Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-03-05 02:56 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-03-05 02:56 pm
Entry tags:
Big giant revival review o' doom!
Encompasses the matinee and evening shows of both December 6th and February 24th. Including the show where the Rue Plumet gate broke!
Performers
- Alexander Gemignani: Mixed feelings here. There are certain parts of the show he has definitely put a lot of thought into, and he's excellent at conveying not only Valjean's emotions but the flow of his train of thought during "What Have I Done?" and "Who Am I?" He also has some really nice little touches, like the manic chuckle before "He thought that man was me!" and his frantic attempts not to be recognized in the Robbery/Javert's Intervention. But in some scenes, like the well scene/Valjean's spiel to the Thénardiers/Waltz of Treachery, if he put effort into coming up with an interpretation, it's not showing. Maybe I've been spoiled by all the tales of JOJ's eyebrow acting, but Alex seemed really blah in Waltz of Treachery. There were also some things I just flat-out didn't agree with, like how angry his Valjean was. There's something bestial about his performance that works really well in the prologue, but later in the show it just morphs into Crankypants Valjean. The only times I caught him showing actual tenderness were in the epilogue and to Fantine; you could tell he was tormented about having to hide his past from Cosette, but that didn't stop him from being incredibly stern with her most of the time. He also sounded downright pissed off at Javert when he let him go, like there was an unspoken addendum of "I'm a man, no worse than any man, and if you persist in assuming I have no morals I am going to smackabitch." Vocally I am not impressed; he's great in full voice, but his falsetto is really strained and in the Saturday matinee he even cracked on the first line of BHH. (And that icky, icky vowel on "how soon they fly on and on" just yanked me right out of the song.)
- Norm Lewis: Has improved since early December. The first time I saw him, Norm had a very definite thing going on with Javert: as stiff and machine-like as possible for the entire show, contrasted with a spectacular breakdown in the Suicide. It's a valid interpretation, but it made him really boring to watch until his last ten minutes onstage. He's loosened up quite a bit since then. Still stiff, but it doesn't impede his performance anymore, except that last bit of Javert's Intervention before Stars ("Could it be he's some old jailbird," etc.), which he still insists on singing like a human metronome. I was really enjoying watching him this time around. His deterioration in the second act is also much more gradual and built up to than the sudden snap in December--he goes through stages of fury and bewilderment when Valjean lets him go and when he finds him in the sewers, with an accompanying gradual loss of control. His random shouting in these last few incidents and in the Suicide, however, implies histrionic actor more than it implies upset character. If he ditched that he'd be fine. And his voice, of course, is made of awesome; you don't really get the full effect during most of his scenes, but in Stars? Yum.
- Daphne Rubin-Vega: We all know her voice sucks by now, don't we? She sounded like she was losing her voice the whole time, and whenever she pushed it she also sounded like she was hurting herself. At least she sounded appropriately consumptive during Come to Me. Her acting was fairly good, at least, though I'm still not sure exactly what she was trying to do with the character. I definitely got an impression of a Fantine trying desperately to hold on to the last scraps of her dignity in Lovely Ladies, the bit with Bamatabois (where she was definitely one sassy bitch), and the Arrest, but at the same time she was really playing up the broken, hopeless aspect of the character. She didn't seem to know what to do with IDAD at all, just gestured a bit at random moments. Definitely the weak link in the revival, and I'm so glad she's gone.
- Nikki Renée Daniels: Okay, guys, after having seen nobody but Joan and Daphne in the role of Fantine, I was almost crying with relief over Nikki's performance. She's great, and also the first good Fantine I've ever seen live. Beautiful, beautiful voice. Acting was solid but nothing new; a lot of the power of her performance was riding on her voice, but hey, when you have a voice that pretty, it works. And apparently the blocking changes to IDAD were mostly Daphne's thing, because Nikki was doing the same old bit with her back turned to the audience and letting her hair down and all that. (Haviland Stillwell, however, faced the audience. I guess there's a lot more room for blocking changes in the revival.) I have, alas, already forgotten whether it was Nikki or Haviland who played most of the show post-IDAD as totally shell-shocked and numb, but I think it was Nikki.
