Saigon boots Jersey Boys to Gielgud

[AnythingGoes23]

Its expected this is to be announced next Spring.

Miss Saigon to open October time at The Price Edward with Jersey Boys transferring to The Gielgud after The Audience.

[Jonwo]

Jersey Boys has had a great run at the Prince Edward so I expect it'll do well at the Gielgud.

Any news on Barnum?

[Phantom of London]

Doesn't seem to of closed that long ago, Jonathan Pryce must be one of the best piece of colour blind casting ever.

[winston89]

Phantom,

Jonathan Pryce wasn't a good example of color blind casting. He was a good example of doing a show in yellow face, and offending people. Granted, he did give a good performance but how he want about giving that good performance was deplorable.

[CHOOKA2]

When I first saw the original Miss Saigon,I didn't for one minute think that the Engineer had to be any other nationality than what was presented by the brilliant performance by Mr Pryce.
I have just seen an all Thai cast of Miss Saigon and they made the Engineer the main character,and quite camp and childish[which Asian humour tends to be]-this didn't work for me.Nor did the Thais being 'all American'--you do need a 'white face' in there somewhere to understand the reality of the ethnic struggle at the heart of it all--it is about 2 cultures after all--this all one nationality was very bland.

[theatrepaul]

I was lucky enough to see the original London cast for Miss Saigon back in 1989 at Drury Lane. There were some remarkable performances, not least by Jonathan Pryce who was outstanding as The Engineer. I think his was and will always be the benchmark performance of that role & not just because he was first to play it.

[bob8rich]

I was at the world premiere performance of Miss Saigon in September 1989, obviuously not having heard anythiung from the show before. The show and the score totally blew me away.

I agree, theatrepaul, about Jonathan Pryce - he was sensational. And so was Lea Salonga.

Really looking forward to seeing this new production and, especialy, to hearing the new solo song for Ellen.

[theatrepaul]

bob8rich I totally agree re Lea Salonga. She melted my heart every time I saw her, an incredible performance.

Glad to hear that there's a new song for Ellen in the new show. I always felt the part was a little bit underwritten in the original

[TBFL]

I dont think the role of Ellen has been changed much, as the new song replaces 'Now that i've seen her' which replaced 'Her or Me' I really liked both previous versions, but apparently the creative team cant decide what the right tone should be for Ellen, at that moment.

[theatrepaul]

Oh I see, thought she was getting an extra song. I still think that Ellen is the weakest written of all the leads. She needs to be better defined as a character and to be seen more in the show because she is so fundamental to the story as it evolves