Miss Saigon

I was first introduced to Miss Saigon when I was 13 years old (wow... 10 years back!) One of my sister's friends loaned her a copy of the cassette and I was totally mesmerized by it. Yesterday, I was just sorting through my CDs and I found the Miss Saigon CDs that my sister bought for me as a birthday present when I was 17. So, I started listening to it again, in the comforts of my room and I fell in love with it all over again...

Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil and was produced by Cameron Mackintosh. It first premiered in London (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) on September 20, 1989 and was opened on 11 April, 1991 at the Broadway Theatre in New York. Miss Saigon, along with famous musicals like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, is considered one of the greatest musicals in history.

Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman. Miss Saigon is based on a real-life episode, and tells the story of Chris (the American GI) who meets Kim, a beautiful, war orphan Vietnamese sold into prostitution in a Saigon brothel. The two have a reluctant sexual encounter, but end up falling madly in love despite their initial apprehension where Chris promised to marry Kim and to save her from the filth of Saigon. However, Chris is eventually forced to return to the United States as orders from Washington are for a total and complete evacuation of the embassy. The ambassador freezes the entrance of Vietnamese to the Embassy. During the next three years the two struggle to deal with the emotional aftermath of their affair.

The show was inspired by a photograph inadvertently found by Schönberg in a magazine of a Vietnamese mother leaving her child at a departure gate at Tan Son Nhat Airport to board a plane for the USA where her father, an ex-GI, would be in a position to provide a much better life.

One of the important issues highlighted in the musical is about Bui Doi's. Bui doi, meaning “less than dust”, is a slur aimed at the offspring of American soldiers and Vietnamese women who were left behind in Vietnam. Under communist rule, they are treated miserably, held in camps, and suffer injustice and prejudice. It broke my heart when John sang about bui-doi's in the musical. How can one treat other human beings as such?

A short excerpt:

Like all survivors, I once thought

When I'm home I won't give a damn

But now I know I'm caught

I'll never leave Vietnam

War isn't over when it ends

Some pictures never leave your mind

They are the faces of the children

The ones we left behind

They're called bui-doi, The dust of life

Conceived in hell, and born in strife

They are the living reminders

Of all the good we failed to do

We can't forget, must not forget

That they are all our children too

These kids hit walls on every side

They don't belong in any place

Their secret they can't hide

It's printed on their face

I never thought one day I'd plead

For half-breeds from a land that's torn

But then I saw a camp for children

Whose crime was being born

They're called bui-doi, the dust of life

Conceived in hell, and born in strife

We owe them fathers, and a family

And loving homes they never knew

Because we know deep in our hearts

That they are all our children too

....

Anyone who has never heard of Miss Saigon before, or have never taken the time to listen to it, take time to do so. You'll never regret it =) I'm just waiting to watch the musical for real...