Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2005

Cast: Jon Jon Briones, Jennifer Hubilla, Miriam Valmores-Marasigan, Steven Houghton, Kerry Ellis, Hugh Maynard, Sebastian Tan, Ravy Soc Alfonso, Nathan Amzi, Makakilo Ancheta, Analin Bantug, Victor Bisa, Miguel C Braganza II, Edward Briones, Yu-Tin Chen, Glen Conner, Natalie Everett, Chris Gardner, Theresa de Guzman, Matthew J Henry, Nathan Hunter, Eaton James, Christian Rey Marbella, Meynaard Marcellano, Amira Matthews, Kanako Nakano, Lynden O'Neill, Angelo Paragoss, Ariel Reonal, Jon Robyns, Jacqui Sanchez, Shie Shoji, Kieran Snell, Jiwon Sohn, Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, Ian Venida, Crystal Yu

Book, lyrics, music: Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Richard Maltby Jnr

Directors: Laurence Connor, Mitchell Lemsky

Oh how I hated this! I know that it's not shit - shit stuff doesn't go to Broadway then around the world and accumulate millions of fans in the process but I still hated it and would have left in the interval if the friends I was with hadn't wanted to stay. It failed to live up to the hype. There are no memorable songs. "But there's a helicopter!" Yes - to distract you from the lack of memorable songs.

I feel slightly vindicated because there's currently a play on in London called untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play described as "A freewheeling and clever response to the racist and sexist stereotypes captured in Miss Saigon and beyond." I wonder if Cameron Mackintosh is going?