On Mar. 24, the Dutch language production of the Schonberg/Boublil musical Miss Saigon announced the sale of its first million tickets. The Dutch Miss Saigon' is produced by Joop van den Ende in association with Cameron Mackintosh.
The Dutch translation of Miss Saigon by Seth Gaaikema, opened November 24th, 1996 and will celebrate it's 500th performance on April 11. It's currently the only open-end musical production playing in The Netherlands at the VSB Circustheater in Scheveningen.
The Dutch version of Miss Saigon was the first production of the musical worldwide in which a native born actress played the part of Kim on opening night. On Broadway and in London, Philippine actress Lea Salonga originally portrayed the part of Kim.
The cast is still led by the three of the original Dutch actors; Willem Nijholt is 'De Regelaar' (the Engineer), Linda Wagenmakers is Kim and Tony Neef is Chris.
The Phantom of the Opera, remains the most successful musical in The Netherlands, performed 1,094 times between 1 August 1993 and 4 August 1996 for an audience of 1.863.082. The Phantom of the Opera also lays claim to the best sold Dutch language musical CD, with over 200.00 copies sold.
