By James Bean
Published: October 25, 2009

By James Bean
For the Daily Titan

“Miss Saigon” opened to a full house on Friday night, and although it is the heaviest musical to come to the Cal State Fullerton stage in years, it didn’t stop the audience from exploding into applause at the end of every number.

“Miss Saigon” follows the story of a young, orphaned Vietnamese bar girl named Kim.
When she is sold for the night to an American soldier named Chris, they fall in love and Chris promises to bring her back to America with him.

When complications about her negotiated husband and the rise of the Viet Cong arise, the bond of the two lovers is tested in a horrifyingly tragic manner.

Director Jon Lawrence Rivera’s revamped and minimalistic version of “Miss Saigon” brought the audience to a standing ovation by the end of the night.

Although I enjoyed most of the show, I found a deep disconnection in the story and many times I couldn’t understand what was happening.

Odd things occur without explanation, and although there may have been messages behind them, I couldn’t find any. It all just seemed so anti-climactic.

Some choices were powerful, and the interpretation of the helicopter landing was actually quite brilliant as long as you weren’t relying on seeing a helicopter.

The story simply needed to take more of a precedence over the spectacle of the show. It is a powerful story, there was no reason to hide it behind the lights and effects.

That isn’t to say it was a bad show. Quite the contrary, the performance of the principle roles were absolutely spectacular.

Jacqueline Nguyen offered a quiet and powerfully submissive Kim who broke my heart. I found a deep connection to Nguyen’s Kim, and although it is easy to fall into the traps that the role offers, Nguyen stepped over those pitfalls and gave Kim a silent strength that packs a powerful punch in the dramatic ending. I honestly cannot say enough about Nguyen and her co-star, Jesse Abeel.

Abeel’s solo of “Why God Why?” won me over in the first 20 seconds, and his fantastically honest portrayal brought me to my feet when he came out for his curtain call.

Chris Duir brought much needed laughter to the heavy show with his fiendish engineer. His final number, “The American Dream,” had the audience in an absolute uproar of laughter, and I found myself loving his character despite his slimy and rat-like ambitions. I just wish that the ensemble had been given the opportunity to shine as well.

Although the ensemble pieces were well-choreographed and the actors in the ensemble itself were quite good, they felt very under-directed.

Scenes that relied on communicating the brutality of war (or maybe the absurdity of war, the message was unclear) came across as sloppy and under-rehearsed. It just needed to be tightened up a bit.

Speaking of the music, have I mentioned yet that the show contains non-stop music and singing? It is one of the few musicals like “Rent” and “Phantom of the Opera” that contain little to no spoken words throughout. If there was one area that the cast and director absolutely pulled through on, it was creating an absolutely stunning auditory experience.

Every vocalist was absolutely fabulous, and the music coming from the pit was just heavenly. From beginning to end, the music was perfect.

Although “Miss Saigon” needs some polishing, it has a great story, fantastic performances and a musical score to die for. The play will be running until Nov. 8 in the Little Theatre on campus. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $18 for CSUF students.