- Haviland Stillwell: 2nd u/s Fantine, or I suppose she's first u/s in the weeks that Nikki's principal. One tough cookie of a Fantine. She was totally ready to brush off Locket Lady and Hair Hag, and was looking at Bamatabois like "Oh, fuck off, you creep." Okay, maybe my perception of her as tough was influenced by the fact that I wasn't close enough to see the nuances of her performance, so I kept having to blink and remind myself that she wasn't Factory Girl anymore. But I remember those incidents pretty clearly. Pretty voice also, though she seemed to be having some support or register problems.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_iphigeneia didn't notice, but I have the same problems singing Fantine's parts and know what it sounds like, so maybe it's only noticeable to people with a break around E flat? Heh. She came in with "Take my hand" a verse too early in the finale and had to repeat it, but it was her first performance so the appropriate slack has been cut.
- Tess Adams: No longer tries to belt Castle on a Cloud, yay! Is, however, copying the OLC now, so her accent comes out really funny in places.
- Kylie Liya Goldstein: Still trying to belt her parts, and it still sounds ew. Also does not blend with Alex at all when they're in counterpoint.
- Gary Beach: Not funny. Okay, mildly amusing in places, but it's hard to be Thénardier and miss every joke. He's trying too hard to break the mold and go after different things, things which he cannot wring humor out of and which cause him to miss opportunities to be actually funny. The finger thing in Dog Eats Dog just makes me go o_O, and he completely destroyed the timing on some of my favorite moments in the Waltz of Treachery. Bah.
- Jenny Galloway: Amazing, though who would've expected anything less? Vulgar, awful, hilarious, knows how to milk the laughter out of a crowd for all it's worth, added in a thousand amusing little touches like harmonizing with the orchestra during Beggars at the Feast. The only times she seemed "off" were when she was singing with Gary.
- Brian D'Addario: Cute Gavroche. There was nothing I particularly loved or hated about him.
- Jacob Levine: Goddamn annoying. Brian has stopped shouting every other word, if he even did that in the first place, but Jacob still does it and it irritates me.
- Celia Keenan-Bolger: I was rather nonplussed by her the first time I saw her in early December; I didn't catch on to what she was doing with Eponine and frankly wasn't paying that much attention to her. After comparing notes with a few friends who described her as creepy!Eponine, stalker!Eponine, and lack-of-social-skills!Eponine, I went back and saw her again and loved her. She's not afraid to present a grubbier, creepier, and less sympathetic Eponine than fangirls are used to--she's overly forward with Marius, then wonders why he doesn't like her. She seems to spend most of the second act (okay, and part of the first act too) building up to a state of complete emotional breakdown, until she's cringing and panicking about the slightest thing in the letter scene, and her OMO is more an outgrowth of her acting than a chance for her to sit back and show off her voice. I liked that she actually looked and sounded like she was dying in ALFOR, and I liked the slightly crazy look she had about her in Look Down, though I wish she'd done more of it.
- Adam Jacobs: I know he's sort of "either love him or hate him," but I happen to love him. He's just so cute. I don't like his voice, which is still nasal and has funny vibrato, but I'm willing to overlook that because of how adorable his Marius is. When I saw him on the national tour I loved how much he played up the funny aspect of AHFOL, and he does it even more in the revival--he has a good sense of how goddamn ridiculous it is for a random boy to drop into Cosette's garden and start singing about hearts full of love, and he and Ali play off each other wonderfully. He also wasn't too touchy-feely with Celia during ALFOR; he was definitely only trying to comfort her, and one never really got the sense that Eponine was a rival for Marius' affections. I do rather wish he'd tempered his adorable dorkiness with a bit more seriousness, but all in all I like him a lot.
- Ali Ewoldt: Is also made of adorable, and has improved since I last saw her. In December I remarked (though I might not ever have posted it) that Ali had a beautiful voice, was cute as a button, and only had about three facial expressions. She was trying, but she didn't really express Cosette's frustration with Valjean, her curiosity, and her feelings for Marius as well last time as she did this time. This time I just wanted to hug her, and it was not Alex but Ali's grief over Valjean dying that made me almost burst into tears in the finale. Her Cosette is just so likeable.
- Aaron Lazar: Wow. Just wow. He's just so... Enjolraic. He's quite serious about not being taken for a "GI Joe Enjolras" (his words), and like Celia the influence from the book is obvious. Solemn, reserved, quite capable of being nice to Marius but on the whole rather distant from the rest of the students. He and Drew Sarich have subtext so thick you could practically grab a handful of it. Orgasmic voice, too--baritenor but with very powerful high notes, only complaint is that he has a tendency to go sharp now and then.
