OK – I’m starting to face up to the fact that I’m never actually going to write this review. So here’s what the Sunderland Echo has to say about Miss Saigon…
You almost had to pinch yourself. Could this really be Sunderland? Could this really be the Empire?
This was the kind of night you’d expect in the West End or Broadway, not High Street West.
Here, right next to the Dun Cow and the DSS, was an occasion of genuine theatrical grandeur.
The King And I was big, so was Cats, Starlight was an amazing spectacle, but this one tops the lot.
And with it, the new Sunderland Empire properly takes a bow.
For Starlight, a skate park was imposed on the Empire stage, but with Miss Saigon, the stage itself is finally in the spotlight, and it performs to perfection.
With Miss Saigon you really get a sense of its size – you can see where all the work went.
There is now such a depth to it, and out of it Saigon and Bangkok emerge, complete with bustling markets, chaotic night clubs and perfectly drilled army displays.
There are cyclists and soldiers, peasants, shopkeepers, dancers, barmen, tourists, a Buddhist monk and, of course, a helicopter, albeit a computer-generated one, which really feels like it is flying in over the stalls.
Jennifer Hubilla (like Miriam Valmores-Marasigan, who will be alternating in the role) is a completely credible Kim, the girl at the centre of the drama. She is vulnerable but also passionate, and you really get a sense of someone who has been through a lot, but is now daring to dream.
Arriving in Saigon from the trauma of the war in the countryside, Kim is flung into a life of prostitution, but she falls in love and plots a route away from heartache. When it all goes tragically wrong, there is a hardly a dry eye in the house.
Pulling her strings through much of the drama is the show-stealing The Engineer, played with consummate skill by Jon-Jon Briones, who not only looks like Sammy Davis Jr, but has Mr Davis’s range of skills – he’s a great singer, actor and dancer, and he plays the audience like it’s his instrument.
There are also powerful performances from Hugh Maynard as American GI John, Sebastian Tan as Thuy, Kim’s Vietnamese intended, and Kerry Ellis, as bewildered American wife Ellen – and a passionate one from Steven Houghton, as Chris, the focus of Kim’s dreams.
The poignant scenes showing the children who are the victims of all adult wars, made me think of Iraq and also the aftermath of the tsunami.
The American Dream sequence, though, feels suitably dated, despite its magnificence. There will be many pawns swept up in today’s U.S. power plays who will not have such an idealistic view of Uncle Sam’s place.
Speaking of children, you can see why actors are traditionally wary of working with either them or animals. When the youngster who is playing Kim’s son, Tam, comes on, all eyes are on him.
He almost grabs the glory at the curtain call as well, but due acclaim is given to all. The audience was on its feet, and the performers had to stay on theirs for some considerable time as they were called back again and again to receive the applause.
If you’ve bought a ticket for this one, you’re in for a treat.
Absolutely.