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The Broadway Theatre League's offering of "Miss Saigon" is sheer perfection.  I was blown away by the performance on Opening Night.  My husband and I agreed that this had to be the best show we'd seen in our three years of attending The Broadway Theatre productions.  Everything about the show was top-notch:  the actors, the costumes, the lighting, the sound, music, and technical presentations.  This version is an adaptation of Cameron Mackintosh's Broadway production.

In case you don't know, "Miss Saigon" is the story of two young lovers torn apart during the Vietnam War.  The show is set in 1975 during the final days leading up to the American evacuation of Saigon.  "Miss Saigon" was written by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Richard Maltby Jr.  It opened in London in September 1989 and on Broadway in April 1991.  This newly conceived touring production of "Miss Saigon" is produced by Big League Theatricals.

The Vietnam War had more causalities, disappointments and heartaches than reported by war statistics.  The author Alain Boublil  of "Miss Saigon" conceived of the idea for the show after seeing a photograph of a anguished mother bidding her daughter goodbye as she boarded a plane for America and a new life.  A lot of GI's had fathered children with Vietnamese women.  Many of the children were orphaned, abandoned or unacknowledged.  The lucky ones got to start life over in the United States, while their mothers stayed behind.  "Miss Saigon" is the story of the fate of one such child.  Jonathan Wade was adorable in the role of Tam the night that we went.  The child's part is alternated every other night by 5-year Wade and Ty Harrison Kublickis.  Jonathan was born in Vietnam and joined the tour in August, 2003.  This is his first Broadway show.

Photo ©2003 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com
 ©2003 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com

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