Cameron Mackintosh today announced that from Monday 30 April Elana Martin will play ‘Ellen’ and Aicelle Santos will play ‘Gigi’ in the current UK tour of his acclaimed production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical MISS SAIGON. They join Red Concepción as ‘The Engineer’, Sooha Kim as ‘Kim’, Ashley Gilmour as ‘Chris’, Ryan O’Gorman as ‘John’ and Gerald Santos as ‘Thuy’. At certainperformances ‘The Engineer’ is played by Christian Rey Marbella, and ‘Kim’ is played by Joreen Bautista.
Also new to the cast from 30 April will be Iroy Abesamis, Jonathon Bentley, Devine Cresswell, Ross Lee Fowkes, Yukina Hasebe, Rob Herron, Jade Ma, Samuel Nicholas, Pierce Rogan, Louis Stockil, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Brad Veitch, Gabriella Williams, Zheng Xi Yong and Sian Yeo,
Elana Martin’s West End credits include “Travesties” at the Apollo Theatre and “Merrily We Roll Along” at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Her other credits include the UK tours of “39 Steps” and “Scrooge”.
Aicelle Santos is a recording and concert artist in the Philippines appearing in many concerts as both a solo performer and one third of the successful trio ‘La Diva’. As an actress, her theatre credits include “Katy”, “Rak Of Aegis” for which she won a Best Actress in a Musical award and “Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag” for which she won a Best Featured Actress in a Musical award.
Red Concepción’s many theatre credits in his native Philippines include ‘Adam/Felicia’ in “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” for which he won the ALIW Award and Gawah Buhay Award, ‘Tommy’ in “The Normal Heart” and ‘Alan Strang’ in “Equus” as well as the musicals “West Side Story” and “Hairspray”.
Sooha Kim made her professional debut in this recent production of “Miss Saigon” at the Prince Edward Theatre where she covered the role of ‘Kim’ before going on to play the role in the Japanese production. Her credits whilst training in Korea include ‘Maureen’ in “Rent” and ‘Carmen’ in “Fame”.
Ashley Gilmour also appeared in “Miss Saigon” at the Prince Edward Theatre. His most recent credits include playing ‘Link Larkin’ in the national tour of “Hairspray”.
Ryan O’Gorman played the role of ‘Tom Collins’ in the 20th Anniversary UK Tour of “Rent”. His other theatre credits include “Les Misérables”, at the Queen’s Theatre, “The Phantom of the Opera” at Her Majesty’s Theatre, “Billy Elliot” at the Victoria Palace Theatre and the UK tour of “Oliver!”.
Gerald Santos was the youngest ever winner of the biggest singing contest in the Philippines, Pinoy Pop Superstar. He has released five studio albums and has won numerous awards including winning twice Best Male Concert performer at the prestigious ALIW Awards.
From 30 April the full cast will be Iroy Abesamis, David Allwood, Joreen Bautista, Jonathon Bentley, Red Concepción, Vinny Coyle, Devine Cresswell, Kristine Diaz, Aynrand Ferrer, Ross Lee Fowkes, Ashley Gilmour, Seng Henk Goh, Yukina Hasebe, Rob Herron, Sooha Kim, David Kar-Hing Lee, Amanda Lindgren, Winchester Lopez, Jade Ma, Christian Rey Marbella, Elana Martin, Thao Nguyen, Samuel Nicholas, Ryan O’Gorman, Youngjoo Park, Pierce Rogan, Aicelle Santos, Gerald Santos, Louis Stockil, Eloisa Amalia Tan, Gavin Tsang, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Brad Veitch, Amadeus Williams, Gabriella Williams, Sian Yeo, Zheng Xi Yong and Gerald Zarcilla.
Last year, this production of MISS SAIGON opened on Broadway where it played to nightly ovations and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The New Yorker called it a “Dynamite Broadway revival”. When the smash-hit run of this production opened in London in May 2014 to record-breaking advance sales and critical acclaim, Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph wrote, “This thrilling new production spills out beyond the theatre and speaks directly to the times we live in”. The show swept the board at the 2015 Whatsonstage.com awards winning a record breaking nine awards, the most awards ever won by a single show in the 15-year history of the awards including: Best West End Show and Best Revival of a Musical.
MISS SAIGON tells the story of the last days of the Vietnam War, 17 year-old Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by a notorious character known as the Engineer. There she meets and falls in love with an American GI named Chris but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For 3 years Kim goes on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he's fathered a son.
MISS SAIGON has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, adapted from original French lyrics by Alain Boublil, with additional lyrics by Michael Mahler. The new production is directed by Laurence Connor with musical staging by Bob Avian and additional choreography by Geoffrey Garratt. Production design is by Totie Driver and Matt Kinley based on an original concept by Adrian Vaux; costume design by Andreane Neofitou; lighting design by Bruno Poet; projections by Luke Halls; sound design by Mick Potter; and orchestrations by William David Brohn.
Since its London premiere in 1989, Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s legendary musicalMISS SAIGON has become one of the most successful musicals in history. The original Broadway production of MISS SAIGON opened on April 11, 1991 with what was the largest advance sale in Broadway history ($37 million). The show went on to play for nearly ten years and 4,063 performances seen by more than 5.9 million people. MISS SAIGON has been performed in 28 countries, over 300 cities in 15 different languages, has won over 40 awards including 2 Olivier Awards, 3 Tony Awards, and 4 Drama Desk Awards and been seen by over 35 million people worldwide.