- Drew Sarich: A guilty pleasure. XD His Grantaire is way different from anything in either the book or the musical--he's still drunk and boisterous and likes to take the piss, but there's an odd sincerity underneath. He's ludicrously over the top with his Grantaire the Flamingly Gay thing, but around Drink With Me it dissolves into a nice warm glowing UST with Aaron. And he has cute puppy dog eyes.
Other Notes on the Show
Act One
- When the Bishop gives Valjean the candlesticks, Alex was staring at them with a look that could only be captioned "My precioussss."
- The reorchestrations for "What Have I Done?" (and Javert's suicide) are weird. If you showed me the original score I could point to the part that got cut and say "it just doesn't sound right without that," but since all I have is words here I'll just settle for saying they sound weird.
- I am 90% sure that the backdrop with the shutters wasn't there in the beginning of ATEOTD on the tour. Can someone back me up on this?
- There was this great moment in the factory scene where Valjean's about to leave, Fantine goes after him, and when she realizes he's not listening she turns around only to find that while she was following him everyone in the factory turned against her. It was right around "There's a kid that she's hiding in some little town."
- Costuming actually has enough money for decent Fantine wigs this time around! If only they could do something about the foreman wig.
- There are a lot of revival reorchestrations that I like. The IDAD ones are not among them. Ugh. Even with Nikki singing, they just sound weak.
- Someone has probably already explained the ladders, but here we go again: on either side of the stage, there are ladders coming down from the boxes. Certain entrances are done down these ladders, including the sailors in Lovely Ladies, and the sides of the stage in general get used a lot more than they used to be.
- There are also whores and clients conducting their business on the sides of the stage while Fantine sells stuff. This was a welcome distraction when it was Daphne, not-so-welcome when you're trying to focus on Nikki and there's a sailor getting sex0red two feet in front of you.
- Blocking for Fantine's arrest has been changed slightly for the revival. Fantine's now way off on stage right, and Norm gets to do some fun center-stage pwning of random whores before he deals with her.
- Shiny new orchestrations for Valjean's intervention; there's I think a cello echoing him on "I've seen your face before." Also, very sensible of Alex to tell the policemen, "Take her to the hospital," in between his "I will see it done!"s.
- This time I was limited view matinee and back row evening, so I couldn't see Alex's reactions to "I have only known one other," etc. But in December they were fabulous. Nervous tics ahoy when Javert was doing his spiel, and he staggered back in astonishment at "but he's just been re-arrested and he comes to court today."
- Norm's enunciation makes the line sound like "No, not even Jeanne Valjeanne."
- Norm bows and gets the hell out the instant he's done with "This time there is no mistake," and it looks really awkward. Surely a two-second pause wouldn't put the orchestra into overtime? :p
- I, um, hadn't noticed that Javert is in the courtroom until Saturday. I know Valjean needs someone to sing the "and so, Javert, you see it's true" line to, but it looks really stupid to have him be there and not catch Valjean. Even if it's Norm and he does put up a good effort to grab him.
- The hospital now has the light from a window projected on the wall, which is a nice touch.
- sdfjklj; They fixed the rhyme in Come to Me! Finally. How hard was that?
- Also Fantine is no longer staggering around the room--she sings the whole thing from in bed. All three of them did it that way, so I assume it's standard now.
- At the end of the Confrontation Alex kisses Fantine on the forehead, which I thought was sweet. (If only he could've been that sweet with Cosette.) And the blocking for their scuffle at the end is definitely different from what it was on the tour.
- Castle on a Cloud sounds really awkward with the second verse cut. Not that it matters much, since the little Cosettes in this production kind of suck.
- You'll note that everyone who comments on Master of the House has something to say about the ensemble and nothing to say about Gary? Yeah, that's because Gary's not funny and the ensemble's hilarious. At some point Drew the Drunk collapses with his head in the lap of another customer, who promptly smacks him away in horror. The lantern looks really fake though.
- Jenny milks her verse for all it's worth and by god it's funny. There is some awkwardness around the final lines, though; in December "Raise it up the master's ass!" was the only line she did with an American accent, now she just says "arse" and lets it not rhyme.
