Miss Saigon Miss Saigon Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly", and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and "Madame Butterfly"'s story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a South Vietnamese bargirl. The musical was premièred at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Madame Butterfly (short story) classical in "Madame Butterfly" reflected the blending of Japanese and traditional styles in the arts and crafts movement around the turn of the 19th century and American fascination with Japan that began with the "opening of Japan" by Matthew C. Perry in 1854. The story interested American playwright David Belasco who, collaborating with Long, adapted it to a one-act play, "Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan". The play premiered in New York's Herald Square Theatre on March 5, 1900. Seven weeks later, Belasco took it to London's Duke of York's Theatre, where it played to full houses. In 1988, David