History YMMV / MissSaigon

* WTHCastingAgency: Given it's not always the easiest process getting West End actors over to Broadway, some questioned the decision to make that move for Alistair Brammer as Chris in the revival, as he was neither a big name nor giving a particularly well received performance, unlike fellow leads Eva Noblezada and Jon Jon Briones, who weren't famous, but had been acclaimed for their work in London.

** As noted in the revival, the new characterization of Thuy is much more sympathetic than the original, for good reason. Kim is explicitly the only family Thuy has left after a war he's been fighting in, so it's easy to wonder if his DisproportionateRetribution of trying to kill Tam might be because like Chris, he could easily be suffering unknown/untreated PTSD and making terrible decisions because of it. But thanks to the original story's racism, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Thuy didn't get any sympathy for it.]]
** Asian-Americans have also noted that Thuy is suffering a major case of being the DesignatedVillain since [[MortonsFork none of his choices are actually "good."]] From his perspective, his fiancee got forced into prostitution and had sex with an American soldier, and after the Fall of Saigon, she waits a whole year naively thinking that Chris is COMING BACK FOR HER, so he is most likely trying to tell her that ThisIsReality and [[CaptainObvious there are plenty of half-white and fatherless children running around already.]] When Thuy tries to separate Kim from her "true love," he's seen as an uptight, repressed Asian stereotype... but if he [[DefiledForever rejected her as "damaged goods,"]] it's likely that the writers would ''still'' have portrayed him as an uptight and repressed Asian stereotype, just for different reasons.
* AuthorsSavingThrow: In relation to the opera it's based on. While this show has also been criticized for troublesome stereotypes, it's ending has been regarded as an improvement. Originally [[spoiler: the equivalent of Kim kills herself because she can't be with her love.]] Here the action makes her seem like less of a lovetruck idiot, as [[spoiler: she still commits suicide, but here she does so because her child is initially not accepted by Chris and Ellen. By killing herself, she's really making a HeroicSacrifice to ensure the take in Tam will have to be taken in by his father and stepmother.]]

** Asian-Americans have also noted that Thuy is suffering a major case of being the DesignatedVillain since [[MortonsFork none of his choices are actually "good."]] From his perspective, his fiancee got forced into prostitution and had sex with an American soldier, and after the Fall of Saigon, she waits a whole year naively thinking that Chris is COMING BACK FOR HER. The audience doesn't like it when Thuy tries to separate Kim from her "true love," and he's seen as an uptight, repressed Asian stereotype... but if he [[DefiledForever rejected her as "damaged goods,"]] people would ''still'' call him an uptight and repressed Asian stereotype, just for different reasons.

** As noted in the revival, the new characterization of Thuy is much more sympathetic than the original, for good reason. Kim is explicitly the only family Thuy has left after a war he's been fighting in, so it's easy to wonder if his DisproportionateRetribution of trying to kill Tam might be because [[NotSoDifferent like Chris, he could easily be suffering unknown/untreated PTSD and making terrible decisions because of it.]] But thanks to the original story's racism, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Thuy didn't get any sympathy for it.]]

* CantUnHearIt: Lea Salonga as Kim. Helped by how many times she reprised the role over the years even when she was in her thirties.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Engineer is shameless and skeevy, but his charm is undeniable.
** John, to a degree, for going through the most amount of character development. He's quite the jerk in the opening bar scene and a cold pragmatist during the rest of Act One (and "''The Fall of Saigon''"), whereas by Act Two he's working hard to help the bui-doi children, shows a great deal of kindness and sympathy towards Kim and (still pragmatic as ever) objects a great deal to [[spoiler:Chris and Ellen's carefree attitude towards solving the Tam/Kim situation by simply providing monetary support]]. He's basically the moral compass of the second act.

* JustHereForGodzilla: The makers of the musical realised early on that the helicopter sequence was a huge selling point, so much so that the helicopter is the musical's logo on posters and promotional material.

** The character of Chris. A good actor will usually be able to avert this but with a bad actor this will almost certainly happen.

* WTHCastingAgency: Given it's not always the easiest process getting West End actors over to Broadway, some questioned the decision to make that move for Alistair Brammer as Chris in the revival, as he was neither a big name or giving a particularly acclaimed performance.

* AmericansHateTingle: People on both sides of the war (refugees/immigrants and mainlanders) have criticized the show. Most of the criticism revolves around the portrayal of Vietnam being a WretchedHive, the sexism, and racism (Orientalism). Refugees and immigrants dislike the [[https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/04/13/i-am-miss-saigon-and-i-hate-it/ exploitation]] of their personal and communal trauma. Mainlanders object to the portrayal of the communists as a [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters sweeping, evil army]] (for example, the comparison of Ho Chi Minh [[note]] considered a national hero in mainland Vietnam[[/note]] to the [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]] during "Morning of the Dragon"). It's also plagued with an extensive case of CriticalResearchFailure regarding the Vietnamese culture and language, as well as allegations of InterchangeableAsianCultures in the lack of Vietnamese actors in principal roles (the original Broadway/West End Engineer, Jonathan Pryce, is a white man wearing {{Yellowface}} to play an Eurasian character, and the most notable principal Kims have been Filipinas Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada).