- Gary's over-acting in the Waltz of Treachery was kind of flinch-worthy. Jenny so seriously outclasses him here. And he totally destroyed the timing of both the old "Colette / Cosette" joke and "Your intentions may not be correct."
- I think the only time I've actually watched the show from the mezzanine before was at a theater in Connecticut with a tiny stage, and may I just say that the Look Down set looks so much more impressive from the orchestra. It looked so... small from the back row of the mezzanine. XD
- On the other hand, when I was right up front in the limited view section, one of the beggars plopped down in front of me with a sack full of what smelled like the entire cast's dirty socks.
- At her entrance, Celia was swaggering around in the exact same half-crazy stance I've always pictured Eponine having when she first wanders into Marius' room. She also did the Sutton Foster thing with the sprawling out on the stage and kicking her legs around. She didn't do anything like that the rest of the show, which disappoints me, but it was a nice touch.
- And she was really grabby with Adam. Really grabby. He wasn't flirty with her, just patronizing, but he didn't look as skeeved out as I would've been if I had Eponine smacking my ass at random moments.
- Adam continues to be the cutest thing ever, between the following Ali around the stage, trying to protect her from Montparnasse, and putting on his "Me! Me! Pick me!" look when Javert asks "Was there a witness to this?" After Alex and Ali run for it, he wanders around frantically looking for her, and at one point appears upstage under the bridge, making gestures I originally interpreted as a 19th century French version of the dance known in goth clubs as Beseeching Gestures To The Heavens. Then I realized he was talking to Celia on the bridge.
- Norm! Norm! I thought you'd given up on the human metronome thing, but you just had to keep it for "Could it be he's some old jailbird..." Okay, I'll forgive you, because your 'Stars' is pure, vocal sex.
- ABC Café was fun. The revival seems to have stripped down the "Enjolras and Marius are best buddies" thing (though Adam still gets a nice long hug after ALFOR) and replaced it with heaps of Enjolras/Grantaire. Accordingly, Aaron barely looked up to tell Adam he was late, and actually delivered a lot of the lines in his "our little lives don't count at all" speech straight at Drew.
- Drew has also improved since the beginning of the run. He hasn't toned it down much, but "I am agog," etc. was better than last time. He's so busy standing on tables pretending to be Don Juan that he accidentally knocks Bossuet's drink over, causing an amusing little scene that he and Nehal drag out until Aaron lays in the smackdown.
- For those who haven't heard yet, Drew's R is extremely and extravagantly gay. Off the top of my head, and excluding his interaction with Aaron, I remember him draping himself over Marius, flirting with Joly, attempting to kiss Courfeyrac, demonstrating the screwing they'll never forget by humping Bossuet, and having his head in Feuilly's lap through most of Drink With Me. Now, I appreciate a slashy R as much as the next fangirl, but Drew is way too far over the top.
- Justin Bohon as Joly has been replaced by the heartbreakingly pretty Anderson Davis.
- Drew and Celia still exchange words right after DYHTPS, but Drew no longer shouts "Oh, MARIUS!" How disappointing. XD
- The incident of the broken gate gets its own section, haha.
- The first time I saw the revival, I thought, "Oh, yay, new Cosette dress!" Now I think I like the old one better. It might have been frumpy and ugly, but at least it didn't give the impression that Cosette was wandering around the garden in her chemise.
- Alex, who really is Crankypants Valjean for most of the second act, is very stern with Ali, more so than is usual or appropriate. I was watching him closely in In my Life on Saturday, and though I did see this time that he's quite tormented about not being able to tell her anything, I still don't like how stern he is. Ali plays off it really well, though, and I suppose it does help flesh out Cosette's character and make her more likeable.
- Adam's fricking adorable in AHFOL. He's picked up on the crucial point that a random boy dropping into Cosette's garden and singing about hearts full of love is so ridiculous it's funny. He's terribly awkward and embarrassed in the beginning, going in full force and then stopping short--"A heaaaart full of loooove! Oh--um--a heart full of... song?"
- Right before he goes over the gate, Adam gives Celia his jacket, which gives her something nice to play off of in AHFOL and ODM.
- Much as I may bitch and moan about Alex's falsetto, in full voice he really is quite powerful. In fact, he was kind of drowning everyone else out in ODM, haha.
