'Why God? Why this face?
Why such beauty in this place?
I liked my mem'ries as they were
But now I'll leave rememb'ring her'
I have loved the music of Miss Saigon for as long as I can remember. I was still a teenager when I first saw a performance on the 1991 Tony's and went right out and bought the soundtrack. Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce were incredible, but I was especially taken by the powerful voices of Peter Polycarpou as John and Simon Bowman as Chris. I was especially moved by Bowman's tenor voice that cut right through me when he hit some powerful places with his voice. I never played Chris myself, but I did get the chance to sing a couple of the songs, (as John) while in a 'Salute to Broadway' show while in University.
I replayed the soundtrack over and over and finally saw the show on Broadway in the spring of 2000. Salonga had left, but had returned for the performance that I saw. I am not sure who played Chris in this production as there had been a few replacements since the original run. I have to say that although I loved the show, I loved listening to the soundtrack even more. There were pieces of the story created in my mind, a stage show was not able to replicate. That being said, I would love to hit New York again to see the incredibly hot, and immensely talented Alistair Brammer in the role of Chris.
Alistair certainly isn't new to the role, and has been playing Chris on the London stage for years. Yesterday, he and co-star Eva Maria Noblezada performed 'Last Night of the World' on the today show, and Andrew posted a link to the video from Playbill on his Twitter page.
Alistair's tenor voice cuts right through me, the same way I felt listening to the original soundtrack. After watching the video last night, I immediately headed to Amazon to order the blu-ray of the 20th anniversary performance at London's West End, with Alistair of course, in the role of Chris. Miss Saigon is back on Broadway for a limited run at the Broadway Theatre. Check out the shows official site HERE:
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