Theatre group pulls play from Sheffield's Crucible over controversial musical

A theatre company has pulled a play from Sheffield's Crucible in response to the staging of a musical criticised for its portrayal of Vietnamese people.

New Earth, a group of British East and South East Asian artists, said Miss Saigon contained "damaging tropes, misogyny and racism".

Its own production, Worth, had been due to run before the musical in June.

Sheffield Theatres, which runs the Crucible, said it respected the decision to cancel the play.

The venue's creative directors acknowledged Miss Saigon's "divisive performance history" and "the upset it has caused".

In a statement they said they had approached the new production being "sensitive" to the issue, adding they "believe this is a chance for us to engage in a fresh way with a majority East and South East Asian company reframing the story".

Miss Saigon, which tells the story of the relationship between a young Vietnamese sex worker and an American soldier during the Vietnam War, sparked anger when it first opened in London's West End in 1989 with white actors wearing eye prostheses to make them look more Asian.

Written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil and based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madame Butterfly, it later transferred to Broadway and won multiple prizes including two Laurence Olivier and three Tony awards.

New Earth said Miss Saigon "remains a very contentious musical since its release over thirty years ago, having hurt and angered many viewers due to its highly problematic narrative and portrayal of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese people".

"We recognise concerns from our team that working alongside a musical that perpetuates deeply held notions of Asian inferiority would impact their wellbeing," added a joint statement from the company and Chester-based co-producers Storyhouse.

BEATS, an advocacy group for British East and South East Asian theatre workers, said Miss Saigon "fetishised and hyper-sexualised" Vietnamese women and erased "the real experience of war and violence suffered by millions".

It called the Crucible's decision to stage the musical in July "deeply traumatising".

Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau, directors of the Crucible's production of Miss Saigon, said they had taken a "new approach" which they hoped would "shift the perspective" on the show.

"The reimagining of any classic is about viewing stories through new lenses, that speak to the world as it is today as much as what it was or might have been," they added in a joint statement.