Miss Saigon

Wow, wow, wow, what a show, I and I would think the whole audience was totally drained after seeing such a fantastic performance from these young people.

This show is not an easy one to either produce or perform, it is so close to opera that you need very strong singers who can carry it off and also sustain their performance throughout the whole run of a show, well, I can tell you this is exactly what has happened in Rotherham this week.

The whole cast was very strong from the leading characters to the tiny tots who played Tam and the chorus, they were all brilliant.

This show calls for various emotions ranging from sadness to elation to love and again these were obvious to anyone sitting in the audience. One of the main characters is The Engineer and Matt Roberts carried this off to a tee. He was able to get the cheekiness of this part when he sang and performed “The American Dream” with the full company but also the other side of his character in the opening number “The Heat is on in Saigon” when directing the girls in his charge.

Ben Green was another strong character as John; he was able to show his full potential especially in the opening of Act 2 in “Bui Doi”, he sang this and made it his number.

The whole show revolves around Chris played by Luke Taylor and his love of Kim played by Emily Huddleston, I am not sure what to say about these two, it is hard to beleive they are only 18 and still they performed to perfection and were able to pull out all the stops to get every bit of emotion from these parts. They sang their hearts out and were able to give a performance which would warrant that of someone three times their ages.

This was very apparent when they sang “This is the Hour” with the Vietnamese Soldiers, the people and Thuy played by Billy Luckett, who was perfectly sinister in this part. They all had to sing against each other which can be very difficult and something which can easily put off actors of more senior years than they but it did not put them off, they relished in it and it paid off.

A part in this show which brought a lump to my throat was when Tam, played by Dillon Whittaker, made his first appearance, he was wonderful. This part has been shared throughout the week by three tiny actors, Dillon who I have mentioned, Scarlett Stephenson and Grace Lowe. I was lucky enough to attend one of their rehearsals a couple of weeks ago when all three played Tam at various stages and I have to say they were all exceptional.

One of my favourite numbers of this show, and I have to say there are plenty, is “I Still Believe” sung by Kim and Ellen, played perfectly by Katie Eyre, who ends up being Chris’ wife.

I have seen this show several times in London's West End and I can honestly say this equals the performances I have seen.

Many congratulations to all involved for a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.