Miss Saigon (School Edition)

It was a pleasure to visit Bryntirion Comprehensive for the first time for their production of Miss Saigon The School Edition. It was not exactly my first visit as I had attended the school early in their rehearsal stages on the invitation of Naomi Davies to give the children a little more knowledge of NODA and what we offer.

I was looking forward to seeing what they achieved with this musical, given the complex score and storyline. Having seen the full production by Schonberg and Boubil many times I did wonder how the musical adapted to a young cast. I liked the set, it was very simple but effective,I especially liked the walkway surrounding the well-balanced orchestra, something that the director put to good use.

There was a large ensemble of students involved in this production , and every one of them seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Naomi had mentioned that there were some shared roles in the production, so I did visit on two occasions to see both casts. I will for this time just do one report as it wasnt a full cast change.

The musical opened with a bang with “The heat is on in Saigon” which was well choreographed . Both Hannah Twamley and Ella Greenhall who shared the role of Gigi had very nice voices and portrayed the character well, they both did well with “The movie of my Mind” along with Kim.

The role of Kim was played by Phoebe Hall and Charlotte Richards. I really enjoyed both of the girls' performances, they had lovely singing voices and a good presence on stage. I also thought that they both had a wonderful interaction with Joey Lewis who played Tam. Considering the ages of both girls, they were very natural with him. Both girls also interacted really well with all the other characters and made a very believable leading lady.

Thuy, the betrothed boyfriend of Kim from their youth was taken by James Stevens, he gave a strong performance in what was his first lead role , well done.

Ellen was played by Rhiannon Edwards, this is not an easy role to play but this young actress did it well. I liked her rendition of “ Now that I've seen her” and “ I still Believe” with Kim.

Chris was played by Sam Doyle and this was the second show I had seen this young man play a lead role in over the last month. Sam has a lovely singing voice and he executed all his musical numbers with a bit of class. I especially liked his scenes with Kim which came across as totally believable.

The role of John was taken by Toby Lewis, another extremely talented young actor who I believe has a great future ahead of him if he wants to pursue theatre as a career.  The opening of Act 2 with Toby singing “ Bui-Doi” along with the other boys was possibly one of the standout moments of the show , well done all of you.

Finally the role of The Engineer was shared by Zachary Westlake and Luke Mumford. Both boys had their own take on the character which they portrayed really well. I know it is extremely difficult to review when two actors portray the same role and both should be congratulated on their performance playing this substantial part.  You both did an amazing job.

I would like to thank Naomi and her team for their warm welcome on both occasions, and I look forward to joining you for your next production.

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