History Theatre / MissSaigon

* SayMyName: "KIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMM!" During the fall of Saigon and at the end, which can be combined with a BigNo depending on the actor.

* {{Yellowface}}: In the original West End (London) debut, the Engineer was played by white actor ''Jonathan Pryce''. This was ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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).

Act Two opens in America, where John is deeply involved in an American charity organization that helps with the aftermath of the war, specifically, linking American fathers to their "bui doi" (interracial) children. He tells Chris about Kim and Tam, which leaves Chris in the uncomfortable position of telling Ellen exactly why he wakes up yelling Kim's name sometimes; the three travel to Bangkok for some sort of family reunion. (Meanwhile, we have a {{Flashback}} to the Fall Of Saigon, where it turns out that Chris did his darnedest to get Kim out with him; in fact, John had to punch him to keep him from not boarding the chopper.) Kim goes to Chris' hotel room but finds only Ellen, who is not unsympathetic to her plight but doesn't want to be second fiddle to one of her husband's byblows. Ellen issues Chris an ultimatum - [[TriangRelations her or me]] - and Chris agrees to limit his contact with Kim and Tam to monetary support sent from America. Of course, Kim isn't particularly happy about this, so once the Americans are at her front door, she takes the only action left her: [[spoiler:she shoots and kills herself, leaving Tam's fate entirely in American hands]]. The curtain falls.

--> '''Chris:''' ''It's pretty, but what does it mean?''\\
'''Kim:''' ''It's what all the girls sing at weddings.''\\
'''Chris:''' *DoubleTake*\\
'''Kim:''' ''They didn't know what else to sing.''\\
'''Chris:''' ...''It's the prettiest thing I ever heard.''

--> '''Chris:''' ''Christ, I'm American, how could I fail to do good?''

* AscendedExtra: 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 MadameButterfly.

*** Three times in some versions, if you count Chris [[spoiler: flying away in the chopper shouting, "KIM!"]]
* BlatantLies: "The Ambassador won't leave until everyone's out!"

* CharacterDevelopment: John seems like an apathetic callous asshole (verging on SociopathicSoldier) in act one, but once he gets back to the US he deeply regrets his actions -and by extension the entire USA's actions- in the war, becomes involved in charity organizations as a result, and effectively becomes TheAtoner.

* CutSong: "Too Much For One Heart", sung by Kim. Lea Salonga still keeps it in her concert repertoire [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome and with good reason]]. There is also the finale "The Sacred Bird", heard initially when the show opened in London, but since pared down.

* [[spoiler: {{Died In Your Arms Tonight}}: Thuy dies in Kim's arms and she dies in Chris' arms.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Present in the majority of the songs in the show but it's Kim's song [[spoiler: "I'd Give My Life For You"]] that really takes this trope and hits the audience over the head with it, [[spoiler:as it turns out this is exactly what she ends up doing.]]
** One ''extremely'' subtle example from Chris when John tells him that Kim is alive:
--> '''Chris''': [[spoiler: You don't know, John, these nightmares, the things that I've seen / I have seen her face burned, '''seen her shot with my gun.''']]
** Guess what Kim uses to [[spoiler: kill herself with.]]
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Kim is trying to prevent her son from experiencing 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.

* HeWhoMustNotBeHeard: Tam is a silent role.

--> '''Chris:''' ''She's no whore; you saw her too.\\
She's really more, like... The April moon.''

* HeroicSacrifice: Although she's devastated to see that Chris has moved on, Kim almost instantly puts her feelings aside in order to beg Ellen to take Tam to America so that he can have a better life, [[spoiler: then kills herself to ensure this]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: The Engineer

-->'''Kim:''' ''I'm seventeen, and I'm new here today\\

A million dreams are in me!''\\
'''Chris:''' ''[[LoveAtFirstSight Good Jesus John who is she???]]''

* IWantSong: "The Movie In My Mind" and "The American Dream."

* {{Last Kiss}}: [[spoiler: Chris and Kim kiss one last time leading to the {{Ironic Echo}} quoted above]]

* LoveDodecahedron, or perhaps two instances of {{Love Triangle}}s.

* NonindicativeName: 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.

* RaceLift: 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, resulting in a likely example of the ReplacementGoldfish trope--it now seemed as though Chris married Ellen only because she reminded him of Kim, rather than to move on with his life.

* [[RecycledINSPACE Recycled IN VIETNAM!]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: Chris, as he often has nightmares of his time during the war. Also combined with his falling in love with Kim, of course.

