Miss Saigon

The Alhambra

THERE are many stand-out scenes in Miss Saigon - not least the heart-pumping helicopter moment - but perhaps most haunting of all is the footage of real-life orphans of the Vietnam war.

These were the bui-doi - children born largely from loveless, casual relations, paid for in hard cash, between Vietnamese women and American servicemen. Ostracised and abandoned, the infants were a painful reminder of the Vietnam war and its uncomfortable truths.

Accompanying the stark footage of children in orphanage cots was the soul-stirring number Bui Doi - a highlight of epic musical Miss Saigon - sung beautifully by Rob Herron.

It captured the theme at the heart of this show, which weaves through its other, more universal, themes of love, loss, hope, survival and sacrifice. And, although Miss Saigon is set in the three-year period following the withdrawal of US troops in 1975, it remains relevant. Watching scenes of refugees fleeing their wartorn homeland, families separated in chaos and desperation, you can't help thinking of the bewildered faces of Syrian children in the News today.

Miss Saigon is at Bradford's Alhambra theatre for a month - the only Yorkshire date on its UK tour - and is a terrific, must-see production that got a standing ovation from a packed audience last night.

Placing Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the Fall of Saigon, it's the epic story of Kim, a young South Vietnamese woman who has lost her family to the country's bloody civil war, and works in a bar where girls are pimped out to American soldiers boozing into oblivion. It is here, in Dreamland, where Kim meets GI Chris, and, against the odds, they fall in love. When Chris is forced to leave Saigon, the couple are separated and what follows is a sweeping, cinematic journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok and Atlanta.

To say this production is a moving theatrical experience would be an under-statement. Just ask the woman a couple of seats on from me, who was sobbing through Act 2...

Much of the emotion comes from the powerful score. Beautifully staged and performed by an incredible cast, the show shifts from soulful melodies to rousing anthems by the mighty Boublil and Schonberg. In one scene, The Last Night of the World, Kim and Chris are wrapped in a romantic bubble, blissfully unaware of the fate awaiting them - in the next the Ho Chi Minh revolutionary guard is marching to the spectacular but chilling The Morning of the Dragon.

Opening number The Heat Is On sets the bawdy scene in Dreamland, where anything goes, as long as you pay for it. The girls are in bikinis, dancing on tables for the men, and it all seems horribly soulless until, suddenly, The Movie In My Mind, sung movingly by the women, reveals another layer of their exploitation.

Exploiting the women is The Engineer; the tour-de-force of this extraordinary show. Charismatic, scheming, witty, seedy, both a cynic and a hopeless dreamer, The Engineer makes a fast buck from the women in his bar, and is always a step ahead in his quest to make it to America. Christian Rey Marbella, celebrating his 10th year in Miss Saigon, is mesmerising as The Engineer. You can't take your eyes off him, dodging and dealing his way from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh, and emerging from his Communist Re-education even more determined to get himself a visa; his passport to the West.

Showstopping number The American Dream - The Engineer's fantasy of life in the US - is a high-kicking riot of flashy showgirls and sparkling jewels, taking him from rickshaw to Cadillac, but this song also reveals his past. We learn that as a child he was required to bring French soldiers to his prostitute mother, and exploitation is all he's ever known. It is credit to Christian Rey Marbella's fabulous, layered performance that we see flashes of an almost endearing man beneath the schemer. Turns out, he's as much a victim of the war as Kim is.

Sooha Kim was superb as Kim; capturing her innocence, vulnerability and steely determination. Her incredible vocal range was showcased in such stirring numbers as Sun and Moon and You Will Not Touch Him. Ashley Gilmour brought great depth to the role of Chris, conveying his troubled soul as a serving soldier in a foreign land, and later his post-war guilt and torment. And Rob Herron was terrific as John, GI turned humanitarian, who leads his friend Chris back to face his past in Vietnam.

Strong performances too from Gerald Santos as Thuy, the embodiment of Kim's nightmare, and Elana Martin as Chris’ wife Ellen, whose powerful performance of Maybe made the character more endearing than she first appears.

The spectacular staging is what makes this show an epic experience, but it is the human stories that are most powerful. Sublime.

Runs until October 20.