Drury Lane's fine 'Saigon' revival overcomes troubled plotting

Welcome news for suburban theatergoers. Drury Lane Oak Brook's well-sung, wisely staged revival of "Miss Saigon" suggests that the renaissance that began at the theater last winter with the sizzling "Sweet Charity," followed by the glorious "Boys from Syracuse" and top-drawer "Mame," shows no signs of tapering off.

Rachel Rockwell's production of the musical by "Les Miserables" creators Claude-Michel Schönberg (music) and Alain Boublil (lyrics) demonstrates how an accomplished cast and design team can make a great show of a merely good musical.

Inspired by "Madame Butterfly" and set primarily in 1970s Vietnam, the wildly popular "Miss Saigon" isn't a great musical. The lyrics border on the facile. Supporting characters remain underdeveloped and their motives unclear. The overly sentimental ballads can become overwrought and you can practically set your watch by the key modulations. But the score includes some wonderfully lush melodies, among them the languid, saxophone-underscored "Last Night of the World" and the lovely "I Still Believe." Unfortunately "Bui Doi," an earnestly sung examination of the plight of Vietnamese children fathered by American GIs, comes across as self-righteous and contrived, an unnecessary reminder of a plot point previously made.

And the show's plotting poses problems. The first act teases the audience with several false endings before it finally concludes. The second act features similarly awkward plotting thanks to its penultimate production number, an on-the-money, but ill-timed critique of the American dream winningly choreographed by Stacey Flaster and brilliantly performed by Joseph Anthony Foronda. Jaunty and slyly jingoistic, it's a terrific tune that would fare better just about anyplace else. Positioned late in the second act, it needlessly disrupts a narrative hurtling toward its inevitable, tragic conclusion.

However, the genuine sincerity of Rockwell's direction, reflected in the heartfelt performances of her cast, and the vocal prowess of her leads make up for the show's shortcomings.

Among the productions assets are Melinda Chua Smith, Kevin Vortmann and the aforementioned Foronda. Smith and Vortmann star as the young lovers who find each other on the eve of the fall of Saigon and lose each other during the American evacuation. Foronda plays the opportunistic Engineer, a hustler desperate to make it to America.

Smith tempers vulnerability with unshaken resolve as Kim, the young girl who flees her destroyed village and winds up working as a prostitute in the Engineer's seedy bar. The candor and emotion of her performance as the innocent who falls in love with a Marine preparing to return home is matched by Vortmann, an exceptional singer whose haunting performance of "Why God, Why" makes the conventional power ballad compelling. Vortmann's acting, which hints at his character's ambivalence and impotence, is entirely authentic, much like that of Smith and Foronda, veterans of national tours (Smith also performed Kim on Broadway and in Germany). Their performances reflect the depth that comes from familiarity with the role.

Which brings us to Foronda's flawless Engineer, a fixer and panderer playing both sides against the middle to better serve his own interests. At ease in the Engineer's gold and silver lamé jackets, Foronda wears amorality well, as if the role were as tailor-made for him as Tatjana Radisic's costumes. Slick and sure, he presides over the misplaced showstopper, "The American Dream," and its first-act counterpart, a survivor's manifesto titled "If You Want to Die in Bed."

While the Engineer remains rooted in reality, the star-crossed Kim and Chris revel in their fairy tale romance right up until they're separated by the North Vietnamese invasion of Saigon and the evacuation of U.S. forces. Rockwell re-imagines the scene, which famously featured a helicopter landing in the London and Broadway productions, with a nifty combination of Ray Nardelli's heart-thumping sound and Jesse Klug's unforgiving lighting. Rockwell scaled back the spectacle without reducing its emotional wallop. She makes us feel the tension and frenzy that accompanied the city's fall. We feel it because we feel for these characters, which the director and her actors have so conscientiously invoked.

"Miss Saigon"

Where: Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, (630) 530-0111, drurylaneoakbrook.com

Times: 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 1:30 and 8 p.m. Thursdays; 8:30 p.m. Fridays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays through March 8

Running time: About two hours, 30 minutes, with intermission

Tickets: $29-$35, dinner packages extra

Parking: Free parking adjacent to theater

Rating: For teens and older, sexual situations

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=1&type=video&item=222">Clip from 'Miss Saigon' </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>