Show Plot Miss Saigon

Authors: Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (book and lyrics), Claude-Michel Schönberg (music) based on the opera Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Time Period: 1975-1978

Setting: Saigon, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand

Summary:  In 1975 at a Saigon nightclub called Dreamland, an American GI named Chris meets a young Vietnamese girl named Kim, who has just been forced to work there as a bar girl.  Chris and Kim fall deeply in love and marry in a quick ceremony, but when Saigon falls to the communist forces. Chris and Kim are separated in the frantic rush to evacuate American personnel, leaving Kim behind believing Chris will return for her.  Three years later in 1978, Chris and his new wife, Ellen, arrive to find Kim and offer financial help, but Kim is broken hearted when she realizes her dream has been shattered and is forced to make some tragic choices.