The tour of Miss Saigon

I was reminded of this while watching the tour of the 1989 Claude-Michel Schonberg musical drama Miss Saigon, which is playing the Fox through December 7th. Unlike some earlier Vietnam War-inspired theatre, Miss Saigon doesn't deal in propaganda, but it does raise some troubling issues about both the way Americans deal with the rest of the world. This particular production doesn't always hit home emotionally, though I suspect the problems are more with the direction than with the material itself.

At the core of the show are two conflicting visions of America. For The Engineer, a cynical and self-centered hustler who literally sold his own mother, America is the ultimate chance to get rich quick. As he tells us in "The American Dream", it's "all yours ten per cent down". In contrast there's Kim, driven into prostitution by the war and the mother of a small child, fathered by Chris, a well-meaning but aimless American marine who marries her just before the fall of Saigon. Separated from him by that catastrophic event, she sees America as a place where her child can grow up without hunger or fear, and she'll sacrifice anything to get him there. The contrast between selfishness and selflessness could hardly be clearer.

The Engineer is sung with great conviction and danced with oily agility by Thom Sesma. He's also one of the few principals in this cast who doesn't push his emotional peaks so hard that they become distorted and strident. DeeDee Lynn Magno, as Kim, fares less well in this regard. She has some wonderfully convincing scenes but in some cases - such as the confrontation with Chris' American wife in the second act - falls too easily into shouting instead of singing. In fact, this tendency to substitute sheer volume for intensity is so prevalent that I'm inclined to blame director Nicholas Hytner (who directed the original London production) rather than the actors. Too many emotional peaks and too few valleys can be monotonous.

That said, there are still many beautifully theatrical moments, some with positively visceral impact. To name just a few: The Engineer's hallucinogenic vision of the USA in "The American Dream"; the martial spectacle of "The Morning of the Dragon", celebrating the expulsion of the Americans from Saigon; and the depiction of the final moments of that expulsion, in a dramatic sucker punch directed squarely at an entire generation's ambivalence about the Vietnam War. Production values are spectacular, with the colorful sets framed by giant Oriental-style shades that roll up and down as needed to admit set pieces and actors. The sound was often muddy, however, and large choral scenes often incomprehensible.

And that's a shame, because Schonberg's score, while lacking the melodic variety of Les Miserables, is intelligent, illuminates character quite nicely, and grows more interesting upon repeated hearing. William David Brohn's orchestrations add a great deal, and are filled with unexpected twists - the use of Asian flutes in key moments, for example, or the use of an accordion (or something that sounds very much like it) during "The Morning of the Dragon". Richard Maltby's translation of the Alain Boublil lyrics swings between the poetic and the banal. Whether this accurately refelects the French originals or not, I have no idea.

On the whole, I found this tour of Miss Saigon thought-provoking but curiously un-involving, despite the tragic and passionate events it describes. Too many of the scenes struck me as over-played, often defusing emotionally charged moments. Your mileage may vary, of course and Miss Saigon is the sort of big theatrical event that's worth seeing in any case. It's at the Fox through December 7th and you can call Metrotix at 314-534-1111 for tickets.