[pmcoura]

if u guys didn't think a high school could do miss saigon school edition... tell me if you think this school can't do it.
http://lvacademytheatre.org/gallery0405.html

tell what you think

it's been two weeks of the national school edition premiere and it's been great. i'm part of the cast and we've sold out almost every show.

[The Very Angry Woman]

[Jordan]

Well there you go. Oooodles of money. I hope the students have books etc.

[Eponine93]

What are the changes in the school edition from the regular edition?

[pmcoura]

the show is still pretty revealing as in the prostitutes. the whole "if you want to die in bed" song was cut off and there is no cussing but that's pretty much it. Nobody under 6 is allowed, and nobody under 12 is recommended. we have a helicopter, and a pink cadillac for american dream. 3 of the original writers of saigon helped us during rehersals which was a great experience and the head of the MTI department came to see one of our shows to make sure it was running smoothly and that all their cuts made sense.

our main reviewer has not come out yet but here's a few articles before the show started and the academy's season page...

http://www.knpr.org/psa/detailNEW.cfm?EventID=7588

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-02-Fri-2007/weekly/12231423.html

http://www.viewnews.com/2007/VIEW-Feb-02-Fri-2007/Henderson/12210320.html

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/02/01/ae/stage/iq_12275156.txt

http://www.lvacademytheatre.org/season.html

[Jordan]

[Jordan]

Sorry, I just figured it out. You joined this site to push your show. Damn I feel so foolish

All the websites you mention, there's not an *actual review* but plenty of 'press release' crap. Like I said previously; I sincerely hope that every student in your school has the right text books and nobody goes without.

[pmcoura]

i was talking about people viewing the show not people in the cast. obviously there ain't no 7 year olds in the cast...
that would be pretty idiotic.

yea, the review hasn't come out also. those were all before the show started like i mentioned.

[The Very Angry Woman]

[pmcoura]

tam is actually a special guest. its actually a little girl with a boy bowl-haircut. she's the daughter of an original cast member.

[bry yoyo]

1) Our school isn't any school. We happen to have one of the best high school programs in the country. MTI loves us. Ask them.
2) NO, Tam is not a freshman. We're not retarded. We know how to run a play.
3) Working on crew for Miss Saigon has been an incredibly uplifting and educational experience. Being the first high school to do this show on this scale and in this version, and being a production assistant for it has been interesting. The MTI associates never stopped coming down, the emails never stopped being sent, we have cut and changed so much in so little time but our theatre department is proud to say that we have set the standard for the high school edition.
4) Anyone who thinks we can't do it, or more pessimistically that it can't be done, should see the show.

The technicalities are the most complex we've ever done at our school. The maturity it has taken to not make a mockery of this gripping and psychologically complex story has been overwhelming.

The show has turned out very good and very moving. We're proud to take ownership of the High School Edition for the first time.

Las Vegas Academy, could and did do Miss Saigon.


And we had a helicopter, and a pretty pink car. =]



<3 Bry.

[Jordan]

[pmcoura]

[pmcoura]

[LesD]

[DatruKatalyst]

Bah. The first non-professional Miss Saigon production was in Michigan. You are in Las Vegas?

But kudos nonetheless.

But bah! What's the big deal, my high school is doing Miss Saigon this April. And we get to keep all the songs. =] But the racial slurs are replaced. And we get the helicopter too!

[pmcoura]

[Jordan]

BTW pmcoura there's a whole rest of the board for your consideration here. Your activities so far have been only to promote your show. Why not stay a while and share and learn on the threads of the rest of the board.

[Bubble Tea]

I saw Miss Saigon at LVA and it was wonderful. <3

MISS SAIGON = MAJOR LOVE.
=D!!!
I swear, if it were possible for me to watch it for the very first time again, I'd had the LVA production be it. ='D!!
I WOULD'VE CRIED IF IT WERE!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, my goodness.

Veronica Domingo was like... Lea Salonga incarnate, she was amazing.

Joey DeBenedetto is the BEST CHRIS, even if his voice when all crackly in certain moments, BUT IT WAS OKAY!

