Miss Saigon: Difference between revisions
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder]]:
* [[Accidental Marriage]]:
{{quote|'''Chris:''' ''It's pretty, but what does it mean?''
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'''Chris:''' *[[Double Take]]*
'''Kim:''' ''They didn't know what else to sing.''
'''Chris:''' ...''It's the prettiest thing I ever heard.''
* [[America Saves the Day]]: Subverted, hard. Even mocked [[In-Universe]] by Chris:
{{quote|'''Chris:''' ''Christ, I'm American, how could I fail to do good?''}}
* [[Anti-Villain]]: The Engineer. Sure, the antagonist role is filled more by Thuy, but he dies during the first act. Nonetheless, the Engineer is a scoundrel, but you can't help but like him. He's clearly an entrepreneur -- someone who would be a ''lot'' more comfortable in America than Vietnam. Furthermore, it appears that he's just as desperate to escape the poverty and violence of Vietnam as the girls he pimps out. His methods may be greedy and self-serving, but given his motives, it's hard to hate him completely. And he even manages to have a few [[Pet the Dog]] moments--in some versions of the ending, he's holding Tam
* [[Ascended Extra]]: In the initial London production, Ruthie Henshall was one of the nameless bar girls. Several years later, she was cast in the role of Ellen. In fact, many of the actresses playing the bar girls eventually took on the role of Kim or Ellen.
** Ellen and The Engineer's role are far more expanded than their counterparts in [[Madame Butterfly]].
* [[Asian Baby Mama]]
* [[Big No]]: Depending on how much [[Chewing the Scenery|scenery Chris wants to chew]].
** This actually happens twice. Once by Kim after she
* [[Catapult Nightmare]]: Chris bolts upright in bed after yet another bad dream about Kim. Depending on the actress, Kim herself often does this following her flashback to when she and Chris were separated during the fall of Saigon.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Done literally, twice, with Chris' gun - this actually follows the original "see a gun in the first act, fire it in the third" formula very well.
* [[Childhood Marriage Promise]]: The fact that this suddenly got overturned by [[Me Love You Long Time]] is a big part of what drove Thuy off the deep end.
* [[Counterpoint Duet]]: "I Still Believe"
* [[Crosscast Role]]: The role of Tam has also been played by girls.
* {{spoiler|[[Died in Your Arms Tonight]]: Kim dies in Chris' arms
* [[Downer Ending]]: It's based on an Opera, what were you expecting?
* [[Eagle Land]]: The Engineer's song
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The Engineer.
* [[Expy]]: Virtually every main character is a recreation of his/her counterpart in ''[[Madame Butterfly]]''.
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* [[Final Speech]]: Kim.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Present in the majority of the songs in the show, but it's Kim's song
* [[Heartwarming Orphan]]: Kim.
{{quote|'''Chris:''' ''She's no whore; you saw her too.
She's really more, like... The April moon.''
'''John''': ...[[Reaction Shot|The April fuckin' moon??]]
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Chris is said to have suffered one lasting a full year after
* [[He Who Must Not Be Heard]]: Tam does not speak or sing on stage.
* [[Hold Me]]:
** Kim and Chris to each other during the song "
** Kim to Chris at the end of the play.
* [[Honest John's Dealership]]: The Engineer.
* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Kim, kind of. She isn't presented as being particularly sexualized; in fact, her appeal to Chris seems to be more on the grounds of [[Virginity Makes You Stupid]].
{{quote|'''Kim:''' ''I'm seventeen, and I'm new here today
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But I know: [[Narm|I have a heart like the sea]]<br />
A million dreams are in me!''<br />
'''Chris:''' ''[[Love At First Sight|Good Jesus John who is she???]]''
* [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]]
* [[Ironic Echo]]: Kim's final line showed up previously when the two were pledging their love. In the song "Sun and Moon
* [["I Want" Song]]: "The Movie
* [[I Will Wait for You]]: Kim has pledged this to herself for Chris during the three years she spent without him.
* [[Large Ham]]: Come on, guys. It's a ''musical
* [[Last Kiss]]:
* [[Lovable Rogue]]: Sure, the Engineer is a scoundrel, but he's so charismatic that you can't help but like him.
* [[Lovable Traitor]]: If the Engineer isn't a [[Lovable Rogue]], he's probably this.
* [[Love Dodecahedron]]
* [[Mama Bear]]: Both Kim and Ellen, especially during their one meeting. Even though Ellen doesn't ''have'' kids yet.
* [[Me Love You Long Time]]: I think this one goes without saying.
* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: Thuy threatens this against Chris. Then ''Kim'' actually ''does it'' to him (granted, he ''was'' declaring his intention to
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: Kim does not actually win the "Miss Saigon" pageant.
** However, Gigi toasts Kim as the "real" Miss Saigon due to Kim and Chris falling in love and believing Kim will leave Saigon.
* [[Pieta Plagiarism]]: ''Twice'':
* [[Please Select New City Name]]: Saigon actually ''was'' renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Most of its residents don't call it that, though.
* [[Race Lift]]: Towards the end of the show's Broadway run, the role of Ellen, typically played by a white actress (specifically, a blonde or redhead) was cast with Margaret Ann Gates, who is Asian. Critics pointed out that this added a very interesting new dynamic to the show, as [[Replacement Goldfish|suddenly, instead of moving on with his life as he insisted that he had, it now seemed as though Chris married Ellen only because she reminded him of Kim]].
** The role of John was initially played by a white actor, but soon replaced with African-American ones.
* [[Recycled in Space|Recycled IN VIETNAM!]]
* [[Say My Name]]: KIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMM! During the fall of Saigon and at the end, which can be combined with a [[Big No]] depending on the actor.
* [[Sexophone]]: [[Lampshade Hanging]] within the musical itself.
* [[Sexy Discretion Shot]]: The lights begin to dim as Kim and Chris undress, then go out completely as they get into bed.
* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: Chris, as he often has nightmares of his time during the war. Also combined with his falling in love with Kim, of course.
** The lyrics of "Bui Doi" indicate John is pretty shaken up too, even if he's in better shape than Chris.
* [[Shoot the Money]]: Theater writer Peter Filichia wrote in the book ''Let's Put on a Musical!: How to Choose the Right Show for Your School'' that the probable reason the story is told out of sequence was so the show's big special effect -- the last helicopter taking off during the fall of Saigon -- could be saved for the second act.
* [[Subliminal Advertising]]: Look very closely at the helicopter logo: you can see the face of a woman in the slipstream. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Props]] go to the graphic designer, who was asked by Cameron Mackintosh to include the face of a woman somehow in the logo.
* [[Tragic Mulatto]]: Kim is trying to prevent her son from becoming this, knowing full well that he will be shunned because he's the half-white illegitimate son of an American GI. Indeed, the fact that her cousin Thuy tried to KILL the boy demonstrates how rampant the feelings of contempt towards such children are.
** Even The Engineer might count as this. One wonders if he may have had the chance to be more than a pimp had ''he'' not been the illegitimate son of a prostitute and her Frenchman customer.
* [[The Vietnam War]]
* [[Villain Song]]: Basically anything The Engineer sings. Ironically, [[Anti-Villain|he's not really villainous]], just... <s>avaricious</s> a little too entrepeneurial for his own good (not to mention being involved in the prostitution business
* [[Yellowface]]: In the original West End (London) debut, the Engineer was played by white actor ''Jonathan Pryce''. This was ''[[wikipedia:Miss Saigon#Controversy|extremely controversial]]'', but it didn't stop him from winning a Tony Award for his performance.
** It was also counter-argued that the Engineer is Eurasian (half-Vietnamese and half-French).
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