* TheVietnamWar
* VillainSong: "The American Dream" is The Engineer's big villain song, though almost every other bit part he sings can count too. The ironic thing is that The Engineer isn't an antagonistic character, he's just a sleazy businessman.

* {{Yellowface}}: In the original West End (London) debut, the Engineer was played by white actor ''Jonathan Pryce''. This was ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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).

* BoomerangBugot: The Engineer refers to Tam as a "half-breed brat" even though he himself is half French.

* CharacterDevelopment: John seems like an aoathetic callous asshole (verging on SociopathicSoldier) in act one, but once he gets back to the US he deeply regrets his actions -and by extension the entire USA's actions- in the war, becomes involved in charity organizations as a result, and effectively becomes TheAtoner.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Pinkerton, Chris's counterpart in ''Madame Butterfly'', was a massive {{Jerkass}}. Chris in this musical is presented as more of a NiceGuy. Kim is also a massive upgrade over Cio-Cio San, losing the naivete and gaining the iron will that her counterpart lacked. The writers seem to have reasoned that Vietnam was such a tragedy on its own that they can offload all of the fault onto it. They're right -- nobody in the cast (save Thuy) is a bad person, and they're all doing the best they can, and it just ''doesn't mater'' because this horrible war and its horrible end just came in like a force of nature and rolled over them all. This gives the tragedy a truly nasty sting that was lacking from the source material.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Pinkerton, Chris's counterpart in ''Madame Butterfly'', was a massive {{Jerkass}}. Chris in this musical is presented as more of a NiceGuy.

* CrosscastRole: Tam. He has no lines, so it scarcely matters.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Kim, in name only. She isn't presented as being particularly sexualized; in fact, her appeal to Chris seems to be more on the grounds of VirginityMakesYouStupid.

* RaceLift: 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 [[ReplacementGoldfish 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.]]

* [[spoiler: {{Died In Your Arms Tonight}}: Kim dies in Chris' arms.]]

** 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.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Pay attention to the music that plays just before Kim [[spoiler: fatally shoots herself.]] It's the same music from Act I when she sings [[spoiler: "I have had my fill of pain, I will not go back again, '''I would rather die.''']]

* HalfBreedDiscrimination: 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.

--> Staring at you with open eyes

* RaceLift: 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 [[ReplacementGoldfish 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]]

* VillainSong: "The American Dream" is The Engineer's big villain song, though almost every other bit part he sings can count too. The ironic thing is that The Engineer isn't an antagonical character, he's just a sleazy businessman.

* SayMyName: KIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMM! During the fall of Saigon and at the end, which can be combined with a BigNo depending on the actor.

* AntiVillain: 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 PetTheDog moments--in some versions of the ending, he's holding Tam [[spoiler: as the fatal gunshot rings out and instantly dives to protect him, then just as quickly shields him from seeing his mother's body]]

* VillainSong: "The American Dream" is The Engineer's big villain song, though almost every other bit part he sings can count too. The ironic thing is that The Engineer isn't an antagonical character, he's just a slezy businessman.

* LargeHam: Come on, guys. It's a ''musical.'' (As BridgetJones puts it, "Strange men standing around with their legs apart bellowing songs straight ahead.")

The date is April 1975. A group of American Marines are out for one last night on the town, since they will be pulling out of Saigon soon. They visit a sleazy nightclub called "Dreamland" run by an HonestJohn known as '''[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The Engineer]]''', and populated by a number of hookers, including '''Kim''', a 17-year-old girl who would probably be TheIngenue if it weren't for her profession. She catches the eye of '''Chris''', one of the marines; his friend '''John''' makes the arrangements, and the OfficialCouple get together. However, after finding out that Kim is a HeartwarmingOrphan, [[PetTheDog Chris offers to take her back to America with him]]. Of course, this is easier said than done, since the [[CommieLand Vietcong]] are going to be moving in on Saigon in a matter of days. Even better, Kim and Chris' [[FourthDateMarriage Fourth-Date]] AccidentalMarriage is interrupted by '''Thuy''', joint victim of a ChildhoodMarriagePromise their parents made. Of course, Kim's parents are dead, [[MeLoveYouLongtime she loves Chris long time]], ''and'' Thuy has gone over to the DirtyCommunists, so Kim's not going for it. Thuy promises revenge and storms out again.

* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: The fact that this suddenly got overturned by MeLoveYouLongTime is a big part of what drove Thuy off the deep end.

* MeLoveYouLongTime: this one goes without saying.

* HoldMe:
** Kim and Chris to each other during the song "The Last Night Of The World". "So stay with me and hold me tight. . ."
** Kim to Chris at the end of the play.