Musical «Không Gia Đình» (Nobody's Boy / Sans Famille)

   An orphan boy sold to a travelling showman, a poor but decent old street musician, a dog called Capi and a monkey called Joli-Cœur: a book several generations grew up with, retold with a live band, songs and choreography. It is an evening show in central Hanoi.

   The musical is adapted from «Sans Famille» by the French writer Hector Malot, first published in Paris in 1878. The staging keeps the adventure line of the novel: a child growing up through loss and hardship, and the plain answer the book leaves behind — a family is where you are loved and where you belong.

   What went into the Nhà hát Tuổi Trẻ production:

• — directed by Lê Ánh Tuyết, script by Bùi Hồng Quế
• — music edited by Lê Ánh Tuyết and Trần Thế Cường, arrangements by Vũ Huyền Trung, Nguyễn Hồng Sơn and Nguyễn Lâm Tới
• — Vietnamese lyrics and vocal coaching by Trần Thế Cường, Nguyễn Hải Yến and Nguyễn Tuấn Nghĩa
• — set design by Đặng Minh Tuấn, lighting by Lưu Hải Phong, costumes by Hoàng Tùng and Hoàng Hòe
• — choreography by Nguyễn Vũ Khánh, Nguyễn Thành Công and Nguyễn Trần Phương; artistic direction by Nguyễn Sĩ Tiến

   It is the first time the Youth Theatre has put the novel on its stage, and it went all in with a full musical: the production premiered for International Children's Day, 1 June 2025. The show runs just over an hour, and the cast do three jobs at once the whole way through — acting, singing and dancing. The score reworks classical melodies with a modern touch, and the set frames the journey with the quiet countryside of 19th-century France, through which old Vitalis's little troupe walks with Rémi — a boy who believed he had a mother until he learned he was a foundling, sold to the travelling showman. The message the company puts at the centre is a simple one: keep going and the light will be found, and kindness is real.

   It suits children who have read the book or are about to, and parents who grew up with Rémi themselves. The story does not hide the hunger, the cold or the partings, yet it always keeps one light on: keep walking and you will find your way home.

   The theatre has one showing of the piece on sale, on the evening of Sunday, 1 November, at 20:00. Doors open an hour before curtain and seating is split into three blocks, A, B and C. Tickets cost 120,000–180,000 VND in three categories (C, B and A) — the exact figure appears once you pick a seat on the plan.

   The performance is in Vietnamese. Most of it is carried by songs, dance and music, so younger children who cannot yet follow dialogue still keep hold of the story.

   Book the evening of 1 November, walk the road with Rémi and come home a little lighter.