MATT TAKAHASHI HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST ENGINEER IN THE WORLD. He should get some kind of award for being awesome. >D!
He's such a funny dirty pimp.
and he fell off the Cadillac from dancing so much and recovered quickly! xD

A lot of people I knew were in the ensemble, so the whole time, I was like, "OMG PHILIP, OMG JA'NEL, OMG THAT ONE KID, OMFG SO MANY PEOPLE! 8D!"
and they were wearing booty shorts!! xD

xDD
Everyone thought it was funny that Kim and Chris had like this... huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge height difference. Joey had to...pick Veronica up when they did the kissykissy scene. xD
The whole audience was snickering and giggling!

Honestly, though, Thuy... he was kinda... eh. He had his good moments, but he didn't seem to have that exact Thuy sound, and some parts, I felt like he was off? key... It was as if he screamed in his audition and got in that way. But his screaming parts were good. xD But yeah, in general, he was good. =]

Tam was a little girl. That threw me off so much.



But then I heard they were having techincal difficulties during the closing night of the show! Like how the helicopter didn't land!
(I watched Miss Saigon on the second Friday showing by the way)


da da da...
Veronica as Kim on TV! =D
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6024802

[The Pirate King]

[Jenko]

there's stuff i'd like to say but i'd probably get a warning for it....

[Bubble Tea]

[Jordan]

[kitty17794]

Why is everyone so mean here? I just don't get it. pmcoura and Bubble Tea are just excited about what looks like an AMAZING show, judging by that video clip there. I wish I could see it. Looks FANTASTIC, you guys!

[Jenko]

[Chemical_Red]

[The Very Angry Woman]

[pmcoura]

ok...
i'm not trying to promote the freaking show. it's over. it's been over. and we like sold out every night almost anyway. like me promiting my show would seriously get people in this site from across the country to come see it. i'm just trying to show some ignorant people that a high school can put on a great show, and if u didn't see it don't complain about it because u don't know anything about it.

and besides. most of the soldiers in saigon were drafted young. the whores were young. i don't see why getting older people to do it makes it more realistic. not all teenagers are imature. if we weren't serious about putting on shows in our high school we wouldn't have people auditioning just to make it to our theatre department or technical department and then auditioning again and again for any show they want to try out for.

[Jordan]

Right, now you've found your place in the world again, why not visit the rest of our board?

[Elin]

Tam was a little girl. That threw me off so much.

Tam IS usually played by a little girl.

[Jordan]

[The Very Angry Woman]

[Bubble Tea]

hmm.
there was one song in the school edition that I've never heard of before: Paper Dragons.

Does anyone know where I can find this song???

I also noticed that they took out "If You Want to Die in Bed" in the school editition.

[The Very Angry Woman]

[Celeste_SM]

Paper Dragons is the small section with Kim and the Engineer between Chris and Ellen and American Dream.

"In all my dreams he has our baby, and he's teaching him to fly, paper dragons in the sky."

I think it's on the full symphonic London recording.

[The Pirate King]

On a related note, a high school not too far from mine (West Aurora High School, Illinois) is performing Miss Saigon on May 3, 4, and 5. It's being advertised as the fifth school production in the US, and the first in Illinois.

I'm going even if only for historic value; I don't think I'll have a chance to see the show otherwise anytime soon. Maybe I'll post a review.

[Bubble Tea]

[Celeste_SM]

[drewkingsbury]

OMG...did you see their beauty and the beast? and their ragtime? and their JEKYLL ANJD HYDE?!? I cannot wait to see the miss saigon pictures...These productions look simply amazing..... I'm so envious of your school.....

[kitty17794]

Yea, I really want to see those Miss Saigon pictures. When can we expect them to be updated?

[Bubble Tea]

Thank you everyone for answering my questions.

The Miss Saigon pictures for my school will be up...sometime next school year, unfortunately. But once yearbook comes around sometime this May, I can scan the pictures up for you since it will be in the yearbook.

Next year, I think we'll either be doing Aladdin or Sweeny Todd.

[bripct]

Some comments on the High School Edition of Miss Saigon....

Frank Scott Bunnell High School in Stratford, CT just concluded their four show run of Miss Saigon on May 13, 2007. I believe they were only the sixth high school in the U.S. -- and the first in Connecticut -- to attempt the show. Having seen the touring company many years ago, I was skeptical they could "pull it off".

