‘Miss Saigon’ Sings Prior to Broadway

Unless you’re willing to fly to London, you can’t possibly see “Miss Saigon,” theater impresario Cameron Mackintosh’s latest musical extravaganza. But you can buy the original London cast recording this week--even though the musical won’t open on Broadway until sometime in the spring of 1991.

What’s the rush?

“Through the success other labels had with ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ we’ve realized there’s an incredible market for cast recordings, long before the show actually arrives here,” said Geffen Records president Ed Rosenblatt, whose label is releasing the double-album (and two CD) cast recording. “These kinds of shows are worldwide media events.”

In fact, Rosenblatt predicts that the London cast recording, whose CDs sell for a whopping $31.98 (the double-album on vinyl goes for $19.98) will break the platinum barrier of 1 million copies sold before the show arrives in the States.

If so, the sales success will be a testimony to the new global reach of such high-tech entertainment packages as “Miss Saigon,” which like its “Les Miz” predecessor, is more of an event than a traditional stage musical. (Reviewing the show, which is set in crumbling 1975 Saigon, Newsweek dubbed it “ ‘Madame Butterfly’ with choppers.”)

It would be the lastest in a series of recorded stage shows that reached America before the show itself. “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita” and “Chess” were earlier examples of the trend.

It’s somehow fitting that Geffen, which owns a “significant” chunk of the the “Miss Saigon” production, is releasing the London cast recording at a time when the record business is abuzz with reports that industry giant EMI is negotiating to either buy Geffen or distribute its musical releases worldwide. In an era when entertainment conglomerates eagerly gobble up new product, Geffen’s release of the “Saigon” score is a perfect example of corporate synergy.

“ ‘Miss Saigon’ is the ultimate in synergy,” Rosenblatt said. “The cast album helps advertise the show. And then when people see the show, they want to buy the album. So it works on both ends.”

So far, this marketing scheme has paid off in record sales for Geffen. It’s distribution of “Cats” has topped the 2 million mark, while “Les Miz” is at 950,000 and “Dreamgirls” has sold a solid 500,000 copies.

PolyGram Records, which distributes original cast recordings of both Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” and “Aspects of Love,” has enjoyed equal success. The double-CD set of “Phantom,” which was released five months before the show hit Broadway, has now sold nearly 1.5 million copies, an impressive figure, especially considering that PolyGram also released a single-CD “highlights” package that sold an additional 600,000 copies.

Polygram marketing chief Jim Urie credits the label’s aggressive marketing strategy with stimulating sales. After the show hit Broadway, PolyGram organized contests at many adult-contemporary radio stations, sponsoring ticket giveaways and free trips to New York to see the show.

“People’s motivations for buying scores and sound tracks are completely different,” said Urie, PolyGram’s senior vice president of marketing. “People buy movie sound tracks because of a hit song. But they buy original cast recordings because of the show’s story line or because of the event-atmosphere surrounding it.”

Still, original scores are expensive to market and produce. Rosenblatt says Geffen has earmarked an initial ad budget of $500,000 for the cast album, which cost another $250,000--or more--to produce. Thankfully, the media provides a generous boost of free advertising. Even though “Miss Saigon” isn’t due here for another year, the splashy show has already received write-ups in Time, Life, People and Newsweek and many key newspapers.

“An awful lot of Americans have already been over to London, as tourists, to see the show,” said Rosenblatt. “And then there’s always a ton of people who just want to own an original cast recording. It’s like having a first-edition of a popular new book. They’ll probably want to buy the American cast recording too.”

And talk about synergy. Guess who’ll be putting out the American cast recording, within two months of “Miss Saigon’s” opening day on Broadway? Geffen Records, of course.