VOICES SOAR IN MISS SAIGON

F. J. Hartland

The scars of war linger long after the conflict has ended. 

Nowhere is that truer than in the cast of the Viet Nam conflict, whose wounds are still felt today.

The experiences of Chris, a young American soldier, and Kim, the woman he meets and falls in love with two weeks prior to the fall of Saigon, carry more than memories in the musical Miss Saigon, the current offering from Pittsburgh CLO.

“Musical” is perhaps not the correct term.  Miss Saigon (like its predecessor Les Miserables) is completely sung (and with  tragic conclusion) and is more correctly categorized as opera.

Pittsburgh CLO has certainly found the voices fit for this challenging score.

Ma-Anne Dionisio is diminutive—but don’t let her size fool you.  The voice is powerful and she commands the stage as Kim.  As Chris, Aaron Ramey is equally strong vocally—but you would expect that as he is a powerfully built man.  Both also play the pathos of Miss Saigon quite well.Unfortunately, there is no real chemistry between the two…making their “love at first sight” meeting ring not so true.

Kevin Gray plays the ultimate hustler, the Engineer.  The sound system at the Bendum is doing him no favors.  He was especially hard to hear for the first half of Act One.  Josh Tower as Chris’s best friend John is equally saddled with the same problem late in Act Two.  Both men give noteworthy performances—but it would have been nice to hear all of their work.

Becca Ayers plays Chris’s new American wife Ellen.  Ayers sang beautifully, but her costume and make-up made her look more like Chris’s mother than his new, young wife.

Director Barry Ivan keeps the show moving (and even at this pace, it runs 2 hours and 45 minutes).  However, he often has performers leave the set and go to center to sing (where they are often poorly lit by John McLain).  Why not just bring the actor directly downstage (making it look like he/she is still in the scene) and perhaps be better lit?

Also, the American Dream number has been totally transformed from the original concept—and doesn’t fare very well for it.

Parts of Michael Anania’s set were good—but others failed miserably.  John and Ellen’s hotel room set was as terrible as I’ve seen in the lowest budget high school musical.

I attended this production with a friend who is something of a Miss Saigon aficionado; I think this was his sixth time to see the show.  He commented that while the singing was on a par with the Broadway production, this was undoubtedly the smallest production in term of scope, cast size and set. 

This was my first time to see Miss Saigon…and I walked away with the same impression. 

For example, in the pivotal (and much hyped) helicopter scene, Chris can’t find Kim.  She was hard to miss in that small crowd.  I could see her from Row G—why can’t Chris?

These amazing vocalists (Gray, Dionisio, Ramey, Ayers and Tower) deserve a better production than they are getting.

Miss Saigon continues through June 20.