--Emily Bautista has already impressed audiences with her memorable turn as
Eponine in the recent touring production of Les Miserables. And, now, the young
performer is leading the North American tour of Miss Saigon to take on the part
of Kim in the tour, a role she understudied on Broadway. Bautista has
strengthened her voice, immersed herself in research and sought advice from
actresses who have previously played the role. We sat down and chat with Bautista
about bringing Miss Saigon across the country, and why this epic musical is a
must-see.
--Hi, Emily!
--Hi! --It's so good to see you
--So nice to be here. --Of course. Thanks for coming by.
I'm so excited to talk Miss Saigon with you a little bit. Let's start right there.
How does it feel to be playing Kim in the US national tour of Miss Saigon?
--Oh, my gosh. It's so weird just like hearing that!
It's amazing. It's been an
incredible experience. The cast is amazing, and this role especially is
something that I've always admired. So, getting to fill the shoes, and at least
attempt to fill the shoes, and make this role my own, it's it's been a really
really cool process.
--Yeah. I can imagine .You obviously grew up knowing this music,
you knew of this show. What what did it mean to you then? Did you ever dream that
you'd be playing Kim in Miss Saigon?
--Yeah. It's it's actually little weird cuz you
know I grew up with the music and it was always something that I loved to sing.. I
loved, I always wanted to go see it. And I saw it when I was in high school, but
when I showed my interest in theater, everyone was always like, Oh, you'd be the
best Kim in Miss Saigon. And it was like such it was such an honor when people told me
that, but at the same time, it was kind of interesting because that was one of the
only roles that people saw me as because it's one of the only Asian roles.
But, actually getting to do it and hopefully be that for someone else it's
pretty cool.
--No. Absolutely, and we we were lucky enough to host a conversation with
you and Eva Noblezada and Lea Salonga. What did that conversation with those
two remarkable women who have both made names for themselves in this role, and
your research, how did all of that help prepare you for taking on this role?
--Yeah, you know, just talking and hearing all the wisdom they had to
impart from experience was so enlightening.
Eva has been a really good friend of mine since we did the show in New York
together, and she's just always had my back. She gave me a call before we went
in the next day, she was like if you need anything, like, let me know. I got you.
And just to hear about their experience in it, and especially their
process to find their Kim, it's just you know it's very different. Everyone
goes at it at a different angle, but both of their kins are just so remarkably
beautiful that it's it's cool to see, like to learn from them, and learn the
differences between how to portray her.
--Right, right, would you say there's a a
Kim sisterhood between the three of you?
--I think so . I think there's a lot about
this role that you know when you do it, you learn a lot. You learn a lot from
doing it, so, yeah definitely. Yeah, shared experience of course. As you
mentioned, you made your Broadway debut in Miss Saigon, understudying the role of
Kim. What do you remember most fondly about that amazing experience?
--There's this moment in Saigon where it's just it's the beginning, and Kim's is the only
one on stage, and she looks up cause she hears a helicopter, and you take a hat back and
you look up. And then all of a sudden, the world just commences and everything
floods in and the whole cast comes onstage. And I just remember the
first time going on for it, it was just like Whoa, like, I'm here. All the all the
jitters kind of went away. They just slowly started to melt away as the music
started playing. And you know the spotlight came up, I turn
around and there's vendors and there's you know people going to work. And it was
just the sounds of the street. It was such a cool experience because I I got
to be on stage every night, which was amazing. But seeing it from a different
angle, not my normal track, that was that was really cool. --Yeah, and obviously
much has been made about how demanding and grueling the role of Kim can be, for
obvious reasons, but what's something that playing this role in researching
all of this what's what's something that you've learned what is something that
playing Kim has taught you about Emily.
--Hmm that's interesting. You know, I think
something that I learned and am still learning is the challenge of trying to
find motherly love. Because I'm not a mother --Right. You're young.
--Yeah, I've
never have a kid, and you know I have my brother and my sister and I have a
strong very very strong love for them, but through this process, I you know
it's not the same sisterly love isn't the same as motherly love. And that
has been a challenge that I'm still trying to find. But it's also opened my
eyes to how much is in me that I need to give, and how much I can give. And
trying to find that balance and trying to find how, how to open myself up to be
able to give that much emotion. -- This production is directed by the wonderful
Lawrence Connor, who is incredible. What do you love most about this production
of Miss Saigon, and why are you excited for audiences all across North America
to be able to see it?
--Oh man. I love, I love working with Lawrence because he
just he really lets us discover what the scenes can be. He gives us a direction
and he lets us play around with it, and then we pick and choose what works. And
it's just and I feel like the show, because of it, it's just more natural and
it's more real and raw. And we're able to discover little bits in the show that
make it alive, and keep it keep it flowing. So, I think what audiences are
gonna be able to see is a living piece of theater which is just I think really cool
and just this story is gonna be so important to tell. --Yeah. Absolutely.
You're someone who's done this production many times now. Is there a
moment in the show or moments that still catch your breath that still give you
chills. --Totally totally
--What are they? --I'm getting chills thinking about it right now
um the nightmare scene. It's my favorite scene. It's so, oh god, that scene it's
just everything wrapped into one. It's, but it's so heartbreakingly beautiful
at the end, and it takes so much out of every single
person on that stage, and the orchestra, crew, on the creative side, to get that
scene to what it needs to be. And, you know, after all that hard work is
done and we do it every night, it's just it's the heartbreaking moment os that
helicopter flying out, and just the Vietnamese ensemble onstage watching it
fly away. It's just --It's iconic
--Yeah.
So iconic, and you know I think a lot of big
thing about the show is that everyone knows it as the helicopter show. But when
you see that helicopter, it's just it's so much more than just scenery. It's it's,
we watch a lot of documentaries to get in the mindset, and to learn about
the history behind it. And there are a bunch of scenes from different documentaries
of just a helicopter flying away, and people hanging off of it. So,
that scene, just representing that completely real event is just so
breathtaking, so heartbreaking --More than just stagecraft that sort of when
you know the emotional heft of that. --Yeah
--Is incredible. By going across the
country like this, you are gonna have some people in the audience that have
seen that are seeing Saigon for like the tenth time. But you're gonna have a
lot of people in that audience that are experiencing their very first Miss
Saigon. What do you hope all of them take away from this experience from this show?
--I hope that they are able to take away the love from the show. This show has a lot
of love to give, and points it's hard to see that just because of how intense and
how emotional it is. But, at the end of the day, it's a show about love standing
the test of time, and even in the most broken of places, you will find love
there. It's just it's hard, and love's not easy. But that belief and
that strength in love is completely present.
--Thank you so much for coming in, Emily. --Yeah!
Thank you for having me. --Of course. Good luck on the tour.