Miss Saigon Synopsis

It is a Friday night in Saigon, shortly before the fall of the city and the final withdrawal of the last of the American troops from Vietnam. At a sleazy after hours club called Dreamland, owned by a notorious Eurasian wheeler-dealer know as "The Engineer", Vietnamese bar-girls are preparing for the night's 'contest' which will see one of them win the title of Miss Saigon - and in turn become the prize in the evening's raffle. The Engineer is marshalling the proceedings, urging the girls to go out front and hustle for him and themselves. It is the only way they have to earn enough money to survive and maybe even get a passport out of the country before the city falls. tonight he is granting a debut to a young virgin, Kim, "fresh from the country"(OVERTURE/BACKSTAGE DREAMLAND).

The club is packed with American marines, civilians and South Vietnamese officars. Among them are two G.I's, Chris and John, out to get drunk, laid, or both. Chris sees Kim and is instantly taken by her. The contest is won by Gigi, and she is won in turn by one of the marines (THE HEAT IS ON).

As the action freezes on stage, Gigi is joined my all the other girls who fantisize about finding a G.I. who will take them away to their dream life in America, far from this sordid nightclub and far from the impending disaster which will fall in on the city when the North Vietnamese army reach Saigon (THE MOVIE IN MY MIND).

John tries to cheer Chris up by buying Kim's services for the night from the Engineer for his reluctant friend (THE TRANSACTION). After a tentative meeting they eventually dance together and Kim quickly takes Chris out of the club and into her tiny bare room (THE DANCE). Later that night, with Kim soundly asleep but the city still bustling outside the small window, Chris reflects on his confused feelings. He leaves some money for Kim, and goes out onto the street. There, he is accosted by locals who beg him to help them leave the country. He returns to the room, and, looking at Kim for the last time, realises that she will now forever be his best memory of the place (WHY GOD WHY).

Kim awakes as Chris is about to leave the room. She refuses the money Chris has left and goes to tell him exactly how she came to be here (THIS MONEY IS YOURS). Chris decides on the spot that he wants to spend his last days in saigon with her (SUN AND MOON).

The next day, Chris phones John to tell him his news: he's moving in with Kim, and they are going to spend the next 48 hours together. John is horrified; events have snowballed and Saigon is on the brink of invasion by the North Vietnamese army (THE TELEPHONE SONG).

To make his honeymoon work, Chris still has to strike a deal with the Engineer to release Kim from her duties at the club (THE DEAL).

The bar girls help Kim to move into a new room that she will share with Chris. A shrine is set up for the occasion, and the firls and Kim sing the Vietnamese words traditionally used to celebrate weddings. (THE WEDDING CEREMONY, DJU VUI VAI). The festives are interupted by Kim's cousin, a man whom she had been promised when she was just 13, and who is now and officer in the North Vietnamese army. (THUY'S ARRIVAL). Chris protects her and sends Thuy away. Then he takes her in his arms and proposes to take her to America (THE LAST NIGHT OF THE WORLD).

The action moves forward three years. saigon has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City, and the victory of North Vietnam and the third anniversary of reunification is being celebrated in a street pageant (THE MORNING OF THE DRAGON).

Kim is in a small room that she shares with a number of other Vietnamese. In the early morning, she sings about the GI that she still believes will one day come back for her. But Chris, who now believes Kim is dead, is back home on the other side of the world, asleep in his bed and haunted by nightnares. Next to him is Ellen, his wife. She, too sings of her hopes - that he'll finally leave whatever is troubling him (I STILL BELIEVE).

The Engineer returns to Ho Chi Minh City from a re-education camp. Thuy, now the people's commisar, has offered him his freedom if he finds Kim (BACK IN TOWN). The Engineer leads Thuy to her, but again she rejects his love because she is sworn to Chris. Thuy orders his soldiers to wreck the room, and beat up the Engineer. Kim reveals to Thuy that she has a three-year old son, Tam, by Chris; when Thuy tries to kill the boy with a knife, Kim pulls out a gun and is forced to shoot Thuy and runs away with Tam. (THUY'S DEATH/YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM).

When the soldiers discover that Thuy has been murdered, all hell breaks loose, and the Engineer takes his opportunity to escape making his way back to his hideout in the abandoned backroom of what was once "Dreamland". He collects his few treasured possesions together and prepares to join the boat people and escape from his war-torn country (IF YOU WANT TO DIE IN BED).

Kim and Tam burst in on the Engineer and tell him what has happened to Thuy, and she asks for help to leave the country. When the Engineer realises that Tam is the son of a marine, he sees him as a route to freedom for them all (KIM AND ENGINEER)

Transported by the belief that the long-awaited reunion of her family will at last take place. Kim sings to Tam, telling him that she will do anything for him, even to the ultimate sacrifice. They join the 'boat people' to leave the country (I'D GIVE MY LIFE FOR YOU).

John is now working for an agency that deals with the problems of children born to Vietnamese women and now absent American fathers, and is addressing a conference in Atlanta attended by Chris and Ellen (BUI-DOI).

After his address, John tells Chris that his staff in Bankok have found Kim alive and working there. He also tells Chris of the child he has fathered (THE REVELATION).

In a street in the sleezy district of Patpong, the engineer is seen hustling for customers with his rivals outside a nightclub called Le Moulin Rouge (WHAT A WASTE).

John finds Kim is also working there as a bar girl, and tells her that Chris is with him in bankok. As she shows him tam and expresses her undying love for Chris. John is unable to tell her that Chris is already married, and can only promise to send Chris to see her (PLEASE).

Kim is confronted by Thuy's ghost who reminds her not only of her guilt but draws her into the memories wich continually haunt her of the devastating fall of Saigon, when she and Chris were seperated, and, with a huge crowd of Vietnamese pushing at the Embassy gates, she failed to get past the guards adn saw the last helicoptor take off without her and with Chris onboard (KIM'S NIGHTMARE).

The Engineer, who doesn't trust Chris or John, finds the address of the hotel where they are staying, ans Kim runs to find Chris: at the same time, Chris and John are traveling through the city to find her. When Kim arrives she is mistaken for the maid by Ellen. On learning the truth, Kim is distraught and urges Ellen to take Tam with back to America with her, but she refuses (ROOM 317).

After Kim leaves, Ellen determines to fight for Chris (NOW THAT IV'E SEEN HER). Ellen tells Chris and John what has happened when they return, and despite Kim's wish to see Chris alone they both decide to go to persuade her to stay in Bankok where they intend to support her and the child (THE CONFRONTATION).

Kim returns to the club and lies to the Engineer, telling him that Chris will arrive later that evening to take them all to America. The Engineer finally believes his dreams will come true, and fantisises about hisinevitable success manipulating the American Dream to his own ends (THE AMERICAN DREAM).

Meanwhile, Kim has already decided to sacrifce her own life so that her son can have a future in America with his father just as she promised before. As Chris arrives with Ellen and John, she disappears into her bedroom. A gun shot rings out and her body falls to the floor. A distraught Chris runs in and holds her in his arms for one last time as the curtain falls. (FINALE).

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