"But it turned out not to be the last chopper out of Saigon, as a tweaked version descended upon the Prince Edward Theatre in 2014 and stayed there for a couple of years. It also went some way to addressing the controversies around the show, which even in 'a different era' had received criticism for casting white actors with makeup and eye prosthetics in the leading role of half-Vietnamese/half-French hustler The Engineer. This was addressed in the 2014 casting (when Philippine-American actor Jon Jon Briones played the role)."
"Theatre nerds may recall that Miss Saigon received its first truly new UK revival at the Sheffield Crucible a couple of years back but this is not what this is, being rather a freshly tweaked touring version of the original production. It's nominally directed by Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, but you can rest assured that you're basically getting the original version, albeit with the ickier stuff cut out."
Miss Saigon, Cameron Mackintosh's Vietnam War-set reimagining of Madama Butterfly, delivers large-scale visual spectacle and a memorable score by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. The original West End production ran for a decade at Theatre Drury Lane and closed in 1999, followed by a tweaked revival at the Prince Edward Theatre in 2014 that addressed casting criticisms by casting Jon Jon Briones as The Engineer. The musical has faced controversy over orientalist portrayals and past use of white actors with prosthetics, but recent revisions have removed some problematic elements. A newly tweaked touring version will play a strictly limited eight-month season from May 2027.
Read at Time Out London
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