MISS SAIGON to Open 10/8 at Ordway Center

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will present Miss Saigon, one of the most stunning theatrical spectacles of all time Oct. 8-13, 2013. A modern take on Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Miss Saigon is a powerful pop opera and an emotional tale about forbidden love, the tragedies of war and the sacrifices made for family.

Miss Saigon is a love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman during the American occupation of Saigon during the Vietnam War. The Tony Award-winning musical was created by Claude Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, the visionaries behind Les Miserables, and features a series of sensational musical numbers including, "Why God Why?" and "The American Dream." It remains the 12th longest-running Broadway musical in musical theatre history and was deemed once of the most technically challenging productions when it originally opened on Broadway.

"For this production of Miss Saigon, we have assembled a stellar cast under the direction of internationally recognized artists that includes Director Fred Hanson, Music Director Kevin Stites and Choreographer Baayork Lee," said Denton Yockey, President and Executive Producer of Starlight Theatre, where the Ordway co-produced show first opened. "They are each established leaders in the musical theatre industry, and I cannot underscore enough what a thrill and a tremendous privilege it has been to have them preparing this production."

This production opened at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City and will travel to the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford, the Fisher Theatre in Detroit while ending its run here at the Ordway Oct. 8-13.

A new production of the 24-year-old classic will open in May 2014 in London. Producer Cameron Mackintosh, whose original production ran for ten years in London's vast Theatre Royal Drury Lane and many years on Broadway, will produce. The new production has already exceeded the record for box office sales for a London show (The Book of Mormon) and Broadway production (The Producers) on its first day of sales.

The show's longevity can be attributed to it being a tragic love story imbued with multiple layers of complex issues that arise in situations of war.

Photo Courtesy of the Ordway