Time has not alleviated the controversy surrounding the Broadway musical, Miss Saigon, reports Twincities.com.
The Tony-winning hit has played the Twin Cities three times.
Each times its stirred a controversy over what many Asian Americans perceive as stereotypical depictions of their community.
The controversy this time is as strong as it was the first time in 1994.
“There is the over-sexualization of Asian women, the narrative of the Asian woman killing herself for a white man, the general romanticization of human trafficking, the idea of an adoption because the United States is supposedly the best place for an Asian-American child to grow up, and all of the ideas that come along with colonialism and privilege,” said Mu Performing Arts artistic director Randy Reyes, a Filipino-American.
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The Ordway Theater is well aware of the controversy surrounding the play, yet chose to stage it anyway.
“What issue you focus on depends on the lens through which you look at the piece,” said Patricia Mitchell, president and CEO of the Ordway. “If I look at it through my moral and political and philosophical feelings about the war, that tends to be how I see the piece. If you are an Asian or Asian-American actor, you might look at it through a casting lens. If you are an Asian or Asian-American woman, you might look at it through the lens of stereotypes.”
The theater held a town hall meeting for all sides to come together to discuss the issues arising from Miss Saigon.
You can read about how that meeting went in Twincities.com.
