By Carolyn Hayes

Broadway in Detroit’s 2013–14 season begins by overtaking the Fisher Theatre with the pop-opera extravaganza “Miss Saigon” (music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., and Alain Boublil). With a cast of nearly three dozen and stupendous technical expectations, this production, led by director Fred Hanson, effectually expresses the scope of the civilian costs and unspeakable sacrifices of the Vietnam War – more effectively, in fact, than it conveys the central story of love and loss intended to give such suffering a face.

Beginning in 1975 Saigon, with the city’s fall imminent, the musical is framed through the lens of U.S. Marine Chris (Charlie Brady) and 17-year-old Vietnamese orphan Kim (Manna Nichols). The two meet during Kim’s first night at a bar-brothel and are quickly matched, but their whirlwind romance is cut short by an impromptu departure under extreme duress. From there, the story chases them through three years of brutal re-education under a Communist regime, touches down briefly in the States, and finally convenes in 1978 Bangkok, where the living embodiment of their tarnished past brings the onetime lovers to an ill-fated reunion.

Visually, the exotic locale is beset by clamoring influences of poverty, power, and lucrative sleaze. Michael Ananaia’s set design whisks bamboo- and camouflage-tinged dioramas across the space, permeated with rich hues and garish highlights by lighting designer Kirk Bookman. Costumer Robert Fletcher and hair and wig designer Joanne Weaver similarly cover the spectrum, continually remaking the production’s entire busy ensemble into foot soldiers, sex workers, tourists, civilians, and more.

And truly, the cast is possessed of multitudes. Highlights include the bar girls, who are triumphantly bold with Baayork Lee’s provocative and taxing choreography, the opportunist Engineer (Orville Mendoza), who sparkles with comic desperation whenever the chips are down, and a show-stopping second-act number led by Nkrumah Gatling, the zenith of a strong showing by music director Kevin Stites. The last of these is supplemented by real film footage of children born of Vietnamese women and long-gone GIs – a touch of realism that helps bring home the production’s many affecting moments of senseless injury and untenable circumstances that come with war and its chaotic aftermath.

But although the larger context is intriguing in how it simultaneously instigates and mars the core story, the main arc itself limps through its long trudge of moony separation. Nichols and Brady bring vocal proficiency to their roles, but struggle to distinguish what makes their specific connection so uniquely vital and true. Thanks in part to haphazard direction that fizzles in intimate second-act scenes, the show ultimately can’t substantiate an inscrutable, wooden Chris opposite a Kim possessed of all the singular lovelorn focus of a Disney princess.

“Miss Saigon” is one among a school of blockbuster spectacle musicals, known for its epic technical achievements, epic length, and timeless story of epic love. The present production may represent a mixed bag of the above, but it benefits from the show’s quick song turnover and reliance on ensemble work. Even if something isn’t sparking, the viewer needs only to wait a minute or two for the next transformation to another place, another stirring misfortune, and another melody.