Miss Saigon helicopters back to Edmonton

One of the most exciting scenes in the 1989 British mega hit Miss Saigon is watching a helicopter whisk troops off the American Embassy roof as Viet Cong overtake the city in a flash of bullets.

Unfortunately, when Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway open their production on June 12 at L'UniThéâtre at La CitĂ© Francophone, the scene is going ahead without a real live chopper.

“We really contemplated it in the early stages of prep work,” said artistic director Martin Galba. “But we only have a 2-1/2 foot wing space. We don’t have a fly station. We have something, but it will be an element of surprise.”

But impressive as the helicopter flying in and off stage may be, there’s something to be said for simplification.

In 2014 producer Cameron Macintosh’s (Les Miserables, Cats, Phantom of the Opera) West End huge pop opera revival was soundly trashed for crowded action and technical cues that overwhelmed the story.

Miss Saigon is a timeless epic and a tragic story of a young couple in love during the last days of the American occupation in Vietnam. Chris is an American serving his second tour as a driver at the American Embassy. Kim is an orphaned Vietnamese bar girl.

As the fall of Saigon occurs, Chris is pushed into a helicopter on the embassy roof unaware Kim is pregnant.

In this poignant love affair set against the backdrop of war, we see the innocence of love pitted against conflicting ideologies and cultural prejudices.

The inspiration for this show is reportedly a war photograph composer Claude-Michel Schönberg saw at a Paris café. The image showed a Vietnamese mother in tears. She was leaving her child at a departure gate at Tan Son Nhut Air Base where her father, an ex-GI, would provide a much better life for her.

The photo had a link to Operation Babylift, a controversial mass evacuation of more than 3,300 orphaned, bi-racial infants and children relocated to parents in the United States and adopted across the world.

Schönberg viewed the mother’s actions as the ultimate sacrifice. After borrowing the fundamentals from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Miss Saigon was born.

“War tears everything apart. No one gets out unscathed. It’s more of a love story between Kim and her son. When Kim falls in love with Chris, it’s just the catalyst. Kim is determined to make a better life for her son and she is willing to sacrifice herself,” said St. Albert actor Andrew Boyd who plays the role of John, Chris’ best friend.

In the first act, during a visit to sleazy club “Dreamland,” John buys Kim’s company for Chris for a night. When the young lovebirds fall in love, John refuses to believe it is genuine.

“John is not willing to be vulnerable. In act one, he is casual about the Vietnamese experience. In act two, the war doesn’t faze him, but the children caught in the middle affect him. It made it real for him and he becomes a better person.”

Galba cast Boyd as a way to give him a chance to confront characters out of his comfort zone.

“And this gives him to the opportunity to sing the opening of act two – Bui Doi. It’s a tear jerking moment.”

Bui Doi are the children of Vietnamese women and American soldiers. Bui Doi means “dust of life” because both races snub them.

One of Galba’s original casting concerns was finding enough Asian actors to fill roles.

“We were so impressed with the talent of ethnicities that came out. We cast all female roles with ethnic actors with the exception of Ellen, Chris’ American wife.”

Leading the pack is Renee de Silva, a Filipina single mother in the role of Kim.

“She has an absolutely incredible voice. When someone auditions, I close my eyes and get a feel for their voice. She has this big powerful voice and we knew she could handle the vocal demands.”

Darryl Price, music teacher at Paul Kane High, is the show’s musical director and he’s conducting a live 22-piece band ensconced in the backstage rehearsal area.

“Darryl is an amazing musician. He has an incredible ear and understands how vocals fit music. He is a perfectionist and will stop an orchestra if even one measure isn’t right. He brings a huge wealth of knowledge and when I work with him, I know we’ll have a great show.”

During our interview Boyd expressed the hope that audiences would walk away from this show realizing how war affects the innocents caught in the crossfire.

Galba added his thoughts about the affects of racism and how that too tears people apart.

“The amount of racism out there needs to stop. The future of mankind is in working together – not as individual races. Race should not be something that divides us and keeps us apart.”