Miss Saigon – Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Book: Claude-Michel Schӧnberg & Alain Boublil

Music: Claude-Michel Schӧnberg

Lyrics: Richard Maltby Jr & Alain Boublil (additional lyrics Michael Mahler)

Director: Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy

This revival of Miss Saigon has the largest hits and the largest misses you’ll see on stage this year. Its scale, spectacle set design, and powerhouse voices do not disappoint, but what does, is the clumsy rewriting and ‘sanitised’ feel to the tragedy, which fail to address the controversies of the show.

Miss Saigon follows the story of Kim, a Vietnamese girl found by brothel owner, The Engineer. On that night Kim meets Chris, an American GI who is beginning to feel disenchanted with the USA’s role in Saigon. Seeing Kim’s innocence in the midst of war torn Vietnam, Chris vows to care for Kim and the two fall in love. But the American’s sudden departure breaks the pair apart, leaving the question: can their love survive?

Clumsily and shoddily done, Dreamland, the opening setting of a strip club/ brothel in Vietnam is unrecognisable, you could have found more scantily clad women at a Hooters. The GI’s are all also on their best behaviour making the Dreamland setting, a usually sickening, chaotic, and horrifically brutal reality, into a teenagers house party. The show has faced complaints about misogyny before but sanitising Dreamland only fails to show the cruel reality of hundreds of thousands (unofficially estimated 500,000) women who were forced to turn to sex work during the Vietnam war.

Similarly, the character of The Engineer, played by alternate Engineer, Aaron Teoh, is often portrayed as an extremely crude and violent controlling man, and here he is stripped of these characteristics. By turning The Engineer into a sympathetic character when he dreams of reaching America and says he’d be a ‘good American’, we feel sorry for him, rather than it being a criticism of America’s corruption and dehumanising behaviour. The comparison of The Engineer to an American is supposed to be a pointed attack but this weapon has been left blunt. 

Declawing this character by removing his violent tendencies towards Kim also makes her seem more of a submissive character, which she proves isn’t true time and time again. She is a strong-willed character who does what she needs to protect herself, her son, and her values. But if Kim wasn’t threatened with violence by The Engineer, then why does someone who can defend herself still let herself be controlled by The Engineer even after she’s stopped working for him? It’s clear they’re not friends. The change to the character leaves this an open question. 

Overall, the production feels like it has a highschool level of violence and sexual undertones. A production concerned with what its parents would say. This watered-down ‘harsh reality’ doesn’t do Kim’s side of the story justice for all she suffers. 

If you wanted to ignore these changes and watch this performance to witness its breathtaking stage design, including flying set pieces, then you’d be in for a good show. The production value is high and with the use of a rotating stage, multiple set changes, and high-scale projections and lighting, this show is visually stunning. 

The vocals of this talented cast are second to none with no weak link. Julianne Pundan as Kim makes a phenomenal debut as her voice sails over the operatic melodies with heart-wrenching emotion. The orchestra is powerful and chest-rattling in accenting each moment of her devastation. It really is an immersive sound experience which reaches the core. 

Clever staging in making a relatively small ensemble look like hundreds of people at once are more than just sleight of hand tricks but something which become beautifully choreographed action scenes which make you hold your breath. 

Just when you think you’ve seen the best the show has to offer with the well-known helicopter flashback sequence seeming to reach a peak for this show’s high production value and impressive staging, the American Dream sequence pulls out all the stops. It brings a dazzling level of glitz and glamour to the stage which brutally contrasts the war torn devastation of the rest of the musical. 

A valuable piece of art, Miss Saigon is a musical which is inseparable with its controversial legacy and subject matter. Poignant essays by famed American-Vietnamese Pulitzer prize winning writer, Viet Thanh Nguyen and American-Vietnamese journalist, Diep Tran are still relevant in an open conversation surrounding the controversies and editing of Miss Saigon.

Places the show used to drive the knife into misogyny and America have been diffused in favour of a softer treatment of everyone, removing complexities from characters and failing to criticise inhumane behaviour. Beneath the surface of this awe-inspiring Miss Saigon with its talent, spectacle, and empowering score, is a show struggling to find its feet.

Runs Until: 4 July 2026