Act Two
- I really like the fife & drum rendition of DYHTPS that they use to open the second act. One of my favorite new orchestrations.
- Celia literally facepalmed and looked about ready to cry on "He said to give it to Cosette." In fact, she spent most of the time from Eponine's Errand up to OMO working up to a state of nervous breakdown.
- I wish more Valjeans would really act in the letter scene. It's important, dammit! Alex did take a nice long pause before "...you love me as well," and I liked how he went all soft when he read, "He prays for you." But somehow I wanted more than that.
- Celia set up OMO pretty well. It flowed naturally from her impending breakdown, and there was no sense of "Okay, guys, this is my big solo!" I didn't pay much attention to the song itself though. Celia might have a nice take on Eponine, but it would take a far more radical reinterpretation of OMO to make me actually pay attention.
- Also, in the evening, I was on an aisle and there were a few latecomers waiting next to me to be seated during OMO. And one of them was singing along. sdfjkl;j
- Bossuet--who, I might add, has a nice big bald spot--didn't actually seem that upset by R's surprise buttsex. In fact, he just laughed and thumped him on the back.
- And Blake Ginther is now taking the high note on "we'll be theeeere." Thank god; it sounded wrong when he went down.
- I really wish Jacob Levine would stop screaming all his lines.
- Also not liking the bit with Norm jumping away from his captors and spreading his arms. Melodramatic much?
- Celia looked pretty out of it all through ALFOR, as if she were--gasp!--really dying. In fact, at times she seemed outright delusional, which just lent that much more weight to Adam's initial "Okay, let's humor the crazy girl!" reaction. Well, maybe not humor so much as comfort. All throughout the last half he had this look like "holy crap she's really going to die in my arms," and he seemed quite traumatized by the whole thing.
- Traumatized to push Aaron away when he hugged him, in fact. Who in their right mind refuses a hug from Aaron?
- Valjean letting Javert go brings out the weakest parts of Norm's performance, IMO. It's here that the random shouting begins, and this is the scene where it's most ineffective. He's also oddly abrupt, which happened once or twice before but wasn't worthy of comment until this scene. Doesn't help that Alex is at his crankiest here, and looks about ready to smack Norm for implying that he wants a bargain.
- Drink With me is lots of cracktastic fun all around. I got over the weirdness of the onstage guitar and accordion the second or third time I saw it, but the sincerity of Drew's R is still weird. He delivers his verse without a trace of sarcasm and when he's done it's Aaron who stops another barricade boy from smacking Drew. Aaron also goes over later and whispers something in his ear, and the looks they give each other throughout DWM are so loaded with subtext that Aaron's whispering was about equally likely to be a reprimand or a proposition for some furtive snogging in the rue Mondétour.
- I also feel obliged to mention that Dan!Combeferre spends all of DWM and BHH in a corner of the barricade reading a book. <3
- BHH was eh. The forte parts were fun, but Alex's falsetto really is quite strained. Saturday matinee he even cracked on "prayer."
- Aaron's dismay in Dawn of Anguish is so wonderful. It's hard to express, but he looks so upset that he has to give the order not to waste lives.
- I don't care that most people don't like the changes to Gavroche's death. Little People fully deserved to be put out of its misery, and Ten Little Bullets is much more relevant anyway. Suck it, Kretzmer.
- All Enjolrati seem to have a different reaction to Gavroche's death. Paul Donkers let out a "NOOOO!" worthy of inclusion in the Revenge of the Sith outtakes. Victor Wallace just stood there with his head thrown back in anguish. It will never, ever cease to be entertaining that Aaron Lazar expresses his grief by staying bent over the barricade with his arse in the air.
- Adam and Aaron had almost no interaction in the final battle; I don't even think Aaron noticed Adam was down. Drew and Alex looked after Adam a bit, then Drew charged up the barricade when Aaron started waving the flag. Drew was jabbing his rifle over the barricade as though to fend off phantom soldiers, haha. I liked that.
- Jenn and I noted at intermission that the evening audience clapped for absolutely everything. So just for fun, we tried to start a round of applause for dangling Aaron because by god he deserved it, but no go. I have nothing to say about an audience that will applaud Mme Thénardier's "Mam'zelle Crapaud" spiel but not Enjolras' death.
