"'Miss Saigon' is as mechanically melodramatic as any theatrical potboiler from the early 20th century...It’s not as if such stories don’t still have the power to stir suspense and tears. But this eventful, sung-through production out of London, directed by Laurence Connor, feels about as affecting as a historical diorama, albeit a lavishly appointed one. This despite the hard and dedicated work of its earnest cast."
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"It’s less a song-and-dance affair in any recognizable sense than it is an ’80s summer movie, weighed down with ridiculous special F/X...Boublil’s lyrics are awfully leaden and generic, and Schönberg churns out predictably pseudo-Asian passages throughout the score—pentatonic patterns, flutes and plucked strings—the musicological equivalent of yellowface...Diversity on Broadway should be celebrated, but give actors of color characters we all can care about."
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"In condemning the exploitation of the Vietnamese while in alternate breaths exploiting them for Broadway-scale titillation, the show tries to have it both ways...It’s one thing to dramatize the degradation of women; it’s another thing to wink while doing it...The unrelieved hyper-emphasis of Laurence Connor’s direction basically squashes whatever might be good in 'Miss Saigon'...I am also sorry to report that the helicopter looks like a manatee."
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"It’s an opera for the tone-deaf: The dramatic gestures are broad and banal, and the faux-rock songs are exercises in louder-is-betterness whose tunes go round and round in tight little circles of melodic monotony. As for the lyrics, by Mr. Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr., they’re by turns tawdry and trite...While 'Miss Saigon' has a can’t-miss plot—it’s as potent today as it was for Puccini—the score, at least to my ear, is unendurable."
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"This production is sensational in every way: visually and sonically (often painfully so). Most important, it’s brilliantly cast...'Miss Saigon' is a show that eats its cheesecake and has it too, like a skin flick that runs a banner at the end promising to donate proceeds to a home for wayward girls...The show’s high point, 'The American Dream'...is more chilling than I’ve ever seen it...The production’s other big discovery is Eva Noblezada...Noblezada radiates conviction."
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"This bracing new production from London reminds that whirlybirds can’t whip up emotions. Only good actors can do that. The revival has plenty of them...Noblezada impresses Kim. She sings from a deep well of emotion and gets under your skin...Briones brings sleaze and sly humor to the role...His gritty take on 'American Dream' is a highlight. Too bad he’s also saddled with a gratuitous 'Make American great again' line. It mars the show's otherwise fine-tuned return."
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"Classy revitalization of an old, presumably boring property that proves to have plenty of life in it yet. The upscale revival should bring a tear to old-timers with romantic memories of the original schmaltzy score, while titillating newbies...The production values alone are a jaw-dropper...And just wait for his big getaway in 'The American Dream,' a show-stopper—and a career-maker for Briones."
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"Sure, it's a brash, broad-strokes saga with questionable racial and gender representation and a taste for salacious vulgarity. But although director Laurence Connor has adhered to the basic contours of the original, his grittier approach exposes teeth in the material that I don't recall previously being so sharp...Noblezada is a legitimate discovery, just as Salonga was the first time around...This is brawny, crowd-pleasing entertainment."
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