"Isn't It Funny?"

Happy (almost) Halloween everyone!

So among my busy and hectic schedule for the next few weeks or so, I have also been kept up-to-date on some musicals, and I will be posting about the musical Dogfight, based on the 1991 film Dogfight starring Lili Taylor and River Phoenix.

The plot of this show involves a Marine named Eddie (nicknamed Birdlace) and a shy girl named Rose.  It takes place in San Francisco in the '60s--actually the day before JFK was assassinated--where Birdlace and a few of his Marine friends are docked for the night before shipping off to Vietnam the next day and plan on attending a "dogfight".  A "dogfight" is a party where, unbeknowst to the dates, Marines compete to bring the ugliest date.  After a few failed attempts to pick up some girls, Eddie finds Rose in a coffee shop and asks her to the party, to which she initially is suspicious but then decides to go.

After arriving at the party, Eddie has second thoughts and tries to talk Rose out of going in but ends up being hoodwinked by another Marine and his date.  The alcohol and dancing ends up making Rose sick and runs to the bathroom; there she runs into the winner of the "dogfight", a prostitute named Marcie brought by one of Eddie's friends Berstein, where Rose discovers the true nature of the party through Marcie. Rose slaps Eddie and runs back home, upset as to how she could be fooled so easily.



Eddie and his friends leave the party and go to an arcade, where they find a prostitute there. Feeling guilty and remorseful as to what he did to Rose, he leaves his friends and goes to her house.  There Eddie tries to persuade Rose that he is truly sorry as to what he did--at first Rose is hesistant but then realizes he is being genuine.

The two goes to a fancy restaurant where Rose begins picking at Eddie's tough exterior and tries to see the nice guy he is underneath and the two begin growing closer through understanding each other. They go to the Golden gate Bridge late at night where Rose reveals that although the dogfight was unpleasant, it gave her a new understanding of herself and more self-confidence. She then nervously invites him to her house, where the two share an awkward and romantic sexual experience.



The next day, Eddie returns to his friends and get ready to ship out to Vietnam. There, Eddie sees his friends Boland and Berstein killed in front of him in action, the memories that have plagued him as he returns home to San Francisco three years later broken, confused, and lost. Eddie makes his way and finds an older and wiser Rose, who welcomes him back with compassion.

This musical  actually sounds more intense than I originally thought, and I like it! The show premiered on Off-Broadway in 2012 starring Derek Klena [who played Tommy Ross in Carrie Off-Broadway] as Eddie Birdlace and Lindsay Mendez [Everyday Rapture and Godspell] as Rose Fenny. My college is going to have auditions for it in late-February and I'm excited to try and audition for it! Of course I'd like to be Rose but one can only hope!

My favorite song from the show has to be "Pretty Funny" because it's a song I can personally relate to and it's a really powerful song for understanding the character Rose Fenny. My second favorite is a tie between "Dogfight" (I love listening to Rose and Marcie's harmonies) and "Come Back" (the song is Birdlace's "aha!" song that is wicked powerful to listen to).

[Plus, I find it pretty funny that I try to put up a new entry a month and two days after my last one!]

Day Fourteen: Miss Saigon

Today's post is a musical I haven't listened to or seen in a while, and my musical is Miss Saigon!

So Miss Saigon takes place during the Vietnam War in Vietnam. Kim, a seventeen year old Vietnamese orphan, is at her first day at her new job, the sleazy Vietnamese night club called Dreamland. She is greeted by the Engineer, a French-Vietnamese sleazeball who owns the club. The U.S. Marines, knowing they're departing Vietnam soon, decide to go to the club to party with the Vietnamese prostitutes. 

Chris Scott, a Marine who wan't into the club scene and partying at all, is dragged along with his friend John Thomas. The girls are competing for who wins the title "Miss Saigon" and the winner is raffled to a marine. Kim's innocence strikes Chris. The winner of Miss Saigon, Gigi Van Trahn, begs the marine that won the raffle to take her to America, but he refuses.

John pays The Engineer for a room for Chris and Kim. Kim is reluctant and shy but eventually dances with Chris. Chris tries to pay her to leave the nightclub. The Engineer interferes, thinking Chris doesn't like Kim, but he is eventually led to the room John rented for him and Kim.

Chris, while watching Kim sleep, asks God why he had met Kim just as he was about to leave Vietnam. When Kim wakes up, Chris tries to give her money, but she refuses, saying that it was her first time she slept with a man. Chris tells Kim she doesn't need to sell herself at the club, because he wants her to stay with him.  The two pledge their love for each other. Chris tells John he's taking leave to spend time with Kim, but John warns him that the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese army) will soon take over Saigon, but eventually covers for Chris. Chris meets with The Engineer to trade for Kim, but The Engineer is trying to include an American visa into the deal. Chris holds The Engineer at gunpoint to honor the original arrangement for Kim.

The club holds a "wedding ceremony" for Chris and Kim, and Gigi toasts Kim as the "real" Miss Saigon. Thuy, Kim's cousin that she was betrothed to at age thirteen, comes to the club to take her home. He's a North Vietnamese officer and is mad that she's with Chris. The two men draw guns at each other. Kim tells Thy the arranged marriage is off because her parents are dead and she has no feelings for him. Thuy leaves angrily. Chris promises to take Kim when he leaves Vietnam. The couple dance to the same song they did on their first night.

Three years pass, and in Saigon (now named Ho Chi Minh City), a street parade is beginning to celebrate the third anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam and the fall of the Americans. Thuy, a commissar in the new government, has ordered soldiers to find the still-sleazy Engineer. Thuy orders the Engineer to find Kim and bring her to him. Kim is still in love with Chris and has been hiding ever since, in hope that he will come back to Vietnam for her. Meanwhile, Chris is asleep in his bed with his new American wife, Ellen, when he awakes from a dream, shouting Kim's name. The two women still swear that they both love Chris.

The Engineer finds Kim and brings her to Thuy. Kim refuses Thuy's marriage proposal again, then introduces him to Tam, Kim's three-year old son fathered by Chris. Thuy calls Kim a traitor and moves to kill Tam with a knife when Kim kills Thuy with Chris' gun. Kim flees with Tam and seeks help from the Engineer to escape to America. He doesn't agree at first, but when she reveals Chris is the father, the Engineer shows compassion as he see this as a ticket to America. The three head to Bangkok and set out on a ship of refugees.

In Atlanta, GA, John now works for an organization who connects Bui-Doi (children conceived during the war) to their American fathers. John tells Chris that Kim is still alive, and that she had Tam and urges him to return to Vietnam. Chris finally comes clean to his wife about Kim and Tam. In Bangkok, the Engineer works a sleazy club where Kim is a dancer. Chris, Ellen, and John arrive, searching for Kim. John finds Kim at the club and tells her that Chris is also in Bangkok. Kim is thrilled that Tam's father has come to take them to America, or so she thinks. John doesn't have the heart to tell her he remarried.

The Engineer tells Kim to find Chris herself because he doubted that Chris would come looking for her. Kim is haunted by the ghost of Thuy, who says that Chris will betray her as he did three years ago. Kim suffers a horrible flashback to that night. 

In the flashback, Kim sees the Viet Cong approaching Saigon. The city becomes chaotic and hectic, and Chris is called to the embassy, so he leaves his gun with Kim and tells her to go pack. When Chris enters the embassy, the gates close, and orders from Washington advise the place to evacuate any of the remaining Americans. The Ambassador orders that no Vietnamese are allowed in. Kim reaches the gates of the Embassy only to find a crowd of terrified Vietnamese trying to get in. 

Chris tries to leave the Embassy to get her, but his friend John had to punch him to get him to stay inside.Chris is put into the last helicopter, leaving Saigon and Kim, who still pledges her love to him.

Back to the current age, Kim dresses in her wedding clothes and leaves the Engineer to watch Tam while she's gone. Kim goes to Chris' hotel room and finds Ellen. She thinks she's John's wife, but Ellen reveals she's Chris' wife. Kim refuses to believe Ellen and Ellen asks if Chris is the father of Tam, which she confirms. Kim says she doesn't want Tam to live on the streets like a rat, but Ellen assures Kim they will send whatever money to support him. Kim begs Ellen to take Tam to America, but Ellen refuses, saying Tam should be with his mother and that her and Chris will have children of their own.

Kim runs out of the room. Ellen feels bad for Kim, but is still determined to keep Chris. Chris and John return with no luck finding Kim. Ellen tells them that Kim came by the room and Ellen had to be the one to tell her everything. Chris and John blame themselves for being gone from Vietnam too long. Ellen also tells Chris Kim wants him to go to her place, and that she tried to give Tam to them. John realizes Kim wants Tam to be "an American boy." 

Ellen then gives Chris an ultimatum to Chris: stay with Ellen or go with Kim. Chris assures Ellen he loves her. 

Chris plans to leave Tam in Bangkok but will offer monetary support from America. John warns him that Kim won't like having Tam stay in Thailand. Back at the club, Kim lies to the Engineer that they are going to America.The Engineer imagines the fancy live he'll have there. Chris, John and Ellen find the Engineer, who takes them to Kim and Tam.

In her room, Kim tells Tam he should be happy because he has a father. She tells him she can't go with him but she'll watch over him. Chris, Ellen, John and the Engineer arrive outside of her room. The Engineer comes into the room to take Tam to see his American father. While this happens, Kim steps behind a curtain and shoots herself. 

She falls to the floor as everyone runs into the room after hearing the gunshot. Kim is found mortally wounded. Chris holds Kim in his arms as she's dying, and asks why she did this, and she explains that the gods have guided him to his son. Chris begs her not to die as she asks Chris to hold her one last time. After one final kiss, Kim speaks her last words to Chris ("How in one night have we come so far?") and dies in his arms.

The ending of the show always depresses me every time I read it, but it has a good story line, I must say! We're doing this show next year and I really want to be Ellen! (Just hoping)

This song, "Sun And Moon," is one of my favorites of the whole show. And I love Lea Salonga! She has a perfect voice!