| Miss Saigon | |
|---|---|
 Original poster | |
| Music | Claude-Michel Schönberg |
| Lyrics | |
| Book |
|
| Basis | Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini |
| Premiere | September 20, 1989: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London |
| Productions | |
Miss Saigon is a sung-through stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madama Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
The musical premièred at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 20 September 1989, closing after 4,092 performances on 30 October 1999. It opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on April 11, 1991 with a record advance of over $39 million,[1] and was later staged in many other cities and embarked on tours. Prior to the opening of the 2014 London revival, it was said that Miss Saigon had set a world record for opening day ticket sales, with sales in excess of £4m reported.[2][3]
The musical was Schönberg and Boublil's second major success, following Les Misérables in 1985. As of October 2024, Miss Saigon remains Broadway's fourteenth longest-running show.[4]
- ^ "'Blvd.' sets tix record at $1.4 mil". Daily Variety. November 22, 1994. p. 11.
- ^ Miss Saigon breaks record for biggest single day of sales whatsonstage.com, Retrieved 24 January 2014
- ^ Miss Saigon posts £4m first day sales – but is it a record? whatsonstage.com, Retrieved 24 January 2014
- ^ Hernandez, Ernio (2008-05-28). "Long Runs on Broadway". Celebrity Buzz: Insider Info. Playbill, Inc. Archived from the original on 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2013-09-03.