Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Miss Saigon

This week, the MUNY is featuring Miss Saigon. I was excited to see the show. Having seen the movie several times, I know the basic plot line and several of the songs. Furthermore, this season of the Muny has been quite excellent, more than making up for the catastrophic production of my personal favorite musical, "The Fantasticks," which lead to my sojourn from the Muny for several seasons. As such, I expected a fabulous performance. I wondered if it would have the "Disney" ending of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical or the more realistic ending, as is the case in the 1999 movie with Jodi Foster.

Either way, I was shocked when the show began with scantly clad Asian girls dancing on poles. Hm, I thought to myself. I don't remember this part. I watched, wondering when the English nanny would come in to educate the children. When would she meet the king? I continued to watch in enjoyment and utter confusion until a fleeting phrase passed through my mind, clearing up the mystery... The King and I. The show I was imagining was The King and I. I was at Miss Saigon. Oh well. Bring on the scantly clad teenagers!

The show was great (it turns out I've never actually seen Miss Saigon), but kind of a downer... Nothing says fun and excitement on a Monday evening like children trading their bodies to members of the US Marine Corps in hopes of being magically transformed from pole dancing prostitots in Saigon to military wives in the glorious land of milk and honey.

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