A Helicopter in Hollywood

Miss Saigon

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Pantages Theater

Hollywood, CA

When I saw that Miss Saigon would be touring to LA, I was excited to get tickets because it had been a really long time since I last saw it.  I arrived early, so I ate a snack at The PieHole while playing Wizards Unite.  There are a BUNCH of inns and fortresses along Hollywood Blvd, so if you play, take some time to go there and enjoy!

Pics of the Touring Cast

Helicopter!

  

 Bro and V wanted to join me, so I met up with them at the theater.  I bought a hat that was themed to the show and had the helicopter logo on the button detail.

Bro's shirt is the same color as the merchandise!

I love the art deco style of this theater, and I always seem to see details I've never noticed before.

We had quite the discussion about the woman's
breast hanging out. 
Like, Bro didn't realize that was her breast.

We took a selfie by the photo op board, and that's when they told me they'd never seen the show before.  "There's a helicopter in the show?"  Oh, boy!  Two newbies!  I thought that Bro had seen it with me the last time I went, but I guess not.

Costumes were on display in the lobby.

Engineer

Engineer

Chris

Kim

Our seats were in the right orchestra section, with a great view of the stage, while being able to see the actors' facial expressions.

Screen/curtain

Excited!

• The cast did not disappoint me in the least.  They all had great voices, and I really liked the chemistry between Chris (Anthony Festa) and Kim (Emily Bautista).
• I especially loved Festa's rendition of "Why God?" -- very nice floating high note.
• I always relate much more to Kim than I do to Ellen (I'm more a fan of the one singing the torch song), but Stacie Bono did a very nice job gaining my sympathy.  
• Eymard Cabling was great as the Engineer, bringing humor to his role with a little bit of ham, but not an offputting amount of it.  
• I was also impressed with J. Daughty's portrayal of John.  He was more of a jerk than I remember John being, but Daughty's voice pretty much made me forget the jerk part during his awesome rendition of "Bui Doi".  He brought soul to the song and made it his own!
• During intermission, Bro was humming parts of the first act, and mashing them up with stuff from Les Miz, because they had the same composers.  
• There were little changes to the lyrics and addition to the story between Kim and Thuy.  I'm a purist so I didn't really like the changes.  Like, I don't remember Thuy's ghost telling her to remember the scene that involves the helicopter, and I thought the "Please" scene came a little bit earlier in the show, but it's been a long time since I've seen it, so I could be wrong.  I just looked at my old CD from the original Broadway Cast, and I'm not going crazy: the song was called "Please", not "Too Much For One Heart", as it is now called.  That first "please" gets me every time and the water works start.
• The helicopter: I thought, when they showed the digital projection on the screen, that maybe they couldn't fit a chopper into this theater (I had previously seen it at the Ahmanson).  So I was disappointed at first, and then, lo and behold, there was the cabin of the real one!  YAY!!!  That's probably my favorite scene of the whole show because that's when you find out how they got separated, and the pleading from everyone, and I'm about to cry again.
• I mean, of course I love the whole story of Chris and Kim falling in love.  I love their songs, especially "The Last Night of the World".  They sang it beautifully.
• I also liked the dancing by the soldiers, because it was a lot of marching.  :)  
• V and Bro liked the show, but V doesn't know if she could see it again because it's so sad.  I'm glad she got to see it at least once, though.

Thanks for joining me, Bro and V!  I believe the show's run has ended at the Pantages, but I highly recommend this show if you get a chance to see it while it is still on tour.