Dancap brings Miss Saigon back to Toronto

Miss Saigon will play at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto in the summer, in a touring production backed by Toronto's Dancap.

Miss Saigon is scheduled to run July 9 to Aug. 1 at the centre, followed by South Pacific from Aug. 12 to Sept. 5.

The two musicals are part of deal between Dancap Productions and the Canadian Opera Company to make more use of the downtown Toronto performance venue in the summer months.

Miss Saigon is a modern interpretation of Puccini's Madame Butterfly involving an American soldier and a Vietnamese girl who fall in love during the Vietnam War, only to be separated during the fall of Saigon. The soldier returns years later to meet the son he didn't know he had.

Songs from the musical include I Still Believe, Why God Why? and The American Dream.

Written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg who also created Les Misérables, it premiered in London's West End in 1989 and moved on to Broadway in 1991. Mirvish brought the show, famed for putting a helicopter on stage, to Toronto in 1993.

The touring production to be brought by Dancap is created in association with Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, a not-for-profit musical theatre group based in Pittsburgh. Miss Saigon will begin its run in Pittsburgh in June before coming to Toronto.

Casting for Miss Saigon has not been announced, but South Pacific will star Toronto-based Jason Howard as Emile de Becque and U.S. actress Carmen Cusack as Nellie Forbush.