Miss Saigon Puns

I saw a post recently about racism in The King And I and Miss Saigon. Hoping to hear different takes/views on this.

Majority of people say The King and I is worse for its theme of white people coming in and "fixing" Thailand. Miss Saigon has been one of my favorites but I feel doubt about holding it on a pedestal. I always thought the themes of the story were more progressive? Chris being a criticism of white saviors, Engineer being a character purposefully written as racist to depict the vile nature of racists etc.

I think the biggest problem people have is the depiction of Vietnam as a whole during that time. I can't comment because I wasn't there. I always thought of it as a depiction of a war torn country rather than of a people as a whole. Again, I'm not here to start any fights but to maybe have my worldview expanded?

Please be nice to others.

So you all probably know about miss Saigon at this point. I’m a half-Japanese, half-Armenian girl who lives in the US and I swear that show fucking haunts me. Now, this is going to be a little personal but hear me out. I see nightmares of myself being a prostitute with no power to say or do anything, while wearing a tube top, a miniskirt, etc. Now I’ll tell you, if you ever meet me in person, I’m basically someone who is logical and at times, intense and passionate when I need to be, and I’ve been told I’m “scary” per se for the way I talk. I’m also saying this because I love theater and maybe want to go into it someday but I feel like it holds me back, and I feel even more powerless and frustrated whenever I hear white people say that it’s an amazing show. I mean no wonder it’s on Broadway. I just feel like whenever I think of that show, I feel undermined, like maybe what I say doesn’t matter and that it’s my default position here.

Anyways, it also doesn’t help that I tend to have an inferiority complex because of my upbringing, where what I said didn’t matter to anyone and I feel like I constantly have to vigorously compete with other people to get what I want. I also just hate how I get hated on by those who love miss Saigon and I kind of get stuck in this spider web because it’s pretty much every drama group I join.

Honestly, as much as I try enjoying the show myself, it just makes me depressed which makes me somewhat obsessed and over-analyze the context of the story because I’m trying to find some kind of logical conclusion for it when there is none. And that’s why I’m writing this. I also feel misunderstood since I don’t get to have much input from outside sources about this.

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In here is:

The 2016, 25th Anniversary production of Miss Saigon starring Eva Noblezada and Jon Jon Briones. I've provided both the 720p and the 1080p versions, ripped from BluRay, that I found. There are subtitle files for each.

The Gala Ending! (BluRay Extras) Starring Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce.
(PLEASE NOTE: The programme starts 2min 30s into this file.)
720p + 1080p are here. Both have an accompanying subtitle file. The 1080p version has built-in subtitles. The 720p has two files, idx and sub, that must be in the same directory as the main file.

And finally:The 2015 documentary 'The Heat is Back On: The Remaking of Miss Saigon.' (Subtitles hardcoded)

I've had friends who've loved the musical for a while and hadn't seen it until this evening when I watched a proshot lea salonga version (not sure from where or when) off youtube) aaaaannnd... idk it feels verrrrry racist and kind of misogynist as well?

The way that all the asian women are prostitutes, that Chris is an asshole who married another woman while already married but the musical doesn't seme very critical of it at all, also all the vietnamese men are super evil (I guess the engineer is just self serving but he's a very shallow and unsympathetic character anyway) almost as a way of justifying Kim choosing a white man over any of them... it just felt very uncomfortable, especially given the musical's history of yellow face.

Besides, the musical doesn't really address any of the issues of the vietnam war, just basically saying white people good, vietnamese people bad. Kim, even by being absolutely faithful to her white "saviour", is rewarded by rejection which she almost immediately accepts because there's just the understood assumption that her culture, ways and laws are subservient to American ones.... it just felt super shallow and committed way more to pushing the melodrama than exploring and doing justice to the insanely topical and complex setting.

Anyway, I have a very gross feeling after watching it, I'm keen to hear other people's opinions on it (both fans and critics) bc I wanna understand this musical better, especially its popularity.

It's also noteworthy that many schools in western countries also perform that show...where they have like 15 year old girls playing the prostitutes. Just creepy in so many ways

https://preview.redd.it/21qp2t6qkq861.jpg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac7c672ef19044927079f6bb9fa51604aa7608a1

Does anyone have a school script for this musical? Thank you

So those of you who don’t know what miss Saigon is, it’s a Broadway musical in which a Vietnamese Hooker named Kim falls in love with an American GI named Chris during the Vietnam war. He leaves her after the fall of Saigon, in which she ends up pregnant with his son. She waits three years for him to come back, thinking he still loves her, but then kills herself after finding out that he has a wife and to supposedly make them take her son to America.

