Miss Saigon/Trivia


 * Cut Song:
 * "Too Much For One Heart" sung by Kim. Lea Salonga still keeps it in her concert repertoire and with good reason. There is also the finale "The Sacred Bird", heard initially when the show opened in London, but since pared down.
 * Ellen's solo "Her or Me", heard on the London Cast Recording, is modified into "Now That I've Seen Her" in all others, basically by replacing the first line with the second.
 * Inverted in the London revival, as Ellen has been given a new song "Maybe" intended to generate more sympathy for her, an often reviled character.
 * Fake Nationality: The Filipino Lea Salonga played the Vietnamese Kim.
 * In predominantly white countries such as Hungary or Norway, Kim has been played by a WHITE actress wearing a black wig.
 * Fake Mixed Race: This also goes for Jonathan Pryce.
 * Fake American: Basically everyone playing an American in any of the non-US productions.
 * Star-Making Role: This is what catapulted a then 17-year-old Lea Salonga into Broadway stardom. She would return to the role off and on for more than fifteen years.
 * Stunt Casting/Book Ends: The show began and ended its Broadway run with Lea Salonga in the title role.
 * What Could Have Been: There was nearly no Broadway production because the Actor's Equity Association originally refused to let Jonathan Pryce reprise his role of the Engineer since he was a Caucasian playing an Asian role and they though that would offend the Asian-American community. However, it was counter-argued that the Engineer is Eurasian (half-Vietnamese and half-French), and that Pryce was being discriminated because he is Caucasian. Cameron Mackintosh threatened to cancel the Broadway production altogether and after getting support for Pryce, Equity relented and the production went on. (Source: The Other Wiki.) Now at days of course the role almost always go to someone of Asian descent.