May 3rd 2014 - Miss Saigon is landing!

Miss Saigon is the epic love story tells the tale of a young bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with an American GI called Chris - but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

The revival by Cameron Mackintosh will be based on a “reimagined” version of the musical that was first staged ten years ago, directed by Laurence Connor.

Mackintosh said: “If anything, the tragic love story of Miss Saigon has become even more relevant today. In the last 25 years our country has become involved in similar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the way we weren’t in Vietnam and the American Dream has been buffeted by the reality of recent history. The new production has taken a grittier and realistic approach to the design than the operatic original but still delivers the power and epic sweep of Boublil and Schönberg’s great score.”

The love story set during the Vietnam War is one of the most successful musicals and has been seen by more than 35 million people worldwide. The new production, which marks the musical’s 25th anniversary year since it was staged at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, will run at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Miss Saigon – the facts

•    The musical premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1989 and closed in 1999 after more than 4,000 performances.

•    As well as record-breaking runs in London and Broadway, it has been performed in 28 countries, more than 300 cities and in 15 different languages. 35 million people worldwide have seen the musical.

•    It has won more than 40 awards including two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards.

•    The original Miss Saigon is one of the most spectacular and technically complex productions ever staged. More than 260 people worked the London production at each performance and only 47 actually appeared in front of the audience.

•    Miss Saigon is a modern adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The musical’s inspiration was reportedly a photograph, inadvertently found by Schönberg in a magazine. The photo showed a Vietnamese mother leaving her child at a departure gate to board a plane headed for the United States where her father, an ex-GI, would be in a position to provide a better life. Schönberg considered this mother’s actions to be “the ultimate sacrifice,” and central to the plot of Miss Saigon.

Miss Saigon tickets on sale September 9th!