Miss Saigon

Adelaide Festival Theatre

5 January 2008

Well firstly I would like to point out that it is fantastic that one of the big shows has come to Adelaide. I know it is a big deal for production to decided to make the trip south, particularly when the Adelaide audience is always going to be an unpredictable audience number.

.

I believe that the show is still running, and I just hope that it is filling a decent number of seats for each show so that more 'big budget' shows make the decision to come to South Australia.

.

For this show, I bought my tickets early in the hope of securing good seats, I normally sit in the stalls at the Festival Theatre for shows, but this time I thought I would take a risk and sit in the front row of the grand circle seats, thinking that a higher position would make the effects better. This risk did not pay off, I found looking down onto the stage a little distracting, I wanted to see the expressions on the faces of the actors but really could not make it out - granted my eyesight is not perfect, but I thought B reserve tickets might be a little better. Next time I will stick to the A reserve because you certainly do get what you pay for.

.

As for Miss Saigon I walked into the show not having any expectations because I did not know what the story was about. I knew it was a war love story, but did not know it was about a soldier that falls in love with a Vietnam prostitute during the war. It was a lovely story, and the actors did a wonderful job at making the audience feel the pain and emotion.

.

Laurie Cadevida who played the lead female role of Kim had a wonderful voice and sang with true emotion that towards the end made you want to cry (in fact I did have some tears!).

.

Also worth a mention was Leo Tavarro Valdez - playing The Engineer, he was so entertaining - his character was funny, energetic, and enabled the audience to laugh through sections of what was a rather serious and sad story line.

.

David Harris who played the lead male of Chris was equally very good - and excuse me for making a comment about his looks, but how buff and handsome did he look in that army uniform!

.

In this production there was no skimping on set design, it was amazing how it jumped from the war scenes to bar dancing scenes in no time at all. My highlight - The helicopter, wow it really looked like the soldiers were being picked up and taken away, and with the surround sound, you could almost feel the wind of the propellers as it appeared to fly over the top of the audience.
.

The stage is one thing I think most people would have walked away and commented on almost immediately.

.

Miss Saigon was a highlight to my new year, and if I had the dollars I would go again in an instant, sit closer and see if from a new perspective. As mentioned this show is playing until 10 February 2008 and I would urge all South Australians to embrace this wonderful performance.

.

It is not too late to buy tickets and lots of good seats are still available (go for the Stalls or the Dress Circle - avoid the Grand Circle seats) go to http://www.bass.net.au/events/database/MISSSAIGON2007/ for more information.