The search is on for Miss Saigon

MANILA, Philippines - Cameron Mackintosh and Dong Alegre have officially announced the auditions from Nov. 19 to 27 at the Opera House of the Philippines Opera Company in Makati City for Kim and ensemble roles for the much-awaited re-staging of Miss Saigon in London’s West End. Flying in from London is a casting team composed of the executive producer, director, choreographer and musical director whose names will be announced soon. 

Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting is relocated to the 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madame Butterfly’s story of marriage between an American lieutenant and Japanese girl is replaced by a romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl.

Among the Filipino actresses who have played Kim are Lea Salonga (left photo) and Joanna Ampil (right).— Reported by CARLO OROSA