Gossip

Is Miss Saigon prepped to chopper into the Prince Edward?

It looks like the long-rumoured West End return of Miss Saigon could finally be nearing confirmation.

The New York Post reports that Laurence Connor and James Powell, who recently revamped Les Miserables on tour, have been signed up by producer Cameron Mackintosh to helm the revival of Miss Saigon.

A London source told the Post that Connor and Powell “have worked for Cameron a long time, and they’ll do whatever he tells them to – and we know he likes to meddle!”

The Prince Edward Theatre, which is being vacated by Jersey Boys (which is moving to the Piccadilly) in March 2014, is the likely venue.

A Miss Saigon TV casting show is currently underway in the Philippines (see video below), though it’s unclear whether the winner will eventually play the lead role of Kim – played originally by Lea Salonga – in London.

Written by Les Miserables composers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, Miss Saigon transplants the Madam Butterfly story to war-torn Vietnam. Cultures and aspirations clash when a local prostitute meets her GI Joe during the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the original production, which famously featured a real helicopter, ran at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from 1989 to 1999.

A representative of Cameron Mackintosh said there is no further comment at this stage.