The epic musical, "Miss Saigon" heads for the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre later this year.

It is a sad tale, based on the opera “Madame Butterfly”. In the last days of the Vietnam War, 17-year-old Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by a notorious character known as The Engineer. There, she meets and falls in love with an American GI named Chris, but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For three years, Kim goes on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he has fathered a son.

Theatre producer Michael Harrison in association with Cameron Mackintosh, has announced a very impressive cast which includes Seann Miley Moore (X Factor UK; Miss Saigon, International Tour; Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Australian Tour) reprising their celebrated role as The Engineer, following acclaimed performances across an international tour which visited Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Singapore.

The Australian dates saw the Filipino-Australian actor take home the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Performance in a Musical at the inaugural Time Out Sydney Arts & Amp Culture Awards.

Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical is being reborn in this new UK which welcomes brilliant new talent and recent Brit School graduate, Julianne Pundan, making her professional debut as Kim, alongside exciting actor and singer Jack Kane (who has starred in Dragonheart Vengeance opposite Helena Bonham Carter, and Years And Years (BBC and HBO) with Rory Kinnear and Emma Thompson) as Chris.

Local performer Dom Hartley-Harris who trained at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire,  recently appeared in the West End as George Washington in Hamilton and on tour as Curtis Taylor Jr. in Dreamgirls, is cast in the role of John. Emily Langham (Singin’ in the Rain International Tour; Hello, Dolly! London Palladium; The Witches, National Theatre) is Ellen.

Cameron Mackintosh said: “Since we first announced this new production, I have been genuinely delighted at the enthusiasm of the public determined not to “miss” Saigon, with tickets flying out of the box office and several of the announced cities already nearly sold out. We have now completed our search for a really fantastic cast, full of exciting discoveries, that will bring Boublil and Schönberg’s extraordinary, powerful musical back to thrilling life. I can’t wait to see”Miss Saigon” reborn again.”

“Miss Saigon” has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, adapted from the original French text by Alain Boublil, with additional lyrics by Michael Mahler and orchestrations by William David Brohn.

Since its London premiere in 1989, Cameron Mackintosh’s original production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s epic production became one of the most successful musicals in history.

The original Broadway production of “Miss Saigon” opened on April 11, 1991, and played for nearly ten years with its 4,097 performances attended by more than 6.3 million people. 

Cameron’s last London production of the show opened in London in May 2014 to record-breaking advance sales and critical acclaim, followed by a UK tour in 2017. During this run, in 2016, the spectacular 25th Anniversary Gala Performance of this timeless musical, featuring appearances by the original cast, including Jonathan Pryce and Lea Salonga, took place and was filmed for television and cinema and continues to be shown around the world.

The soaring musical score features the hit songs; “The Heat is On in Saigon”, “The Movie in My Mind”, “Last Night of the World” and “The American Dream”, and September 2024 marked 35 years since the show’s opening in the West End.

“Miss Saigon” has been performed in 33 countries, 378 cities in 15 different languages, has won 75 major awards including two Olivier Awards, three Tony Awards, and four Drama Desk Awards and has been seen by over 38 million people worldwide.