From BBC
The musical, set during the Vietnam War, opened in London on Wednesday in front of a celebrity-packed audience.
The classic helicopter scene has been updated for the new production. Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench/BBC
It has already broken box office records for advance bookings.
“For me in my own lifetime to reinvent one of the greatest musicals ever written is a privilege,” said Sir Cameron.
Among the star names at the show were Stephen Fry, Lord Julian Fellowes, Miranda Hart, actor Eddie Redmayne and film director Tom Hooper.
Based on the opera Madame Butterfly, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s musical tells the tragic story of an orphaned Vietnamese girl, Kim, who falls in love with an American GI named Chris.
Schonberg and Boublil, who also wrote Les Miserables, have written a new song called Maybe for the production.
“This show seems to have a stronger rapport with the audience than it did 25 years ago,” said Sir Cameron, after the opening night at the Prince Edward Theatre.
“We’ve got record breaking advance booking but it’s not from the normal theatre audience. It’s from mostly younger people, a few hardcore fans, but mostly younger people who’ve never seen the show. They’ve heard about it from their parents.”
The theatre impresario – whose other productions include Les Miserables, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera – was recently named among the billionaires on the Sunday Times super-rich list.
Miss Saigon broke the record for the largest single day of sales in West End and Broadway history when it went on sale last September, with takings of £4.4m on the first day.
That figure eclipsed the amount taken by The Book of Mormon, which set the previous record in March 2013 when it took £2.1m in one day.
Sir Cameron said the revamped production of Les Miserables in New York was also attracting a new generation of musical fans.
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