Photo By Ken Howard

Jennifer Paz is Kim and Alan Gillespie is Chris in Miss Saigon at the Aronoff Center.

Based on the operatic Madame Butterfly, musical theater's Miss Saigon, currently onstage at the Aronoff Center, conveys a heart-rending tragedy with lots of victims and no bad guys. It's really about war's horrendous devastation, something that's again painfully present in our world.

Don't let anyone tell you that Vietnam-era soldier Chris (Alan Gillespie) is uncaring: While his fling with an innocent Vietnamese girl begins in a moment of confused desire, his feelings for Kim (Jennifer Paz) are genuine ("Why God Why?") and returned ("Sun and Moon"). Circumstances create the tragedy: After an intense two weeks, they're separated by the war. They both suffer, but their respective cultures lead them to different choices and conclusions -- until their paths tragically cross again. Miss Saigon offers an ironic commentary via "The Engineer" (Johann Michael Camat), an entrepreneurial pimp who survives, no matter who's in charge, keeping his eye on "The American Dream," a cynical vision if there ever was one.

The material is solid (Miss Saigon comes from the creators of Les Misérables), but this non-Equity tour, on the AFL-CIO's official boycott list, cuts corners in detrimental ways. A shoddy job with sound reproduction on opening night left many in the audience unable to understand the lyrics and dialogue. By the second act, there was improvement (the moving song, "Bui-Doi," about mixed breed children left behind in Vietnam by soldiers was powerful and crisp), but when tickets go for as much as $60 there's no excuse for such problems. It should also be noted that the blaring orchestra uses a bare minimum of musicians, supplemented electronically. It's one more way low-budget tours increase their profit margins. Audiences ought to be more demanding.

This young cast has solid talent, especially Camat as The Engineer, who is charismatic and funny in several numbers. The famous helicopter arrival (now an impressive video effect) is still a focal point, and the colorful pageantry in Ho Chi Minh city (with a paper lion and dragon doing battle) is stirring and memorable. But pretty stage pictures don't compensate for muddy sound. This show's complex, emotional lyrics need to be heard and understood. Grade: B-

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MISS SAIGON, presented by Broadway in Cincinnati, continues through Sunday at the Aronoff Center's Procter & Gamble Hall.