- When Alex got up he made this little noise of horror at all the slaughter, which I thought was a nice touch.
- Norm's Suicide is very fragmented and out-of-control. I like the effect, but I really don't like the random shouting. Or his jump, which looks... unrealistic. To put it kindly.
- Still boggling at the reinstatement of Turning. Of all the cut material you could bring back, why Turning? It was one of the only cuts I was actually glad of.
- Okay. I admit it. I was not paying much attention to Adam during Empty Chairs. Like OMO, I usually don't pay attention during Empty Chairs at all unless there's some really interesting acting going on, and on top of it there's Adam's voice, which isn't nearly as appealing as his acting. In fact, I hate his voice, so ECAET = dead barricade boy ogling opportunity.
- Though really, even if Adam had a great voice, I would have forgotten all about him when Drew and Aaron put their arms around each other. OTP.
- Every Day was made of cute, thank you Ali.
- Speaking of cuts that deserved the chop more than the Turning ones, Valjean's confession just never flowed well with the cuts. Haaate.
- Mme T's new dress in the wedding is hideous. I know that's the point, but like Drew's R, it's a bit too far over the top.
- Dan was part of the circle of guests dancing with Cosette when Marius is off bargaining with the Thénardiers. I was having flashbacks to the 3nt seeing him with Ali, awwwww.
- Speaking of Ali, at some point when the Thénardiers are in the background they grab her for a dance, and I loved her confused/disgusted/terrified reaction. Just a little reminder that yes, she is theoretically playing the same character as the girl in the rags in Act I.
- Alex has improved in the finale. He still looks old - I never thought he had a problem with that, actually - but he's toned down the shaking a bit and it looks more believable now. And this is one of the few scenes where his Valjean really does melt and act all tender, and awwww.
- Daphne the broken and hoarse-voiced might have served some sort of artistic purpose in Act I but she just ruined the effect of the finale. I was so glad that Nikki and Haviland were properly ghostly Fantines and actually sounded appropriately haunting.
- Just in case the evening show wasn't exciting enough, a really annoying, bouncy ringtone came on halfway through Haviland's first entrance and its owner refused to turn it off. This may or may not have been responsible for her fumbling a verse a couple minutes later and having to repeat "take my hand."
- Ali in the finale = win. Her grief over Valjean's death almost propelled me into tears when I was up front, and her reading the letter and then diving into Adam's arms at the crescendo was just perfect.
And... whew. That shouldn't have taken a week to finish writing/typing up, but I am a lazy procrastinator, what can I say?
Exciting Things
Yes, the business with the garden gate gets its own cut, haha. What can I say, it's the first time I've seen something major go awry at a Les Mis performance, and it was exciting!
First sign that something was wrong was right as DYHTPS ended and the gate was wheeled out. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of clinking and thumping as the gate rolled out, but everything happened on time and it looked like a minor thing--the gate made it through the quarter-turn at the beginning of In My Life all right, even if one side was hanging suspiciously ajar. No, I don't think I realized that the left half of the gate wasn't anchored to the stage until Adam tried to climb over it and it rolled halfway down the stage.
Poor Adam.
It was at about that point that I noticed theninja stagehand hanging out behind the gate trying to hold it in place. Adam made it over and he and Ali did AHFOL without missing a beat. Tech tried halfheartedly to work the turntable at the end, but when they tried, the two ends of the gate crashed together and one side swung ajar again, so Adam and Ali had to exit off the side of the stage and the Attack on the Rue Plumet was performed with an incongruous garden bench in the middle of it. Celia slammed the gate shut on "There's nothing here for you!" and it just popped back open again. By that point they'd completely given up on the revolve, so they had to perform the rest of the garden scene as though the turntable were broken.
Big pause before One Day More as the fubared gate was taken offstage. I thought that would be the end of it, but no! ODM was crooked. I forget exactly what was odd about where Alex was standing at the beginning, but I put it down to disorientation until Aaron entered. On the side. I don't know what exactly was up with that, but I think it was because he had to be directly behind the grate the Thénardiers pop out of, and the revolve was in a weird position. In any case, except for a suspicious amount of sideways marching to get in the right position, ODM went on as normal. I bet the cast was happy for the excitement, haha, except maybe Adam who had to climb over the broken gate.
