IT'S one of the most successful musicals in history and it's returning to Southampton next week.

Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical Miss Saigon opens at Mayflower Theatre on Wednesday.

The epic tale tells the story of the last days of the Vietnam War, 17 year-old Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by a notorious character known as the Engineer. There she meets and falls in love with an American GI named Chris but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For three years Kim goes on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he's fathered a son.

Claude-Michel Schönberg, the book co-writer and composer on Saigon as well as Les Miserables, told the Daily Echo, how the show originally came about.

He said: "I always dreamed of turning Madam Butterfly the opera into a musical. I always felt there was an updated version that could be done, set in modern times, but it was exactly when and where to do it.

"I'd had various thoughts on location. It was only when I took a break for coffee in 1986 when we were transferring Les Miserables in the West End and was going through a magazine when this picture just leapt out.

"It was of a Vietnamese woman at an airport travelling to the USA to meet the GI father she had never met. It was such a powerful picture and at the same time such a huge sacrifice from the mother for her daughter. I was totally absorbed by it and spoke to Alan (Boublil) and said imagine setting it in Vietnam at the end of the war. With very little hesitation we started to write the story of little Kim.

"Until you do a first performance, you don't know if you've got a Citroen 2CV or a Ferrari on your hands. Plus, in 1989, just 14 years after the fall of Saigon, it was risky, but London loved it from the start. It was a huge success in New York, but it was many many years before it was accepted.

"The touring version is is the new production you have in London to celebrate the 25th anniversary."

The original Broadway production of Miss Saigon opened on April 11, 1991 with what was the largest advance sale in Broadway history ($37 million). The show went on to play for nearly ten years and 4,063 performances seen by more than 5.9 million people.

Miss Saigon has been performed in 28 countries, over 300 cities in 15 different languages, has won over 40 awards including two Olivier Awards, three Tony Awards, and four Drama Desk Awards and been seen by over 35 million people worldwide.

Tickets for Miss Saigon, which runs until March 17, are on sale from 023 8071 1811 or online at mayflower.org.uk.