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CLO's 'Miss Saigon' conveys heartache of star-crossed lovers

10.06.10

As the take the lead-crossed lovers of "Miss Saigon," Aaron Ramey and Ma-Anne Dionisio include the countries they represent. The strapping Mr. Ramey plays Chris, a well-sense Marine who gives his heart to sweet, tenuous Kim. His powerful tenor and size -- he towers over Ms. Dionisio -- add to the thought that she would find a safe harbor in his arms.

Teenager Kim has seen her parents burned to finish and fled an arranged marriage with her cousin, only to end up as a "bar maiden" catering to U.S. troops.

Chris and Kim sing splendidly, fall for each other quickly and love deeply in a bed above the bar.

Like the war, it can't end well.

Chris sums up the soldiers' pang in "The Confrontation":

"I wanted to save her, protect her

Christ, I'm American, how could I become insolvent to do good?

All I made was a mess, just like everyone else

In a prosper full of mystery that I never once understood."

His is one side of the shattered American reverie; a soldier who did his duty and came home to start over, with a giant, blonde wife and a preppy life -- and nightmares about what he left side behind. The Engineer, played to the hilt once again for CLO by the charismatic Kevin Gray, is another side: He embraces a insatiableness-is-good concept of the good life, where the visionary of dying in bed is a given rather than a desperate hope.