Opening night, the students were absolutely incredible! On some of the songs if you closed your eyes, you would think you were listening to the show soundtrack. The haunting musical score and the dramatic embassy scene was done to perfection.

Unlike typical shows, no one left early and the audience was completely involved in the show. When the lobby lights blinked at the end of intermission, the lobby cleared out in record time! Something special was happening that hadn't been seen before.

Audience tears flowed freely after the last scene. As the audience filed out of the auditorium in shock, you heard words like "amazing" and "incredible". Bunnell had truly "pulled it off" and the the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

The language and graphic nature of the show raised some eyebrows on opening night. But exposing a new generation of young people to the shows powerful anti-war message was far more important than watering down the dialog.

For a high school this is an incredibly challenging show. The students at Bunnell put in many hours - especially with set design and construction. The show is clearly NOT your typical high school musical. It needs a highly skilled, experienced -- and very committed -- theater program to stage it. Miss Saigon is dramatic arts at a level rarely seen in high schools.

[Bubble Tea]

drewkingsbury and kitty17794,

You still have to wait until next school year for our Miss Saigon pictures to be up. So far there is only one up on the website, which would be this.
(and some pictures I found here on the Las Vegas Review Journal.)

But if you really can't wait to see them, I just got my yearbook last week and I scanned the pictures. Sorry if the quality is kind of crappy, but it's the best that I could do for now:

Miss Saigon page 1
Miss Saigon page 2
Miss Saigon page 3
Miss Saigon page 4

Come and check back lvacademytheatre.org around September - December, and they might have the pictures up at that time.

(...you'll probably be seeing that Joey DeBenedetto kid on Broadway someday. He's starred a lot as the main character in most of our school productions, sheesh!)

[Quique]

^ Wow. That production looks nearly identical to the original full-scale one. Impressive. What was your budget? lol.

How the hell did you pull off the helicipter scene? Looks great.

[Bubble Tea]

^ According to what I heard from some of my techie friends, the budget for the show costed about $100,000-$120,000, I think. I could be wrong, I couldn't really remember what they said.

I think the set costed $12,000 to rent? Or was it $12,000 each?

We usually just have our tech majors build all the sets, but since the set for Miss Saigon is different from the other musicals, it would be very time consuming to have all of them build on time, especially for the statue, helicopter, and The Engineer's dream car.

Instead they rented all of the sets and costumes from the Fullerton Civic Light Opera.

The tickets for the show costed a bit more than the usual, $18 to pay off for the rents (our shows usually cost $15).


And for the helicopter scene?
They did it in our newly built theatre since it had the technology to pull of the helicopter scene, and they also hired some tech professionals from the Vegas hotel strip (the guys that do the tech for Cirque du Soleil) to help out with the whole teching for Miss Saigon.

Everything went well until the matinee showing and last performance night, something went wrong during the helicopter scene. The helicopter won't come down because one of the ropes got stuck or something like that, so Joey (Chris) had to improv on his role and jump down from the helicopter instead.

^ What I heard from the people that went and watched it on the last day. I went and watched it on the nights the helicopter was still working, lol =P

[Celeste_SM]

That's the same set and costume package we rented for our community theater production. It's a hefty chunk of change; your school must be quite wealthy! I'm impressed that you were able to deal with the transverse shades with a high school crew. Did a student also call the show?

[Bubble Tea]

lol no, we had one of our theatre teachers direct the whole production

[Holly]

You go to LVA!!!

I know a bunch of kids who go there Most of them are sophomores, I think...Shararah, Robyn, Julia, Aaron, Alex, Peyton...I can't think of last names right now, though, haha. And I think I'm forgetting someone...

[Bubble Tea]

[Holly]

No, I don't live near the school so I haven't seen any shows. The rest of us met at theatre geek camp, haha. I miss them something extreme, but I get to see most of them again in August.

[pmcoura]

http://lvacademytheatre.org/gallery0607.html

there's the pictures for saigon and the other shows in the season last year...[/i]

[Pounce]

You guys are amazing! That academy must have a big endowment. I see that you did Sweeney Todd and February it's CATS.

http://lvacademytheatre.org/season.html

I'd like to see that version of CATS because other than StEx, CATS is among the most difficult to do.

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

WOW! all I can say is that your production values are incredible! It must be so much fun to work in a environment like that.