Stage Door
Stage door was fricking mobbed at the matinee. It must have been either the Kreeger family reunion or a field trip from Doug Kreeger's old high school, because I overheard a couple of people after the matinee talking about how neat it was to see him onstage, and he got a huge cheer when he emerged. Between the huge crowd and the normal post-matinee need to go out and grab some food, we didn't actually get to talk to anyone until the evening.
Evening was a lot more laid-back. Chatted a bit with Haviland and promised to send her a copy of the recording, and said hi to a few former 3nt folks frommmebahorel and alligatorandme. lady_iphigeneia and I also pestered Norm about whether he was leaving to do Little Mermaid anyone in the cast was leaving early, and he was incredibly evasive about it and said repeatedly that nothing is certain yet. Aaron did say that he was feeling better now and he and Drew were no longer rotating as Enjolras, so if he's leaving that's probably not the reason.
Random Things
- Yes, I have recordings of all the performances.
- Souvenir brochures are out! I'll post scans of mine if I can, but they're really worth the $10. There's a fold-out section in the back with little "Les Mis through the years" photos, but aside from that section everything is brand spanking new pictures of the revival cast. They even changed the text a little, gasp!
- Limited view orchestra is neat. People come down the ladders right in front of you, and you come in through this little alcove that has the same décor as the sets themselves--burlap curtain, grungy bucket right in front of your face, and possibly the only actual paving stones in the whole theater. They're not lying about the view being limited, so don't spring for this section if it's your first time seeing the show, but it's really neat to have a close view and actors sitting so close you could poke them if you wanted.
- However, the limited seats on house right--and, I assume, the regular right orchestra tickets in the first few rows--are bad, bad, bad for recording. That icky audio of the first preview with the mad-crazy bass and percussion was probably made from this section; you're practically sitting on the percussion section, and though it makes the louder numbers pretty exciting, it gives you a pretty skewed sound balance whether you're recording or just sitting back and enjoying the show.
- Had back row mezzanine for the evening performance, but it was only row K or L, so it's not actually that far back. I don't usually get mezzanine seats, so I was enjoying my panoramic view, haha. One last recording note, which is that if you are a nervous type, make sure you get a seat in the middle of the section if you're recording from back row. I had an aisle seat, and all the ushers in the mezzanine were hanging out right next to me before the show and for the first ten minutes of each act.
- The box seats through which the actors enter to go down the ladders are not available on Telecharge, but according to random lady at the stage door who had them, you can get them through the box office itself. Might try that next time, heh.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's a week late, feel free to kick me.
Performers
- Alexander Gemignani: Mixed feelings here. There are certain parts of the show he has definitely put a lot of thought into, and he's excellent at conveying not only Valjean's emotions but the flow of his train of thought during "What Have I Done?" and "Who Am I?" He also has some really nice little touches, like the manic chuckle before "He thought that man was me!" and his frantic attempts not to be recognized in the Robbery/Javert's Intervention. But in some scenes, like the well scene/Valjean's spiel to the Thénardiers/Waltz of Treachery, if he put effort into coming up with an interpretation, it's not showing. Maybe I've been spoiled by all the tales of JOJ's eyebrow acting, but Alex seemed really blah in Waltz of Treachery. There were also some things I just flat-out didn't agree with, like how angry his Valjean was. There's something bestial about his performance that works really well in the prologue, but later in the show it just morphs into Crankypants Valjean. The only times I caught him showing actual tenderness were in the epilogue and to Fantine; you could tell he was tormented about having to hide his past from Cosette, but that didn't stop him from being incredibly stern with her most of the time. He also sounded downright pissed off at Javert when he let him go, like there was an unspoken addendum of "I'm a man, no worse than any man, and if you persist in assuming I have no morals I am going to smackabitch." Vocally I am not impressed; he's great in full voice, but his falsetto is really strained and in the Saturday matinee he even cracked on the first line of BHH. (And that icky, icky vowel on "how soon they fly on and on" just yanked me right out of the song.)
