The Philippine Dream at Leicester Square Theatre Tonight - Sunday 17th August

Eva Noblezada

Leading stars from the ‘smash-hit’ musical Miss Saigon Eva Noblezada, Rachelle Ann Go and Hugh Maynard will be joining a young and creative cast for the one-off Gala show, The Philippine Dream, this Sunday evening (17 August).

Noblezada, only 18-years-old, plays the leading heroine role in Miss Saigon and is famous for her powerful ranging voice. She will be accompanied by Rachelle Ann Go who sings the signature heart wrenching song, ‘"The Movie in My Mind" as GiGi. Hugh Maynard, who acts as John, has a great stage presence in the chorus of “Bui-Doi” (the dust of life) on Miss Saigon will also be making an appearance this Sunday.

Produced by West End performer Katy Osborne and in association with Harry Francis of the Francis Hume Productions, The Philippine Dream will be a cabaret performance with an array of talented performers and chorus songs all raising money for the Filipino charity, Tuloy Foundation. The charity aims to help and support street children and neglected orphans in the capital city of the Philippines, Manila.

Rachelle Ann Go

The BRIT-Award winner, Blake will also make an appearance as he and Rachelle Ann Go have just recorded a duet for their up-and-coming studio album, ‘In Harmony’.

The evening will be hosted by Dean McCullough and have a line-up of performers including Summer Strallen (The Sound of Music, Top Hat), Anton du Beke (Strictly Come Dancing), Dianne Pilkington (Mamma Mia!, Wicked),  Daniel Buckley (The Book of Mormon, Loserville), Charlotte Riby (Billy Elliot, Hairspray), Alicia Beck (Cats, Zurich Ballet), Tyrone Huntley (The Book of Mormon, Memphis), Harry Francis (A Chorus Line, Edward Scissorhands), Lady Imelda (Glam Jam) and vintage trio The Dolly Girls.

Hugh Maynard

Staff and crew from the West End production will be holding charity buckets to collect money for the Tuloy Foundation throughout the evening. Tuloy Foundation’s mission is to build a theatre for children in their care. So far, £12,500 has been raised from their fundraising efforts at other West End shows including Miss Saigon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wicked and Mamma Mia!

All ticket sales and proceeds for The Philippine Dream will go to the Tuloy Foundation.

SPECIAL OFFER - TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED FOR £20 EACH BY ENTERING DISCOUNT CODE ‘TULOY2014’ AT LEICESTERSQUARETHEATRE.COM Leicester Square Theatre

Sunday 17 August 2014, 7.30pm

Book tickets: http://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873517339/events

Twitter @lsqtheatre

Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre - An Emotional Rollercoaster with a fuzzy intrigue. **** [A personal review]

 

Miss Saigon’s massive promotional hype has sky rocketed box office sales since the first day tickets were released. There are, apparently, no longer any weekend seats available to see this internationally recognised musical at the West End. First premiered in 1989 and performed for a decade, the new and revived Miss Saigon production comes to the Prince Edward Theatre under the direction of Lawrence Connor.

As a fan of musicals and having visited Ho Chi Minh,  (or Saigon as it was once called pre-Vietnam War,) there were expectations to hear memorable and unbeatable numbers, see hints of Vietnamese paraphernalia, and get a smidgen of war history on the theatrical stage, yet only some of these parts were addressed. They were presented in varying levels of emotional intensity with a fuzzy intrigue about them. 

The emotional roller coaster span from the shockingly devastating conditions bestowed by the Communist regime and the hope and desperation felt by the Vietnamese people parallel to a romantic love story between a G. I., Chris (Alistair Brammer) and the heroine, Kim, who is sung by 18 year-old, Eva Noblezada, who is the star with a tremendous voice that resonated throughout the auditorium. 

Miss Saigon was originally influenced by Puccini’s Madam Butterfly, Madam Chrysanthemum (where everyone seems to have forgotten the composer’s name) and the 1958 musical film, South Pacific. The overarching and all encompassing theme from these influences lead to the most obvious; it is the divide between the West and the East with reference to what the historical academic, Edward Said once called ‘Orientalism.’ It’s the obscure interest the West had with Eastern culture despite considering them as the ‘other’ – inferior and ignorant.  Yet, coming into the 21^st century where this is, more or less, non-existent, Chris points out a popular belief held by thousands of Anti-Vietnam war protesters, at the time, that it was a ‘senseless fight.’ 

The show is a Boublil and Schönberg production that are the same artistic directors who gave us Les Misérables. They create jaw-dropping musical entertainment with solid political relevance, which are often depicted in a brutal and matter-of-fact fashion. One of the first opening scenes is set in a brothel where Vietnamese prostitutes gyrate and are thrown around like rag dolls by American soldiers. Here, Rachelle Ann Go as Gigi sings, ‘Movie in my mind’ with tears in her eyes. It’s a disturbingly provocative scene in addition to the ‘Bui Doi’ ‘dust of life’ song, which shows a video of the half Vietnamese and half American G.I children that were left behind as a product of war.

The most exciting scene that force hearts to rush at full pelt was the helicopter sequence, which revisited the same anxiety felt by Madam Butterfly languishing over Pinkerton. It is the same loneliness and sadness felt by the innocent. Totie Driver and Matt Kinley’s stage design gave colour to such a bleak and war-torn story line but the music itself was most definitely classy with no gaps in between. Disappointingly, the lyrics never made an impression on my memory.

The conniving and, at times, clown-like character, the Engineer (Jon Jon Briones) has a delightful number,  ‘the American Dream’ which is possibly the only memorable song with its dazzling burlesque troupe, grand Cadillac entrance and glitzy statute of liberty head. Undeniably, there is a lot of experienced acting and singing dominating the stage. The production deserves credit for executing a revived classical show, which adds only a few up-to-date exceptions. 

Book your tickets HERE - It is showing until Spring 2015 until further notice