** Despite, or perhaps even aided by his controversial casting, Creator/JonathonPryce certainly made his mark on The Engineer as well.

* AwardSnub: The original production failing to win Best Musical (though it did garner acting awards for Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce) and the revival not winning for Best Revival or anything else.

** Having communist guerrilas [[AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats parading in straw hats]], in addition to everything that trope implies, furthers the narration of the war as "Vietnamese peasants vs American soldiers" which is an oversimplification.[[note]]This can be understood as how the Engineer, an urban Saigoner, sees the communist troops army advancing from rural areas towards Saigon during the war[[/note]] The more realistic headgear would be the the boonie hat which would appear eerily familiar to people who witnessed actual Vietnamese military parades. Compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v277rUgqiLs the actual victorious march in 1975]].

** Kim's "''I have a heart like the sea/ A million dreams are in me''," bit falls squarely into this territory, although most soldiers but Chris seem to realize it.

* CantUnhearIt: Lea Salonga as Kim. Helped by how many times she reprised the role over the years even when she was in her thirties.

* AmericansHateTingle: People on both sides of the war (refugees/immigrants and mainlanders) have criticized the show. Most of the criticism revolves around the portrayal of Vietnam being a WretchedHive, the sexism, and racism (Orientalism). Refugees and immigrants dislike the [[https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/04/13/i-am-miss-saigon-and-i-hate-it/ exploitation]] of their personal and communal trauma. Mainlanders object to the portrayal of the communists as a [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters sweeping, evil army]] (for example, the comparison of Ho Chi Minh [[note]] considered a national hero in mainland Vietnam[[/note]] to the [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]] during "Morning of the Dragon"). It's also plagued with an extensive case of CriticalResearchFailure regarding the Vietnamese culture and language, as well as allegations of InterchangeableAsianCultures in the lack of Vietnamese actors in principal roles (the original Broadway/West End Engineer, Jonathan Pryce, is a white man wearing {{Yellowface}} to play an Eurasian character, and the most notable principal Kims have been Filipinas Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada.)

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Did Thuy want to kill Tam because of who his father was...or because Tam was [[IfICantHaveYou a reminder that someone else took Kim's virginity?]]

** The parade continues with ribbon waver wearing half masks of a man, presumably Ho Chi Minh. ''This just isn't how Vietnamese pay homage to venerated national heroes'' and it's hard to believe this is a triumphant march rather than a mockery act.

* MisaimedMarketing: This can probably be said about the decision to allow amateur theatre groups and ''high schools'' to stage their own versions of the musical.
* {{Narm}}: The character of Chris. A good actor will usually be able to avert this but with a bad actor this will almost certainly happen.

* NarmCharm: The musical can fall prey to this trope yet it's still utterly fantastic, watchable and will probably have you sobbing at the end. Chris is sometimes the most/only narmy one, especially during the song "Why God, Why?"; even its title sounds narmy.
** It also depends on how well he can pull off that BigNo at the end. Some actors are terrific, others have you stifling your laughter or even cringing.

* {{Alternate Aesop Interpretation}}: The entire musical can be seen as a metaphor for the relations between the West and developing countries. The West (Chris) promises a better life to the developing countries (Kim and the Engineer) only to end up abandoning them (either willfully or after being forced to do so).

** The phrase "bụi đời" means vagrants, street children, or simply homeless people/homelessness. Act 2 has the song "Bui Doi", in which it's used as a specific term for the Amerasian children of Vietnamese mothers and American GI fathers. Due to PopculturalOsmosis, the term Bui-Doi is now in common use to refer to these children but only in the West. It never had any racial connotations in Vietnamese - the equivalents for what the lyricists meant are ''con lai'' ("mixed-race child(ren)"), ''người lai'' (mixed-race adult(s)), or, specifically, "Mỹ lai" ("American mixed-race").

* CriticalResearchFailure: An interesting example, the Vietnamese phrase "bụi đời" means vagrants or street children. In the song ''Bui-Doi'' in Act 2, the lyricists have mistaken its meaning and are using it as a specific term for the Amerasian children of Vietnamese mothers and American GI fathers. Due to PopculturalOsmosis of ''Miss Saigon'' in the west, the term Bui-Doi is now in common use to refer to these children, but it is not used in that way in Vietnam.

* ValueDissonance: While the play's portrayals of Southern Vietnamese is sympathetic and getting visually more accurate in later runs, its depiction of the victorious communists indulges in great artistic license:

* UnfortunateImplications: While the play's portrayals of Southern Vietnamese is sympathetic and getting visually more accurate in later runs, its depiction of the victorious communists indulges in great artistic license:

** The parade has performers wearing masks that loosely resemble Uncle Sam. However, under low light, those masks, which have attached ribbons and just a front instead of a full top hat, from afar look more like a caricature version of the traditional head gear of [[https://www.alotrip.com/about-vietnam-holiday/hung-king-festival-vietnam Hung Kings]], the mythical ancestors revered by both sides of Vietnam during the war.[[note]]Moreover, Uncle Sam as a personification of the U.S. is only understood by people who are somewhat familiar with American culture. The American villains in Vietnamese wartime propaganda are usually the POTUS, McNamara, or soldiers in general while the role of sympathetic American citizens would be played up as much as possible.[[/note]]

* SignatureScene: The helicopter.