Miss Saigon, 25 years later

LONDON — Groggy with jetlag from the 20-hour flight from Manila (eight hours to Dubai, with a four-hour stopover, and another eight hours from there to here), I woke up Wednesday morning (Sept. 17) in my small room at the Strand Palace Hotel and first thing I did was tune in to BBC. Lo and behold, guess who I saw being interviewed by the two hosts of the BBC Breakfast segment — yes, Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada, the original and current Kim in the Cameron Mackintosh megahit musical Miss Saigon which continues to draw record crowds at the Prince Edward Theater on West End where it started to be restaged last May.

The musical was celebrating its 25th anniversary with a sold-out show (last Monday, Sept. 22), and that’s why Lea and Eva were guesting on BBC. Being the original Kim, Lea was invited to headline the gala performance.

“Miss Saigon has changed my life, definitely,” said Lea who won a grand slam (a Tony on Broadway among her awards) for her performance as the innocent Kim caught in the ugly Vietnam War, a role that has been played by other Filipino talents including Monique Wilson, Jamie Rivera, Jenine Desiderio, Ima Castro, Leila Florentino, Maan Dionisio and Joanna Ampil, and now by (aside from Eva) Tanya Manalang with Julia Abueva (member of the ensemble reportedly being groomed as understudy).

“No, I wasn’t intimidated when I learned about the costume,” Lea corrected the female host who asked if she was “intimidated.” Smiling widely, Lea added, “I freaked out because I come from a conservative, Catholic family where covering up was more the norm than the rule. When I got home, I told my mom about the bikinis and the see-through costume and the…” she gasped, “…I can’t even say the word. I called my dad still freaking out, and he told me, ‘Honey, they’re not gonna remember you for the bikinis, they’ll remember you for when you shoot yourself at the end of the show.’ Hahahaha!”

Twenty-five years later, Miss Saigon has undergone some changes, with additions and subtractions here and there. That same night, after the round-table interview with Luke Evans (a Miss Saigon alumnus) for the Dracula Untold junket which brought me to this city in the first place, I gladly parted with some 90 pounds (higher than the usual price because I booked it at the hotel) and hied off to the Prince Edward Theater which was packed full with a crowd composed of many Filipinos (some tourists and others London-based treating visiting relatives to the show).

Was I in for a surprise?

Well, somewhat.

The helicopter still appeared only its façade) and did the Cadillac (only the façade, too), and the whole show was beautifully updated with new sets that were downright as breath-taking as the performers whose energy and vocal prowess kept you as if in a trance from beginning to end.

Sorry, but I didn’t see Rachelle Ann Go, the sweet-wholesome singer tapped for the bar-girl Gigi role (originated by another Filipina, Isay Alvarez) from hundreds who auditioned in Manila last year. What I saw was Gigi at her sexiest, boldest and “daring-est” best, genuinely seductive in skimpy bikinis, wriggling her small, luscious buttocks against the crotch of an American soldier who gently put his hands around her healthy breasts.

I said I didn’t see Rachelle on that frighteningly huge stage because she completely lost herself in her character, playing it with gay abandon, turning it into something like her second skin, which was truly impressive for somebody who was a virtual amateur (with only two plays to her credit, The Little Mermaid and Tarzan, staged in the Philippines) before she went to this city for her urgent date with destiny.

At the back exit door after the show, I told Rachelle how brilliant she was, how ibang-iba she was onstage, as we did selfie, and she said, “No choice!” Out there, you cast your inhibitions to the wind and focus on fleshing out your character to be noticed. Competition is that stiff in the theater capital of the world.

Petite that she is, Tanya ruled the stage as Kim, so delicate and yet so tough, vainly trying to hold on to whatever is left of her dignity as she’s swept into the vulgarity of the world she can’t extract from. Like Rachelle, Tanya played Kim to the hilt, locking lips several times with Alistar Brammer (as Chris, the American soldier who falls in love with Kim) as they fall into a tight embrace as if it’s the last night of the world.

I’ve seen two Engineers, one of them Hollywood actor Jonathan Pryce (the original), but I daresay that our very own Jonjon Briones is the best one ever. His was not the lock-jaw style of acting of some Engineer; instead, Jonjon played it so naturally that he seemed to be not acting at all (again, unlike some Engineer who made you feel that they were acting the role) but living it without effort, making you at once sympathize with him and despise him for his greed for money, tempting you to scream, “Moderate your greed!” Jonjon is, again I think, the perfect Engineer because he does it with the Asian sensibility that the character calls for.

At the end of the show, the audience gave the actors a standing ovation not just once, not just twice, but thrice.

All I and the rest of our kababayan that night could say was, “Ang galing-galing! Ang galing ni Rachelle! Ang galing ni Tanya! Ang galing ni Jonjon!”

But you really have to watch Miss Saigon (if not in London, maybe…hopefully!...if it will ever be staged again in Manila like a few years ago) to see for yourself how “ang galing-galing!” the Filipino world-talents in it are.

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