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| re: Inspiring show | |
| Posted by: sf 11:40 am EST 11/22/22 | |
| In reply to: Inspiring show - peter3053 04:48 pm EST 11/21/22 | |
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| Speaking of Miss Saigon and empathy, the original production's use of footage of real Vietnamese street children - the abandoned Vietnamese children of American soldiers - as set-dressing behind a vapid, fauxspirational, utterly manipulative howler of a song about their plight was crass, insensitive, ugly, exploitative, and tasteless in the extreme. And the use - now corrected, and the only revision in the recent-ish revivals that was an improvement over the original text - of made-up gobbledegook in place of Vietnamese in the Act One wedding sequence was inexcusable. And if I could see, as a not-particularly-"woke" 16-year-old from a very white suburb in the arse end of north-west England, that the yellowface makeup in the London production was just plain wrong, and that while casting Jonathan Pryce as a *Eurasian* character was possibly justifiable (though the make-up was not), casting all-white Keith Burns as Thuy was indefensible, then it probably occurred to at least some members of the production team too. And yet they did it anyway. There's a lot I like about Miss Saigon, actually, and I will try to get to Sheffield to see their revival. Casting Joanna Ampil as the Engineer is a fascinating choice (she was *great* as Bloody Mary in Chichester's brilliant revival of South Pacific last year), and it looks as if the production team are very aware that there are elements of the show that need to be handled very carefully. Much as I like a lot of the show, though, it *is* a deeply problematic piece; given who New Earth Theatre are and what they do, it is not surprising they chose to distance themselves from a theatre that is reviving it. And having said THAT - on the Sheffield Theatres website, Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau - the Artstic Director and Associate Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres - have posted a blog article outlining why they programmed the show and how they intend to approach it, and it makes me more curious to see what they do with it. Link below: |
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| Link | Sheffield Theatres - Programming Miss Saigon |
| reply to this message | |
| re: Inspiring show | |
| Posted by: peter3053 03:20 pm EST 11/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Inspiring show - sf 11:40 am EST 11/22/22 | |
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| I don't see how the use of the footage is any different from the use of images to evoke empathy for the poor or starving which motivate charity work and donations. And given the second act was all about taking responsibility, the song was a cry from the heart. It was genuinely intended, and illuminated something many, up till then, thought little about. Times and availability of Asian actors were different then, and, as the show continued, it brought to light many new talents who then took on the leading roles; also, the show itself became familiar enough that it did not need to depend upon familiar names in leading roles. The show also had a specifically enhancing effect on pride in the Philippines, where my wife is from. (Further, I recall a London company playing the show a few years back did a charity drive to get drama classes into the slums in Manila, paying back, so to speak, out of gratitude for that nation to the show. Anything for those kids is good; I recall being stuck in traffic in Manila, stopped for some time at a corner in a taxi, and seeing two boys, one older, one younger, and their game was for the older boy to sprinkle dirt into the younger one's hand, and then the reverse, them both watching the movement of the grains, then sometimes letting them drop to the ground and form a little cone, before starting again - this for some fifteen minutes, and with shanties behind them leading down to the bay.) Only about 15 years before, Pacific Overtures had struggled to find a complete cast of Asian actors. People forget that the past was different to the present - increased international travel, for one thing, as well as the good example of shows like Miss Saigon and South Pacific, have helped to change what is possible. But the intentions then, of the creators, were entirely good. We should worry more about what we are doing right now - what we take for granted in our actions in our world - because, who knows how we will be judged in the future for what we believe is well intentioned now. And who knows what they will say of us, even when we tried our best with what we were given? |
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| re: Inspiring show | |
| Posted by: sf 06:17 pm EST 11/23/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Inspiring show - peter3053 03:20 pm EST 11/23/22 | |
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| "I don't see how the use of the footage is any different from the use of images to evoke empathy for the poor or starving which motivate charity work and donations." You don't see how using footage of suffering children - REAL children, not actors on a film set - as set-dressing in a commercial enterprise produced in order to turn a profit is any different from using such footage to solicit charitable donations? Really? Wow. |
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