Nine years after they took the world by storm with Les Miserables, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil got together once again to work their magic. Miss Saigon opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London on September 20, 1989. It made such an impression that two years later the show worked its way on to Broadway and stayed there for nearly ten years and ran for over 4,000 performances.

In case you haven't seen the show (crawl out from under that rock) Miss Saigon is a show that takes place shortly before the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War. A young girl named Kim is forced into prostitution and on her first night she hooks up with a marine named Chris. In the short time they spend together they fall in love and Kim has a child. Unfortunately the state of the world being what it was they didn't live happily ever after though I won't get into detail about what happens.

In the time that I have been a fan of musical theater Miss Saigon has always been one of my favorite shows. The heartfelt emotion found in the lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. and the overall tragic story has been more than enough to captivate me time and time again. It has been a long time since I have seen a tour of the musical but when I heard of The Making of Miss Saigon DVD the fan in me had to check it out.

This documentary by Thames and A&E features video footage from the early days of the show's creation right up to the world premiere in London. From auditions, to set design, to musical composition just about every facet of putting together the show makes it into this documentary.

So many aspects are covered here that at first it's a little daunting. The bulk of the time here is spent behind the scenes with meetings between the bigwigs. It's definitely interesting seeing the creators meet with the folks responsible for making things happen from miniscule details such as creating the poster to bigger ones like manufacturing the stage models. Rehearsals are fascinating as well with many songs like "Sun and Moon" and "The Morning of the Dragon."

A ton of audition footage is also here. Since Schonberg and Boublil were looking for an unknown girl to star as Kim they naturally had a difficult time finding the right performer. A good majority of this documentary involves the quest for the right girl. It's definitely interesting (and entertaining) to see snippets of these auditions from New York to Honolulu and finally Manila. With so many early and candid moments for Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce The Making of Miss Saigon really sells the package for fans. The fact that such a wealth of material exists is a marvelous thing and quite honestly makes you yearn for similar footage for other shows like Les Miserables.

As far as documentaries go this one is a little more unique than most. Instead of being set to a narrative or following a structured formula for its content it simply combines a smattering of footage edited together to show the progression of the musical. Because of this most of the documentary feels haphazard despite the structured content. This also helps make the feature more inclusive for fans of the show and not very welcoming for newcomers (though I can't picture someone who hasn't seen the show taking interest in this release). Check it out if you love musicals and can't get too much of a good thing.

The Making of Miss Saigon is presented with a 1.33:1 fullframe aspect ratio and features a wide array of image quality. For being nearly twenty years old the video footage here has been maintained and cleaned up surprisingly well. In most scenes there is little to complain about given the home-video-like nature of the production. Sure there is plenty of grain, speckle and soft imagery that you could point a finger at but like a documentary on anything with material of this age just having the video means we should be thankful enough. What it lacks in presentation values it makes up for in content.

The only option available here is 2.0 English. There is little effort thrown into making this track minimally better than a mono. The volume pitches terribly at times depending on the scene and in most cases the audio sounds like it was recorded through a tin can. Just like the video presentation the sound leaves something to be desired from a technical standpoint but for the act of simply enjoying the documentary it gets the job done.

There are no bonus features on this disc whatsoever. Not even trailers for other A&E releases. Some extra commentary from the creators or actors would have been nice.

In order to appreciate The Making of Miss Saigon you really do have to be a fan of the musical; that should be obvious. As far as the show itself goes it has certainly proven its quality over the years. As far as this documentary is concerned; what it lacks in structure it makes up for in content.

Having a narrative would have gone a long way to adding personality to the feature. Without it things feel kind of jumbled together and there doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason for the inspirations caught on film. Being told or shown how creative decisions were made could have strengthened my appreciation of it all. Even so the collection of video footage makes this release a welcome addition to my DVD shelf and if you consider yourself a fan of the show I recommend you check it out.

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