Special Features
Miss Saigon PH: A Love Letter From the Parents of the Year 2000 to the Kids of the Year 2024
Miss Saigon’s return to the Philippines after 24 years sends a message of unyielding love to the millennials and Gen-Z from their parents.
“The heat is on in Saigon!” While filling the hearts of many parents who saw the debut of Miss Saigon in the Philippines in 2000 with nostalgia, it was a first for many millennials and Gen-Z. The musical tells the story of an unyielding love while showing how things are not always what they seem—and how the happy endings of some meant the tragedy of others.
For those who have the blood of immigrants or have been raised by one, Miss Saigon pays homage to their stories and the strengths they call upon to give their families the lives they deserve.
No untrue love stories here!
Even the musical’s composer, Claude-Michel Schönberg, revealed that Miss Saigon’s premise comes from the accounts of many immigrant parents who wanted a better life for their families. We see that in Kim (played by Abigail Adriano) as she fights for a better life for her 3-year-old son, Tam.
While Miss Saigon’s “Sun and Moon” charmed lovers, it’s “I’d Give My Life For You” that resonated with parents everywhere. “You didn’t ask me to be born.” Kim sings towards the end of Act One. “You, why should you learn of war or pain?”
Miss Saigon shows a heartbreaking reality to many families in the Philippines: families are often caught in a large political web of war, becoming collateral damage and unwilling casualties. Migration is also a different kind of war—everyone has dreams they too want to fulfill and will stop at nothing to achieve. Every man is a son and every woman is a daughter.
But Miss Saigon, while it highlights the struggle of an immigrant mother, also tells the story of two kinds of men. The first man is Thuy—Kim’s cousin—who was desperate to honor their late fathers’ wishes that he refused to let go of the past, even if Kim already didn’t want to. Then, there’s Chris who let go of the past because he already was happy with the present and future, being married and all. These men, although it’s easy to antagonize them, have valid motivations of their own.
“It’s easy to see Chris as the villain,” Nigel Huckle, the one playing Chris, shared in a press conference before Miss Saigon’s opening night. “But we [the cast] want to really show that things are not what they seem. Each character has their internal conflict.”
Miss Saigon 2024: What Parents Wouldn’t Do For Their Children
Miss Saigon reveals that parents, even if they have no knowledge of warfare, unleash a different kind of strength when there’s a chance to make their children’s lives better. They would fight tooth and nail or in Kim’s case would resort to many things that although she is not proud of, it is for Tam.
The shooting of Thuy, the exchanges she needed to make—all these to give Tam a better life. Even if she couldn’t be part of that wonderful life.
Catch Miss Saigon at Solaire Theatre from March 23, 2024, to May 12, 2024.
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