Music Circus: Miss Saigon

If it were phrased as a qquestion "Miss Saigon?" I would have to answer "Yes, thank God.  I did!" or "No, I really don't."  You see, I missed going to Vietnam courtesy of Uncle Sam by the very skin of my teeth.  So I did, in fact, miss Saigon.  But I don't regret missing out.

Watching the Music Center's performance of Miss Saigon didn't bring back any false pleasant memories, or any memories for that matter.  More of an opereta than a musical, the libretto of Miss Saigon was difficult for me to  understand even though I had read the plot summary.  None of the songs were "hummable" and the ending is just plain tragic.

Technically, the play was over-the-top from the opening dirty disco routine to the helecopter flying the last American't to safety.  It wasn't so easy to pick out the good and bad guys so the political side of the war didn't play prominently in the production.  Pretty, listenable music, just not singable or memorable.