3 Filipinos to join the cast of ‘Miss Saigon’ in UK
Miss Saigon will be back on the road this July to tour around United Kingdom and Ireland. This time, they will be bringing with them three Filipinos who will be playing iconic roles in the famed Broadway musical.
Image grabbed from Inquirer.net and Gerald Santos’ Instagram page.
Theater actor Red Concepcion will be playing the role of The Engineer, a half-Vietnamese, half-french man who owns “Dreamland,” the bar where Kim and Chris first met. Gerald Santos will be playing Thuy, a Vietnamese army officer who is also Kim’s cousin and betrothed. Actress Joreen Bautista is also set to play the lead role of Kim in the play, taking turns with Sooha Kim.
Concepcion has already started making names in the theater world, having already played Adam/Felicia in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Tommy in The Normal Heart, and Alan Strang in Equus.
Image grabbed from Broadway.com
Santos, on the other hand, was the youngest winner of Pinoy Pop Superstar, a singing contest in the country. Aside from winning awards in the country, he has also released 5 studio albums since his victory in the said contest.
Lea Salonga, who was the first to play the role of Kim, congratulated the actors in a Facebook post she released last week. “The cat’s out of the bag!!! Congratulations to Red Concepcion, Gerald Santos, and Joreen Bautista!!! Also, wooot to C Rey Marbella and Ela Lisondra!”
Image grabbed from Broadway.com
The current Broadway lineup of Miss Saigon also features three Filipinos who are taking over major roles in the musical: Eva Noblezada, Jon Jon Briones, and Rachelle Ann Go, who plays Kim, The Engineer, and Gigi Van Tranh, respectively.
Miss Saigon tells the epic love story between an American soldier and a young Vietnamese woman in the time of the Vietnam War. Directed by Laurence Connor, it also features the music of Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics of Richard Maltby Jr and Alain Boublin.
The UK run of the tour will start on July 1 at the Curve Leicester in England.
Images taken from: inquirer.net, instagram.com, broadway.com.
Sources: broadwayworld.com, inquirer.net, broadway.com
