Miss Saigon gets ready for her close-ups
MISS SAIGON’S West End run may be over. But the show’s appeal lives on, with not one, but two Miss Saigon films in the works — one of them directed by Oscarwinner Danny Boyle.
First to be released will be Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance, which features a mix of footage from that landmark gala show in 2014 and the last night of the recent revival at the Prince Edward Theatre.
That film — featuring a breakout performance by Eva Noblezada as Kim, the club girl who falls for an American GI just as Saigon collapses at the end of the Vietnam War; Jon Jon Briones, as the conniving pimp-fixer known as the Engineer; and Alistair Brammer as Chris the GI — has some brilliant footage.
I’ve seen the stage production more than 20 times all around the world over a quarter of a century. But watching a full rough cut of this picture felt like a totally fresh experience, and I heard the songs in a different way.
Producer Cameron Mackintosh worked with his own film team and executives at Universal on the anniversary special. And they’re still polishing it, prior to a special, one-off public screening around the world on October 16. It will be available to buy on DVD and digital soon afterwards.
A few months ago, I mentioned talk of the second film: a big Hollywood movie Danny Boyle plans to direct at the end of 2018.
I wondered if that would still go ahead, following the anniversary DVD? But I am assured that it will — and Boyle is believed to be linking with his close collaborator Simon Beaufoy, with a view to him writing the screenplay (though neither Boyle nor Beaufoy have completed negotiations yet). Both won Academy Awards for their work on Slumdog Millionaire.
Boyle saw Noblezada perform in Miss Saigon twice when it was on at the Prince Edward. The camera certainly likes her — and I would not be surprised if she ends up on Boyle’s shortlist to play Kim in his big-budget film.
But that’s a long way off, and Boyle still has plenty of time to mull over how he wants to cast it.
If he goes for Noblezada, perhaps he will opt for a star name to play her lover, Chris.
The story of the innocent bystanders of war is as resonant now as it was when Nicholas Hytner directed the original production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, back in 1989.
And I was reminded of it when I watched President Obama’s visit to Vietnam this week.