Seann Miley Moore performs 'The American Dream.' MJ Felipe, ABS-CBN News

The well-loved musical “Miss Saigon” finally returned to the Philippines after 24 years and was welcomed with resounding approval from the star-studded crowd during its gala night last March 26 at the Theater at Solaire.

Nearly 35 years after it opened in London’s West End back in 1989, the Vietnam War-set musical still manages to impress as a visual spectacle, as well as move audiences to tears with its timeless love story.

And if Lea Salonga was the undeniable breakout star back then, this international touring production from Australia was owned by another exceptional Filipino talent. 

Seann Miley Moore, who plays the role of the wheeler-dealer Engineer, reminds audiences why this wily character is the main character in this modern retelling of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” – he gets the final bow at curtain call -- and not the tragic bar girl Kim, now played by another Filipino-Australian Abigail Adriano.

Moore, who is openly queer, brings a refreshing, entertaining take to the oily pimp who runs the honky tonk bar Dreamland that caters to the American GIs during the final days of the Vietnam War.

It is Engineer who recruits the orphaned Kim for his girly bar and introduces her to Chris, a Marine who falls in love with the young Vietnamese girl. And when the star-crossed lovers are separated amid the chaos during the fall of Saigon, it is Engineer who helps Kim and her son flee to Bangkok as they hope to eventually find their way to the United States.

Engineer has always been an ambiguous character, but Moore brought an unexpected, almost current energy to his performance. Make no mistake — this duplicitous, foul-mouthed charmer is still an unapologetic schemer looking to profit from war. But more than just material ambition, there is now a queer facet in his dogged desire to go to the US.

In his extravagantly staged solo, “The American Dream,” Moore includes a lascivious Marilyn Monroe tribute and busts out in a bustier, possessed by grand delusions about the land of the free — a powerful rock-star performance that reminds one of Adam Lambert channeling Freddie Mercury.

Indeed Moore’s casting provided an opportunity for director Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy to “evolve” this Australian production and further build on director Laurence Connor’s overall grittier vision for the musical’s revival in 2014. (Another noticeable change is the new — and we assume correct — pronunciation of “Bui Doi,” which opens Act 2.)

Grittier, more realistic

Those whose early memories of “Miss Saigon” were rooted on the original London cast recording with Salonga and Jonathan Pryce would immediately notice the significant changes to the lyrics in many of the songs to fit Connor’s darker and more realistic tone, with some lines now spoken for added drama instead of sung. The rambunctious opening number, for instance, takes on a more rowdy, explicit tone, with new lyrics like “The heat is on in Saigon / The girls are ready to screw.”

“The Movie in My Mind,” sung with resigned bitterness by homegrown talent Kiara Dario, isn’t so much about the romantic fantasy of finding a GI to take them to New York but a rebuke of their tawdry existence.

Even Kim is no longer just the “princess” that Salonga so sympathetically portrayed, her eyes glistening with true love. When Kim makes her entrance in “The Heat is On,” she no longer introduces herself as having “a heart like the sea”; instead she foreshadows with the new line, “I’m so much more than you see.”

Abigail Adriano as Kim sings 'I'd Give My Life For You.' Erickson dela Cruz

Adriano shines more in the dramatic and confrontation scenes than in her romantic numbers with Nigel Huckle, who plays the soldier Chris. Her voice gains power and color as she remarkably transforms from countryside waif to single tiger mom, her singing, particularly on ''I'd Give My Life For You," tinged with fatigue, fear, desperation and finally a steely resolve to ensure a bright future for her son.

Another part-Filipino who impressed in this production was Laurence Mossman, who plays Thuy to whom Kim was betrothed. While local theater fans would remember him as Charlie in Atlantis Productions’ “Kinky Boots,” he still surprises here with his powerful and controlled vocals.

But no discussion of “Miss Saigon” would be complete without mentioning THAT scene. This version’s staging of the fall of Saigon is an effective interplay of lights, sound effects, video projection and controlled stage chaos, an exhilarating theatrical stretch that captures the despair and confusion of that historical moment on both sides of the embassy gate, made more immediate by Solaire’s more compact stage. When the helicopter finally lands, it’s a shock-and-awe moment that effortlessly steals the show.

That is until Moore unleashes the coup de grace that is “The American Dream.”

“Miss Saigon” is running at The Theatre at Solaire until May 12.