Creator Backlash: Lianah Sta. Ana, who portrayed Kim alongside Eva Noblezada in the revival, expressed her displeasure with the show years later, believing that it fed into the stereotyping and fetishization of Asian women in media.
"Too Much For One Heart", sung by Kim. Lea Salonga still keeps it in her concert repertoire and with good reason. There is also the finale "The Sacred Bird", heard initially when the show opened in London, but since pared down.
For the 25th anniversary revival "Too Much For One Heart" has been re-included.
Ellen's solo, "Her or Me", heard on the London Cast Recording, is modified into "Now That I've Seen Her" in all others, basically by replacing the first line with the second.
Inverted in the London revival, as Ellen has been given a new song, "Maybe", intended to generate more sympathy for her, an often reviled character.
The Filipina Lea Salonga played the Vietnamese Kim. On both Broadway and the West End, revivals cast then-newcomers Rachelle Ann Go and Eva Noblezada, both of whom are also Filipina (Filipina and Mexican, in Noblezada's case).
In predominantly white countries such as Hungary or Norway, Kim has been played by a white actress wearing a black wig. Even in the Czech Republic, which has a sizable Czech-Vietnamese community.
Filmed Stage Production: The 25th Anniversary gala performance was filmed for release in movie theaters and has since been made available on home video and streaming (through Broadway HD).
Friendship on the Set: Broadway's original Kim and Ellen, Lea Salonga and Liz Callaway, became close friends during the run of the musical and are still close today. Amusingly, both would sing for Disney as Princess Jasmine — Salonga in the original film, and Callaway in the sequels.
Inspiration for the Work: The musical was based on a photograph taken at the Tan Son Nhut Air Base in 1975 days before the Fall of Saigon. In the photograph a Vietnamese woman is sadly saying goodbye to her daughter who's going to live in America with her father a former GI, while the child is upset the mother is still knowing her daughter's life will be better note here is the picture https://broadwayincincinnati.news/2019/02/01/point-of-inspiration-for-miss-saigon/.
Referenced by...: Canadian figure skater Joseph Phan performed to the Miss Saigon soundtrack for his long program during the 2021-2022 competitive season.
This is what catapulted a then 17-year-old Lea Salonga into Broadway stardom. She would return to the role off and on for more than fifteen years.
While neither of them are known to the general public in the way Salonga is, this musical kickstarted the highly successful Broadway careers of Rachelle Ann Go and Eva Noblezada, who got their big breaks in West End and Broadway revivals — Go as Gigi, and Noblezada as Kim.
Jon Jon Briones also had his profile greatly boosted when playing The Engineer opposite Noblezada. He's since earned a comfortable spot on Ryan Murphy's Production Posse.
Stunt Casting: The show began and ended its original Broadway run with Lea Salonga in the title role.
Throw It In!: The actor playing the Engineer (the comic relief) is free to improvise at certain points of the show, particularly during "What a Waste" and "The American Dream".
What Could Have Been: There was nearly no Broadway production because the Actor's Equity Association originally refused to let Jonathan Pryce reprise his role of the Engineer since he was a Caucasian playing an Asian role and they though that would offend the Asian-American community. However, it was counter-argued that the Engineer is Eurasian (half-Vietnamese and half-French), and that Pryce was being discriminated because he is Caucasian. Cameron Mackintosh threatened to cancel the Broadway production altogether and after getting support for Pryce, Equity relented and the production went on. (The Other Wiki.) Nowadays of course the role almost always go to someone of Asian descent. note The first Asian to portray the role is Chinese actor Wang Luoyong, who previously appeared as Ip Man in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and would many years later go on to portray Zhuge Liang in The Advisor's Alliance.
during the 2021-2022 competitive season.