MISS SAIGON

Miss Saigon is an epic love story loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The story in Madame Butterfly, of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha, is replaced by a romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bargirl.

The musical was premièred at the Theatre Royal, London, in September 1989, closing after 4,092 performances on in October 1999. It opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre in April, 1991 and subsequently played in many other cities and embarked on tours. Prior to the opening of the 2014 London revival, it was said that Miss Saigon had set a world record for opening day ticket sales, with sales in excess of £4m reported.

The musical represented Schönberg and Boublil’s second major success, following Les Misérables in 1985. As of July 2019, Miss Saigon remains Broadway’s thirteenth longest-running show.