Miss Saigon by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (review)

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• Miss Saigon by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
• Jayoon Byeon and Jodie Passey

MISS SAIGON. Book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr. Directed by Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau. Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, UK. August 2, 2023.

Miss Saigon, despite being one of the most popular megamusicals, has met with significant criticism regarding racial stereotypes and the objectification of women. The original West End and Broadway productions notoriously included the use of yellowface for the role of the Engineer, and recent productions have endeavored to address such racial misrepresentations by hiring actors of appropriate ethnicities. While the regenerative capacity of enduring musicals gives Miss Saigon recurring chances for reinvention, the effectiveness of these efforts is debatable. Some believe it should be maintained in its original form as proof of its problematic past, while others believe that an innately flawed show should be retired. Protests greeted the original West End and Broadway productions in opposition to the damaging portrayals of Vietnamese people, and this protest culture continues today. New Earth Theatre, a company of British East and Southeast Asian artists, pulled their play Worth from the Crucible Theatre in Sheffiel following its decision to stage Miss Saigon. As the issues run deep—both textually and contextually—the very concept of deproblematizing is seen by many as problematic. The brand-new revival at the Crucible chose to pursue an intermediate option between preservation and permanent withdrawal: revision, where changes add a provocative new dimension to the material.

The production’s endeavor to revise the racial dynamics of the original show was evident from the casting. While past productions have typically cast white actors as Chris (Christian Maynard) and [End Page 89] Ellen (Shanay Holmes), none of the regular or understudy actors who played these roles in this production was white. This change diverts the dynamic between Kim (Jessica Lee), Chris, and Ellen away from the white savior theme, instead highlighting Chris and Ellen’s US nationalism.

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Christian Maynard (Chris) and Jessica Lee (Kim) in Miss Saigon. (Photo: Johan Persson.)

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Shane O’Riordan (John) and Joanna Ampil (The Engineer) in Miss Saigon. (Photo: Johan Persson.)

Gender-swapping the Engineer (played in this production by Joanna Ampil) was a change that transformed the character in the context of 1970s Vietnam. The female Engineer’s brassy persona became legible as a necessary defense mechanism in a world signi cantly more dangerous for her than for any male version of the character. Her gender performance negotiated and parodied the Engineer’s toxically masculine traits; her adoption of wigs, leopard print, and extravagant suits suggested a carefully constructed femininity that was transgressive and empowering. Ampil’s Engineer rejected the classic red jacket in favor of a high-glamour look, and while the character typically mistreats the women in his club, she defended them against the GIs. There was something altogether more tactful and interesting about this Engineer.

“The American Dream,” a spectacular depiction of the Engineer’s hypermasculine fantasies of money, cars, and sex, was staged as comically feminine in this production. Here, the Engineer’s obsession with money was coded by a camp, stereotypical interest in material beauty as she executed an onstage costume change into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic pink dress, an image that seemed to invoke the pertinent lyrics of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Tell-ingly, while male Engineers never change costume during this scene, believing themselves ready-made for the US, this female Engineer was compelled to physically conform to US beauty standards. The replacement of scantily clad dancers with dancing dollar bills in this production demonstrated the Engineer’s desire for financial independence rather than sheer lust. She may perform the same reprehensible acts as other Engineers but nonetheless contributes to a more complex spectrum of female characters alongside Kim, Gigi (Aynrand Ferrer), and Ellen.

The helicopter scene is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated scenes in any production of Miss Saigon, and the Sheffiel production proved that it does not take a full-sized helicopter...