“Miss Saigon,” with its helicopters, Vietnamese street scenes and doomed romance, is one of the most intense experiences in musical theater.

This exemplary production by the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre ratchets up the intensity even higher than usual with its swift pace, high volume and national-class talent, led by Brian Jose as the Engineer and Mia Yoshida as Kim.

If anything, this “Miss Saigon” is too intense, with nearly every song building to a dramatic crescendo and nearly every scene engineered to break your heart. The whole show is as operatic as any grand opera, which is no surprise, considering that the story is essentially “Madame Butterfly” transported to Vietnam in 1975 and 1978.

Calling a show “too intense” is hardly a criticism, since it means that director Kirk Mouser and his wildly talented cast do their jobs well and then some. Yet I thought it wise to alert you that “Miss Saigon” is no “Dames at Sea.” It’s the furthest you can get from a lighthearted musical romp.

The plot is simple. An American GI meets a 17-year-old Vietnamese bar girl named Kim. They fall instantly and passionately in love. He goes back to the States. She stays in Vietnam and has his son. She believes, with all her heart, he will return, marry her and take her to a better life in the U.S. He returns, all right, but not in the way she has dreamed.

This simple plot is dramatically heightened by the fact that much of it takes place as Saigon is poised to fall. Also, many scenes are set in various girlie clubs. You’ll see plenty of bumping and grinding.

The CdA Summer Theatre stages this with a smaller budget than the national touring production, but all of the talent. Many cast members are veterans of the national tour, including Dane Stokinger, who excels both dramatically and vocally as Chris. Many supporting players are also seasoned “Miss Saigon” vets. The quality remains high right on down through the ensemble.

Jose, who played the Engineer on the national tour, gives a charismatic, tour-de-force performance as he swaggers his way through the various bars where he serves as part emcee, part pimp. Imagine a diminutive, Vietnamese Rick James in a purple suit and pimp boots, and you’ll get the idea.

The Engineer is brazen, scummy and strictly out for himself – yet Jose makes him into the most fascinating and oddly empathetic character in the show. His big numbers, “If You Want to Die in Bed” and the Fosse-esque “The American Dream,” are easily the show’s musical high points. Jose is, in other words, as good as it gets.

The show’s best surprise is how perfectly Yoshida fits in with all of this top national talent. Yoshida is a 19-year-old freshman at Washington State University whose previous experience consisted of playing Kim at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane. Yet she is as talented and professional as any of the veterans. She has a gorgeous and well-trained voice, displayed in a dozen different and demanding songs.

She is in practically every scene, and, frankly, I was awestruck by the emotional depth and power that Yoshida was able to summon – and maintain – throughout this long, draining performance. She’s a natural.

As for the famous helicopter scene, no, the CdA Summer Theatre does not have the budget to build a complete hydraulically controlled helicopter. Instead, Mouser, set designer Michael McGiveney, lighting designer Joel Williamson and sound designer John Gallegos choreographed an effective bit of subterfuge that gave us the distinct impression of a copter landing and taking off.

At intermission, I overheard a complaint worth addressing – that the lyrics were impossible to understand. Legibility was indeed an issue, partly because the volume was a little screechy on the high end, but mostly because the songs were performed at what seemed like an especially fast tempo. The singers could barely get all the words out fast enough. That said, I have heard this same complaint at almost every musical I’ve ever attended. No, you will never be able to decipher every lyric on one hearing. For that, you need the soundtrack and a lyric sheet.

As for the score itself, it sounds a lot like “Les Miserables,” since it was written by the same team of Boublil and Schonberg. It does not quite hit the same heights as “Les Miz,” just because it is essentially a love story and doesn’t attempt to range over as many social and historical themes. And it is, quite frankly, a downer in the way of all tragedies.

Yet it succeeds totally in planting you in the middle of a heightened, dramatic world and providing you with emotional, cathartic release. “Miss Saigon” accomplishes, in other words, what some of the best and most timeless theater sets out to do.