Hubert van Es, a Dutch photojournalist who took the most famous image of the
fall of Saigon in 1975 (a group of people scaling a ladder to a CIA helicopter on a rooftop), considered legal action when his photograph was used in
Miss Saigon.
Casting Miss Saigon has received criticism for its
whitewashing as well as racist or sexist overtones, including protests regarding its portrayal of Asians and women in general. Originally, Pryce and Burns, white actors playing Eurasian/Asian characters, wore eye prostheses and bronzing cream to make themselves look more Asian, which outraged some who drew comparisons to a "
minstrel show". Though there had been a widespread, well-publicised international search among Asian actresses to play Kim, there had been no equivalent search for Asian actors to play the major Asian male roles, specifically, those of the Engineer and Thuy. The American scholar Angelica Pao noted that in the West End, Mackintosh went out of his way to cast Asian actresses to play the Vietnamese women, arguing that this was necessary to provide authenticity, but he appears to have been content to cast white actors as Vietnamese men. The American scholar Yutian Wong noted, however, that when
Miss Saigon premiered on the West End in 1989, reviews in British newspapers such as the
Daily Mail,
The Times, and the
Evening Standard were uniformly positive as British theatre critics did not find anything objectionable about these characterisations. The controversy about
Miss Saigon only began in 1990 with the prospect of it appearing on Broadway, which Wong argued was because the United States has a much larger East Asian population than does the United Kingdom. When the production transferred from London to New York City, the
Actors' Equity Association (AEA) refused to allow Pryce to portray the role of the Engineer, a Eurasian
pimp, in the United States. The playwright
David Henry Hwang and the actor
B.D Wong wrote public letters of protest against Pryce's casting. Both Hwang and Wong had seen
Miss Saigon on the West End of London and felt Pryce's performance in
yellowface was demeaning to Asian people. Alan Eisenberg, executive secretary of AEA stated: "The casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian is an affront to the Asian community. The casting choice is especially disturbing when the casting of an Asian actor in the role would be an important and significant opportunity to break the usual pattern of casting Asians in minor roles." AEA's ruling on 7 August 1990 led to criticism from many, including the
British Actors' Equity Association, citing violations of the principles of artistic integrity and freedom. Others argued that since the Engineer's character was Eurasian (French-Vietnamese), Pryce was being discriminated against on the basis that he was white. Also, Pryce was considered by many in Europe to have "star status", a clause that allows a well-known foreign actor to recreate a role on Broadway without an American casting call. After pressure from Mackintosh, the general public, and many of its own members, AEA reversed its decision. Pryce starred when the show opened on Broadway. During the production transfer from West End to Broadway, a lesser controversy erupted over Salonga's citizenship, as she was
Filipina, and AEA wanted to give priority to its own members, initially preventing her from reprising her role. However, Mackintosh was unable to find a satisfactory replacement for Salonga despite the extensive auditions that he conducted in several American and Canadian cities. An arbitrator reversed the AEA ruling a month later to allow Salonga to star. Later productions of
Miss Saigon have been subject to boycotts from Asian actors.
Orientalism, racism, and misogyny Internationally, community members objected to productions of the show over the years, arguing the show is racist and misogynist. The 2010 Fulbright Hayes Scholar D Hideo Maruyama states: "it's time to see the real Vietnam, not the
Miss Saigon version. Whether or not America is ready to see the real one is up to question." American artist and activist
Mai Neng Moua stated: "I protested
Miss Saigon back in 1994 when the
Ordway first brought it to town. I was a college student at
St. Olaf and had never protested anything before. I didn't know what to say or do. I was scared people would yell or throw things at me. Then I met Esther Suzuki, a Japanese American woman whose family survived the racist
U.S. policy of internment camps. Esther was about my size – which is small – but she was fearless. Esther protested
Miss Saigon because, she better than anyone, understood Dr. King's "No one is free until we all are free." I stood with Esther, protesting
Miss Saigon, and drew strength from her. We protested
Miss Saigon because it was racist, sexist, and offensive to us as Asian Americans. Nineteen years later, this hasn't changed." Vietnamese American activist Denise Huynh recounts her experience attending the production and the stereotypes making her feel physically ill. Sarah Bellamy, co-artistic director of the
Penumbra Theatre, dedicated to African American theater, stated: "It gets a lot easier to wrap your head around all of this for folks of color when we remember a key point: this work is not for us. It is by, for, and about white people, using people of color, tropical climes, pseudo-cultural costumes and props, violence, tragedy, and the commodification of people and cultures, to reinforce and re-inscribe a narrative about
white supremacy and authority." The American scholar Yutian Wong described
Miss Saigon as promoting the image of "an effeminized and infantized Asia serving as a low-budget whorehouse for the West". The fact that the Vietnam war impoverished many Vietnamese people and forced many women to turn to prostitution in order to survive is not mentioned in
Miss Saigon, and establishments such as the fictional Dreamland brothel are portrayed as the norm in Vietnam. In 1999, when
Miss Saigon was closing in London, a new advertising campaign was launched on the Tube featuring posters reading "You'll miss Saigon" that showed an Asian woman wearing a military jacket showing some cleavage, which Wong felt sent the message that "Asia equals prostitution". American scholar Karen Shimakawa argued that the romance between the Marine Chris with Kim was intended as a message by Boublil and Schönberg about the legitimacy and justice of the Vietnam war with the submissive Kim looking up to Chris to protect and save her from her own people. The wedding between Chris and Kim is seen by the former as a mere spectacle for him to enjoy rather than representing a binding commitment on his part to Kim, and he is very surprised to learn later on that Kim considers him to be her husband, an aspect of his character that he is not criticized for. Instead, Ellen explains to Kim that under American law she is Chris's wife, and Kim just merely accepts the supremacy of American law over Vietnamese law, which Shimakawa argued represents the viewpoint that Vietnam is merely just a place that provides exotic spectacles for Chris and other Americans to enjoy. The Trinidadian-Canadian critic
Richard Fung wrote in 1994: "If
Miss Saigon were the only show about sexually available Asian women and money-grubbing Asian men, it wouldn't be a stereotype and there would be no protest—negative portrayals
per se are not a problem". Fung argued that the way in which films, television and plays repeated such stereotypes
ad nauseam had a damaging effect on the self-esteem of Asian-Americans, especially Asian-American women. The
Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin had planned to host a touring production of
Miss Saigon in April 2019 and had scheduled a panel discussion to showcase Asian American perspectives on the musical's treatment of Asian characters. The Center then postponed the panel discussion indefinitely, prompting a teach-in by the panel's organizers and scheduled speakers. "Shame on Overture for making a profit off the bodies of Asian bodies and Asian lives", said Nancy Vue of Freedom Inc. "If you are a white woman, you should be outraged because this play pits white woman against Asian women. You should be outraged that it does that because we ought to be working together." ==Recordings==