So I made a separate post on how the story itself is highly flawed, take a look here;

https://np.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/k70a8h/does_anyone_else_think_that_the_actions_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Anyways, I know that many say that this play is racist, which I can certainly see that, especially since a white person wrote this play. I agree that it represents harmful racial stereotypes, yet people are still defending it.

Base64decode dot org will reveal the download link.

aHR0cHM6Ly9kcml2ZS5nb29nbGUuY29tL2RyaXZlL2ZvbGRlcnMvMTNVc3NPWkUtT2tjUGs2aTNmVHMzMWtCZWtQQWVrZHJ6P3VzcD1zaGFyaW5n

There are two files here:

The 2000 Manila production of Miss Saigon starring Lea Salonga, and the 1989 documentary 'The Heat is On: The Making of Miss Saigon.'

The Manila Miss Saigon is in a better resolution and bitrate than the one on Youtube. This is 480x360 at 404kbps total bitrate.

Hello all,

Medium-time musical theatre lover and first time poster:

I have an audition coming up in early December for which I'd like to prepare, and the title is essentially explains what I'd like. The casting call specifically said their songs are similar to those styles, but it's a new show with new music.

I figure everybody else is probably going to sing something from either of those two shows, so I'd like your help in finding something else that's a solid piece, fun to sing, and lesser known than those two. Oh, and it has to be in English!

I had thought about singing Le Temps des cathédrales, but the new show is pretty specific about wanting English songs in the audition. I also thought about singing "Waving Through A Window" just because I've *only just this week found out about that show and song (!) and can't get it out of my head, but I'm not sure it will be very representative of my most comfortable baritone sound.

What can you think of for my situation?

Thanks for any thought, advice, and help you can give!

Side question I've not taken many vocal lessons or musical theory, so I don't know how to explain this: I'm most comfortable singing in baritone, yet I can also sing things like "Waving Through A Window" mostly comfortably, which (I'm fairly certain) is for a tenor's voice... Is that something that's okay to be doing, or is that dangerous for my music tube?

edit Just learned the term "baritenor." Maybe that's me

FINAL EDIT -- Thanks to all of you for helping me discover some great music! Here are the ones I've enjoyed the most from all the suggestions that more or less fit my voice and style (in no particular order):

Jekyll & Hyde - I Need To Know

Still - Anastasia

Close Every Door - Joseph

Two songs from The Scarlet Pimpernel: Falcon in the Dive and Where's the Girl

I am hoping to receive non-judgmental replies for this, for this is impacting my life a lot, no matter how ridiculous this may sound to you.

I’m a half-Japanese, half-Armenian girl who lives in the US and I swear that show fucking haunts me. Now, this is going to be a little personal but hear me out. I see nightmares of myself being a prostitute with no power to say or do anything, while wearing a tube top, a miniskirt, etc. Now I’ll tell you, if you ever meet me in person, I’m basically someone who is logical and at times, intense and passionate when I need to be, and I’ve been told I’m “scary” per se for the way I talk. I’m also saying this because I love theater and maybe want to go into it someday but I feel like it holds me back, and I feel even more powerless and frustrated whenever I hear white people say that it’s an amazing show. I mean no wonder it’s on Broadway. I just feel like whenever I think of that show, I feel undermined, like maybe what I say doesn’t matter and that it’s my default position here.

Anyways, it also doesn’t help that I tend to have an inferiority complex because of my upbringing, where what I said didn’t matter to anyone and I feel like I constantly have to vigorously compete with other people to get what I want. I also just hate how I get hated on by those who love miss Saigon and I kind of get stuck in this spider web because it’s pretty much every drama group I join.

Honestly, as much as I try enjoying the show myself, it just makes me depressed which makes me somewhat obsessed and over-analyze the context of the story because I’m trying to find some kind of logical conclusion for it when there is none (Chris literally buys her for the night and she’s 17 and a whore and they call that LOVE? And who tf kills themselves in the name of their kid being taken to America???) And that’s why I’m writing this. I also feel misunderstood since I don’t get to have much input from outside sources about this.