Dionisio returns to Toronto in Miss Saigon

The original stars of the 1993 production of Miss Saigon — Ma-Anne Dionisio and Kevin Gray — will return to their roles in a production planned for this summer.

Dionisio, a Winnipeg-raised singer, burst onto the theatre scene in 1993 in the role of Kim, the young Vietnamese woman who falls for an American soldier in Miss Saigon.

She has reprised the role to great critical acclaim around the world and joins the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production to debut this June in Pittsburgh before playing at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Manila-born Dionisio also has had roles in West Side Story at Stratford, in Flower Drum Song on Broadway and in the international tour of Les Misérables where she played Eponine. She has been cast throughout her career in roles that don't normally go to Asian women, including stints in Evita, A Little Night Music, The Sound of Music and Martin Guerre.

She also worked with Gray in a 2003 version of Miss Saigon with Pittsburgh CLO, directed by Barry Ivan, who also helms the Toronto production for Dancap.

Gray is the Engineer, the wheeler-dealer who runs the nightclub where Kim works, in Miss Saigon. His credits include roles in Jesus Christ Superstar, The King and I, The Lion King and the original production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Miss Saigon, based on the opera Madame Butterfly, follows the story as the lovers are separated during the fall of Saigon. Kim raises her son on her own, until his father returns to Saigon, accompanied by an American wife.

The production will play July 9-Aug. 1 at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre.