Word: mackintosh
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This popularity seems unwavering. Cameron Mackintosh, who produced all three and also Miss Saigon, projects that Cats "will run another two years or so in New York." He predicts "four to five years" of additional life for Les Miserables and "certainly at least five years" more for Phantom. About Saigon, he says it is too soon to tell, especially because the show is so elaborate. "With weekly operating costs close to $500,000," says Mackintosh, "Miss Saigon only breaks even when it makes what Les Miz does selling every seat...
...semieternal run is a phenomenon of recent years. The four most enduring Broadway shows -- A Chorus Line (6,137 performances), the revival of Oh! Calcutta! (5,959), Cats (3,709 through last week) and 42nd Street (3,486) -- attained all or most of their runs during the '80s. If Mackintosh's projections prove right (and others in the industry believe they will), Les Miz and Phantom will outstrip Hello, Dolly! and My Fair Lady for the ninth and 10th spots among all-time long- runners...
...Asian people -- think of the basically Western "us" that is presupposed to be the audience. To make Kim and the Engineer vivid when they reveal almost nothing of themselves except their fantasies of these distant others requires skillful acting and incandescent star quality. The London production had both, and Mackintosh fought fiercely to bring its two leads -- each of whom won the Olivier Award, London's equivalent of the Tony -- to Broadway. Actors' Equity objected to Salonga because she was not a citizen (she is a Filipino), but eventually accepted her as providing "unique services." Only 17 when...
Having chosen the ambiance of Vietnam in which to portray a woman seduced and abandoned (albeit more honorably than in Puccini's operatic version of the story), Mackintosh and his colleagues voice great ambivalence about how significant the setting is. Because the performers are so young -- Salonga was just four when Saigon fell, and few of the youths playing soldiers were even in their teens -- the cast was instructed through film and speakers about the mood of those times. But the creators emphasize to all who will listen that Miss Saigon is not about politics. Their edgy manner...
...Mackintosh and his colleagues soft-pedal relevance and liken the show to West Side Story, another classic of thwarted love retold in a modern setting. Says director Nicholas Hytner: "This piece has no political sophistication -- operas never do. Music plays to the heart. It asks an audience to understand that every massive world event has an effect on small people." Mackintosh concedes that some 10 minutes have been cut from the London version but rejects claims that the show has been muted politically. "Half of that," he says, "was scene-change music that was no longer needed because this stage...