Monday, July 12, 2010

Miss Saigon

The Toronto production of Miss Saigon had some potent voices on stage and some bare-chested fun to entice boys and girls, but overall, as a play, I wonder if it should continue being produced.

The musical (based on Puccinni’s opera Madame Butterfly) is one of the Broadway juggernauts from the 90s, and therefore is a little pandering and racist, and maybe should be put to sleep like Cats.

But since it is still around, this production was pretty competent. The sets were well done, specially the embassy fences that moved around the stage to change narrative perspective. Unfortunately, the much-lauded helicopter scene was a little underwhelming, with a dummy in the cockpit and some jerky mechanical maneuvers. When a prop is your major claim to fame, make sure you're going to blow the audience away.

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