Audiences who have never before witnessed the wrenching emotions and guilt that drive "Miss Saigon" don't know how good it can feel to feel so bad.

At Pittsburgh CLO's reprise of its 2003 production Tuesday night, I counted three young women, all born well after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, wiping away tears as they left their seats.

The splashy pop opera reveals the toll of war through the eyes of young Kim and the jaded Engineer as their country takes a physical and mental wartime beating, while America takes it on the chin even when its dazed and confused soldiers try to do the right thing.

As the star-crossed lovers of "Miss Saigon," Aaron Ramey and Ma-Anne Dionisio embody the countries they represent. The strapping Mr. Ramey plays Chris, a well-meaning Marine who gives his heart to sweet, fragile Kim. His powerful tenor and size -- he towers over Ms. Dionisio -- add to the notion that she would find a safe harbor in his arms.

Teenager Kim has seen her parents burned to death and fled an arranged marriage with her cousin, only to end up as a "bar girl" catering to U.S. troops.

Chris and Kim sing beautifully, fall for each other quickly and love deeply in a bed above the bar.

Like the war, it can't end well.

Chris sums up the soldiers' regret in "The Confrontation":

"I wanted to save her, protect her

Christ, I'm American, how could I fail to do good?

All I made was a mess, just like everyone else

In a place full of mystery that I never once understood."

His is one side of the shattered American dream; a soldier who did his duty and came home to start over, with a tall, blonde wife and a preppy life -- and nightmares about what he left behind. The Engineer, played to the hilt once again for CLO by the charismatic Kevin Gray, is another side: He embraces a greed-is-good concept of the good life, where the ideal of dying in bed is a given rather than a desperate hope.

Kim is the injured third party, who against all odds refuses to let go of love, even after she is separated from Chris during the fall of Saigon. She finds herself alone, pregnant and hiding from her cousin, who has become an officer for the invaders and wants her to honor her vows.

Mr. Gray and Ms. Dionisio have lived these roles over many performances in many cities, and Mr. Ramey, too, has played Chris before. Their experience in the central roles pays dividends. Mr. Ramey is believable as a well-meaning lug caught in impossible circumstances and Ms. Dionisio's agony at having loved and lost is palpable.

Mr. Gray steals his scenes and the show as the manipulative Engineer; his sleazy insincerity is riveting, particularly in "The American Dream," which finds him imagining a theater full of Marilyn Monroes, tuxedoed dandies and sequined beauties.

The number is just one feat in a tight production directed by Barry Ivan, who also directed the 2003 CLO show. This "Miss Saigon" features a strong ensemble and secondary players, particularly Josh Tower as Chris' stalwart friend, John, who becomes an advocate for Vietnam's bui doi -- abandoned children of GIs and natives. Becca Ayers lends an air of WASP-y iron will to Chris' American wife, and Devin Ilaw, a 2007 CMU grad, is appropriately menacing as Kim's cousin, Thuy.

I admit that I thought I was over the spectacle that is the helicopter evacuation during the fall of Saigon, the iconic scene in the musical. When it arrived in the second act, as the story moves back and forth in time, I had to rethink that evaluation. With Kim and other desperate Vietnamese pounding at gates on either side, it emerged into the embassy yard from the night sky as a monstrous face, then receded with all Americans aboard and headlight eyes still glaring in the dark.

It got the job done and allowed the teary-eyed and clear-eyed among the audience to leave "Miss Saigon" in conversation about the performances and the effects of nations at war, and not a special effect.

This CLO co-production with Toronto's Dancap is a reunion for Ms. Dionisio and Mr. Gray, who played Kim and the Engineer in Canada's first "Miss Saigon" in 1993. The show moves into Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on July 9.

In his rave review of CLO's 2003 production, the Post-Gazette's John Hayes noted, "With skanky bikini bumps and grinds, adult language and frank and mature subject matter, 'Miss Saigon' is a show that should be watched while the baby sitter watches the kids."

That's still the case as "Miss Saigon" focuses a sharp lens on lives shattered by the Vietnam War.

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