THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409160093
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
IF ``PHANTOM OF the Opera'' is the chandelier show and ``Les Miserables'' is the barricade show, then ``Miss Saigon'' is the helicopter show.
Spectacle is the order with this massive, technically awesome Cameron Mackintosh production, which has, at long last, made its way southward from New York to the Kennedy Center's Opera House in Washington, D.C.
The fact that the epic-size theatrical effects are now within driving distance has prompted a northward pilgrimage for many local theater enthusiasts. Bus tours have been selling out.
What they get for their money ($65 tops for the ticket) is quite an eyeful but not much for either the heart or the ear. In attempting to make a musical out of America's national tragedy, the result is a rather cold, mechanical show that is nonetheless stunning.
The same two Frenchmen who wrote ``Les Miserables'' (Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg) composed ``Miss Saigon.'' The composers were in much better form with the soaring melodies of ``Les Miz.'' There's little to hum from ``Miss Saigon.'' The Act I love ballad is just that - a standard love ballad. The lyrics often approach the level of inane baby talk, with a simplicity that is almost effective in conveying tragedy with childlike naivete.
In the 20 years since Vietnam, there has been much fighting on the home front about who fought and who fought against. ``Miss Saigon'' is a signal, whether for good or bad, that we can sit and cooly be entertained by the tragedy, as if it were in another age. At $65, with T-shirts and souvenirs on sale in the lobby, here is the perfect example of how capitalism, after all, is the final winner.
The plot has an American Marine meeting a Vietnamese bar girl in 1975. They are pictured as innocents amid a world of overwhelming decadence. They find true love but are parted on the day the Americans evacuate Saigon. The helicopter sweeps in foggy greys on a stage that is a pageant of exit. She has his child and becomes a bar girl in Bangkok. He returns to America and marries. He later finds her in Bangkok, but she ends the affair tragically.
The helicopter scene, with a simulated vehicle that is 75 percent life-size, is the most talked about aspect of the show. It tells you something that people go out talking about the helicopter rather than the lovers.
There are other spectacles though. The show opens with bar girls shaking their shapely fannies at the audience in a mock beauty pageant to suggest the Miss America competition. An 18-foot-tall statue of Ho Chi Minh moves through a lavish number featuring dancers in masks.
The show's most effective number, though, comes in Act II when a 1959 Cadillac seemingly rides through fog to be the centerpiece of ``An American Dream.'' It is a scathing indictment of money values, sung by a sleazy pimp known as The Engineer. On Broadway in 1991, Jonathan Pryce played the half-Vietnamese, half-French pimp as steeped in evil. It was a stunning stage portrait. In the present edition, the part is played in a much more sympathetic way by Alan Muraoka. He's more humorous, but his version lacks that sardonic edge.
Jennifer C. Paz is a doll-like and beautiful Kim, the South Vietnamese girl. She soars at all the right moments but lacks real vocal power. Eric Kunze is quite handsome and effective in the bland role of Chris, the young Marine. The standout singer, even though her part is small, is Misty Cotton as Chris' American wife.
Nicholas Hytner's Broadway direction has been carefully reproduced. Producer Cameron Mackintosh is a perfectionist, and he has lived up to his claim that he will not sent out scaled-down versions of Broadway successes. It is he who will bring ``Phantom of the Opera'' to Norfolk in 1995 and there need be no worry that it will be toned down.
There is much that is cool and heartless about ``Miss Saigon'' but it is nonetheless a must-see for anyone who is interested in ``big'' theater. This production lives up to its claim of being an event. The theatrical spectacle is well worth the ride. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JOAN MARCUS
Peter Lockyer and Jennifer C. Paz star in ``Miss Saigon'' at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
by CNB