This is terrific - you get a good filmed version of the whole show (in its revised - but certainly not improved - form of 2014) and also a moving reunion of the original 1989 cast. Lea Salonga and Simon Bowman, the first Kim and Chris, sing The Last Night of the World, showing up the inferiority of the performance earlier in the evening. Alistair Brammer in particular cannot compare with Simon Bowman. Brammer's voice has a kind of whiny drone in it. Probably no one has ever surpassed Bowman on tenderness in the love duets of the show (see the videos on Youtube of him and Lea performing them when the show was new). He seems actually to have improved his voice since then, losing the (IMO) excessive vibrato. The new Kim is good, but Lea Salonga is impossible to beat. Her excellent voice has become richer and more mature over the years, less suitable for the role of teenage Kim, but that's not a criticism.
Review of Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary
