Starlight closes its season with a bang this month with an expertly sung production of "Miss Saigon."

The glitzy, on-the-edge musical —— written by "Les Miserables" creators Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg —— is known for its huge production numbers, its gigantic, high-tech sets and its ambitious, sung-through score. Up until this month, "Miss Saigon" has only been seen locally in high-end tours, so Starlight's production marks the 1989 musical's regional theater premiere in San Diego.

How well does Starlight do? Very. The singing cast is excellent. The rented scenery (including a hydraulically controlled helicopter and classic Cadillac) is first-rate. Parmer Fuller's conducting and musical direction is of opera-house standards. And Brian Wells' direction is fast-paced and faithful to Cameron Mackintosh's original concept.

Based on Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly," "Miss Saigon" begins in the waning days of the Vietnam War. Chris, a U.S. soldier stationed in Saigon in 1975, falls in love with Kim, a young Vietnamese girl he meets on her first night as a bar girl. When Saigon falls weeks later, Chris is forced to evacuate and leave Kim behind. Hopscotching forward three years, Kim and her Amerasian son, Tam, escape Vietnam by boat to a U.S. refugee camp in Thailand, where they faithfully await Chris' return. But their waiting is in vain, as Chris has married and apparently moved on with his life.

While the love story is the emotional core of "Miss Saigon," the show's lifeblood is the Engineer, a smarmy Eurasian wheeler-dealer who will do anything for a buck. Desperate to reach the land of opportunity, the Engineer arranges to bring Chris and Kim back together in hopes of securing a U.S. travel visa for himself.

The story is set against a garish, gritty backdrop of bamboo shacks and flashing neon strip joints, and it's lushly embroidered with a pretty score that's similar in its operatic-recitative style to "Les Miz." The musical is stocked with melodic duets and big-finish solos that are very well performed by a Broadway-quality cast.

As Kim, Jennifer Paz has a sweet, vulnerable stage presence and a lovely, rich soprano singing voice. She's well-matched by Carlsbad's Robert Townsend as Chris. Up until now, Townsend's stock in trade around town has been playing earnest, likeable and funny leading men, and here he's given a chance to stretch both his singing and acting abilities, which he does impressively.

Victor Chan is delightful as the Engineer. Despite playing a smarmy character, Chan is so charismatic in the part that you'll end up in his corner, particularly during the second-act showstopper "The American Dream." Heidi Meyer, a second-year med student at UC San Diego who spent two years in the Broadway company of "Miss Saigon," has a big, powerful voice and a sympathetic personality as Chris' bewildered wife, Ellen.

Another large voice in the cast is that of Jim Chatham, who plays John, an ex-G.I. who heads an agency dedicated to caring for the more than 20,000 Amerasian children left behind in Vietnam by U.S. soldiers. Chatham's achingly moving performance of "Bui-Doi" (the Vietnamese name for these mixed-race children) accompanied by a real video of the children taken in a 1970s-era refugee camp, is heart-wrenching.

Carlos Mendoza is bold and menacing as Kim's Viet Cong fiance, Thuy, and the quartet of Joyelle Cabato, Zandi de Jesus, Kathleen Calvin and Judy Ho round out the principal cast as the sexy bar girls.

"Miss Saigon" is known as a technical nightmare because of its constantly moving sets, lighting demands and giant production numbers. The show's most famous scene is the evacuation of the American embassy, featuring a huge helicopter, complete with spinning prop, and the sad tableau of dozens of Vietnamese frantically trying to scramble over the embassy gates to reach the aircraft as Saigon falls to the Viet Cong. The scene does not disappoint here, though dim lighting makes it hard to see the soldiers board the chopper before it lifts off.

The only technical problems I saw on opening weekend were sound-related. Head mikes occasionally shorted out and were sometimes drowned out by overflying aircraft. It was also difficult to distinguish vocal solos in the crowded bar scenes.

Fuller masterfully leads the large orchestra through the complex score, and David Brannen created the lively, sexy choreography. "Miss Saigon" is an adult musical with themes and language not suitable for children under the age of 13. While audiences won't be disappointed by the show's spectacle or singing, they should be advised that this isn't family-friendly. And —- because it's based on a Puccini opera —— they probably shouldn't expect a happy ending.

"Miss Saigon" runs two hours, 45 minutes, with intermission.