“Miss Saigon” ends the Ogunquit Playouse 2011 season with a bang

Toward the end of the war in Vietnam, some soldiers celebrate with cheap prostitutes in a bar called Dreamland. Most of the girls slink around in bikinis and compete for the title of Miss Saigon. As the song says, “The Heat is on in Saigon.” But it’s an innocent new girl, Kim, who wins the attention of a sergeant named Chris.

Like all the girls at the club, Kim dreams of a better life, and Chris sees that it’s not too late for her. He tries to pay her to quit the bar scene but is soon convinced by the owner, known as the Engineer, to spend the night with her.

This one romantic evening will change both of their lives, for better or worse.

“Miss Saigon” is the last musical of the Ogunquit Playhouse’s season, ending Oct. 23. It’s a modern variation of Madame Butterfly by the creators of “Les Miserables,” following the epic love story of an American soldier and a Vietnamese girl in a world torn apart by war.

The couple is perfectly cast and extraordinarily acted by Gregg Goodbrod and Jennifer Paz, who make their fast-moving but long-lasting affair heart-wrenchingly convincing.

Chris is conflicted about Vietnam, searching for a reason to be there, until he meets Kim. Goodbrod looks and acts the masculine yet sensitive role with a singing voice full of tears or, at least, capable of rousing them.

He wants to take Kim home to the States, but in a moving moment onstage—made even more powerful with slow-motion acting and strobe lights—she is left behind the gates with many others in the dust of a noisy helicopter departure.

Three years later, Vietnam is celebrating its reunification and the stage is transformed from a military base with camouflaged netting to a parade with bright, solid colors, synchronized marching and paper dragons.

Ranking among its uniformed soldiers is Thuy (Austin Ku), the rigid man Kim’s parents arranged for her to marry. But Kim’s parents died in the war and she promised herself to Chris. Thuy tracks down the Engineer (Raul Aranas) and uses him to find Kim. 

In one of the play’s most cherished scenes, Chris calls out Kim’s name in his sleep, but he’s lying next to his American wife, Ellen (Amanda Rose). Meanwhile, his oblivious Vietnamese bride holds on to hope of his eventual return. His two loves sing the stand-out emotional duet “I Still Believe” together, though worlds apart.

Complicating things further is that Kim has given birth to Chris’s child, for whom she’d take a life or give her own if it meant he’d have a better one. John, a fellow vet played by Nik Walker, now works to help orphaned children, the next generation of war victims, and finds out about little Tam. And so does the Engineer, who takes to the stage for a sensational song about his own quest for “The American Dream.”

The series of events that follows brings all these characters, and others, together in the flashy strip clubs, touristy hotels and dirty streets of Bangkok, leading up to the dramatic conclusion that follows the audience home.

This musical takes on the extremes of love and war, politics and poverty, complete with gun shots, fog machines, scantily clad women and strong language. And the Ogunquit Playhouse production pulls it all off.  

The Playhouse polls its audience each year before choosing its lineup for the following season. Last year, “Miss Saigon” was voted the number one performance people wanted to see, according to marketing director Cheryl Farley. They chose well, as the theater lives up to the musical’s high standards.

Prices range from $39 to $76.50. For a list of show times, visit www.ogunquitplayhouse.org. The Ogunquit Playhouse is at 10 Main St., Ogunquit, Maine, 207-646-5511.