Chris (Eric Kunze), an American GI, and Kim (Jennifer Paz), a Vietnamese bargirl, fall in love with tragic circumstances in the musical ‘Miss Saigon,’ opening next week at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. (photo by Alysa Brennan)

“Miss Saigon,” the tragic love story of an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl who fall in love during the Vietnam war, opens Wednesday, April 30, with previews at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. The opening day of previews also marks the 33rd anniversary of the “Fall of Saigon,” which took place on April 30, 1975.

Chris, the soldier, and Kim, the prostitute, fall in love after she is bought for Chris by his friend John, just weeks before the Fall of Saigon, but they are soon separated during the historic event.

“Kim loses her family and is drawn into the seedy bar scene by the Engineer (who runs the bar),” said Jennifer Paz who plays Kim. “The first night they meet, Chris at this point is frustrated at war and John buys Kim for him to cheer him up but they find a true connection, they fall in love. Tragically they get separated after three weeks of bliss.”

Thinking she’s dead, Chris returns to America where he gets married to Ellen. But Kim is very much alive and pregnant.

Eric Kunze, who plays Chris, added, “That’s where Chris is at, probably second or third tour and sees that nothing is being improved, there are terrible things happening. He wants to get the hell out and then he finds this amazing energy and beauty. That’s what he’s looking for.”

While Kim goes through many hardships to escape her homeland, Chris’ war buddy, John, discovers that she is still alive and the three - John, Chris and Ellen - travel to Bangkok to find her. But as Ellen is in the dark for years about her husband’s past relationship, Kim is unaware that Chris is married.

“I’m faced with, who is this man, I don’t know anything about him,” said Misty Cotton who plays Ellen. “He has those nightmares, all this stuff happening, and there’s this girl who clearly is in love with him. This is clearly bigger than what he ever led me to believe. She’s questioning her relationship with him and who this person is and where he fits in her life.”

While Paz, Kunze and Cotton are veterans of “Miss Saigon” — each reprises their role from the first national tour production, and Kunze and Cotton also played Chris and Ellen on Broadway — it’s stage veteran Kevin Bailey’s first turn as the Engineer in “Miss Saigon.”

Bailey calls the Engineer a “bit of a snake oil salesman” and an “ultimate con artist” whose “one desire is to simply to make his life better and get out” and escape his lousy life.

“He was a human scavenger from the get go,” Bailey said. “He says in one of his opening lyrics (‘The American Dream’) his job as a child was basically hustling up deals for his mother so she could make a score. He was his mother’s pimp in one sense, simply to make money. He was brought up in this very seedy underworld life and it’s the only life he knows. It’s at a point where we meet him at the opening of the play. He’s running in his mind the best club in all of Saigon, trashy as it is.”

John, played by Harrison White, who introduced Chris and Kim for selfish reasons during the war, had a change of heart after witnessing the aftermath.

“During the war he was like every guy during the war,” White said. “He didn’t care much about the people he was surrounded by until after the war. He saw what the devastation of the war had done to Vietnam and the children that were born out of wedlock in Vietnam. Then his fight becomes trying to do something about making those connections for family and for those children.”
Complicating Kim’s world is her cousin Thuy, who was betrothed to Kim at a very young age, a common occurrence “since it is the culture,” according to Bonifacio Deoso Jr., who has played Thuy more than 1,500 times including on Broadway and the second national tour. Deoso said not only is it challenging to keep it “fresh” after so many performances but also hitting the “whole mess of high notes” vocally.

“But what makes that easy too, ironically, is the emotions that propel this character into singing these powerful tones,” he said. “I remember Claude-Michel (Schonberg) walking into my dressing room, he happened to be one of the composers, he goes ‘Well, Bones, it shouldn’t be something that you should be thinking about when you sing because the emotions are so high and so powerful that they naturally come out.’ He was so right.”

“Miss Saigon” opens with previews that run through Friday, May 2. Opening night is Saturday, May 3, with an 8 p.m. show. Closing night is Sunday, May 18, and matinees will take place Saturdays and Sundays.

The Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center is located at 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd. in Redondo Beach.

For more information, visit www.civiclightopera.com or call (310) 372-4477.