other performers which seemed like a cast of thousands.
The singing, dancing and the emotion was perfectly delivered.
As many who know the show would expect, some of the scenes were stolen by The Engineer (Red Concepcion), which was written as a show-stealing role if ever there was one.
How can anyone not play the part and have fun?
This is a massive show which the sold-out crowd loved and I expect the other venues across the country will be suitably impressed with as well.
Having not seen the show before, this is a night that will live long in the memory.
The show is on at the Curve until July 22 although the run sold out months ago.