- Norm Lewis: Has improved since early December. The first time I saw him, Norm had a very definite thing going on with Javert: as stiff and machine-like as possible for the entire show, contrasted with a spectacular breakdown in the Suicide. It's a valid interpretation, but it made him really boring to watch until his last ten minutes onstage. He's loosened up quite a bit since then. Still stiff, but it doesn't impede his performance anymore, except that last bit of Javert's Intervention before Stars ("Could it be he's some old jailbird," etc.), which he still insists on singing like a human metronome. I was really enjoying watching him this time around. His deterioration in the second act is also much more gradual and built up to than the sudden snap in December--he goes through stages of fury and bewilderment when Valjean lets him go and when he finds him in the sewers, with an accompanying gradual loss of control. His random shouting in these last few incidents and in the Suicide, however, implies histrionic actor more than it implies upset character. If he ditched that he'd be fine. And his voice, of course, is made of awesome; you don't really get the full effect during most of his scenes, but in Stars? Yum.
- Daphne Rubin-Vega: We all know her voice sucks by now, don't we? She sounded like she was losing her voice the whole time, and whenever she pushed it she also sounded like she was hurting herself. At least she sounded appropriately consumptive during Come to Me. Her acting was fairly good, at least, though I'm still not sure exactly what she was trying to do with the character. I definitely got an impression of a Fantine trying desperately to hold on to the last scraps of her dignity in Lovely Ladies, the bit with Bamatabois (where she was definitely one sassy bitch), and the Arrest, but at the same time she was really playing up the broken, hopeless aspect of the character. She didn't seem to know what to do with IDAD at all, just gestured a bit at random moments. Definitely the weak link in the revival, and I'm so glad she's gone.
- Nikki Renée Daniels: Okay, guys, after having seen nobody but Joan and Daphne in the role of Fantine, I was almost crying with relief over Nikki's performance. She's great, and also the first good Fantine I've ever seen live. Beautiful, beautiful voice. Acting was solid but nothing new; a lot of the power of her performance was riding on her voice, but hey, when you have a voice that pretty, it works. And apparently the blocking changes to IDAD were mostly Daphne's thing, because Nikki was doing the same old bit with her back turned to the audience and letting her hair down and all that. (Haviland Stillwell, however, faced the audience. I guess there's a lot more room for blocking changes in the revival.) I have, alas, already forgotten whether it was Nikki or Haviland who played most of the show post-IDAD as totally shell-shocked and numb, but I think it was Nikki.
- Haviland Stillwell: 2nd u/s Fantine, or I suppose she's first u/s in the weeks that Nikki's principal. One tough cookie of a Fantine. She was totally ready to brush off Locket Lady and Hair Hag, and was looking at Bamatabois like "Oh, fuck off, you creep." Okay, maybe my perception of her as tough was influenced by the fact that I wasn't close enough to see the nuances of her performance, so I kept having to blink and remind myself that she wasn't Factory Girl anymore. But I remember those incidents pretty clearly. Pretty voice also, though she seemed to be having some support or register problems.
lady_iphigeneia didn't notice, but I have the same problems singing Fantine's parts and know what it sounds like, so maybe it's only noticeable to people with a break around E flat? Heh. She came in with "Take my hand" a verse too early in the finale and had to repeat it, but it was her first performance so the appropriate slack has been cut.- Tess Adams: No longer tries to belt Castle on a Cloud, yay! Is, however, copying the OLC now, so her accent comes out really funny in places.
- Kylie Liya Goldstein: Still trying to belt her parts, and it still sounds ew. Also does not blend with Alex at all when they're in counterpoint.
- Gary Beach: Not funny. Okay, mildly amusing in places, but it's hard to be Thénardier and miss every joke. He's trying too hard to break the mold and go after different things, things which he cannot wring humor out of and which cause him to miss opportunities to be actually funny. The finger thing in Dog Eats Dog just makes me go o_O, and he completely destroyed the timing on some of my favorite moments in the Waltz of Treachery. Bah.
- Jenny Galloway: Amazing, though who would've expected anything less? Vulgar, awful, hilarious, knows how to milk the laughter out of a crowd for all it's worth, added in a thousand amusing little touches like harmonizing with the orchestra during Beggars at the Feast. The only times she seemed "off" were when she was singing with Gary.
- Brian D'Addario: Cute Gavroche. There was nothing I particularly loved or hated about him.
- Jacob Levine: Goddamn annoying. Brian has stopped shouting every other word, if he even did that in the first place, but Jacob still does it and it irritates me.
- Celia Keenan-Bolger: I was rather nonplussed by her the first time I saw her in early December; I didn't catch on to what she was doing with Eponine and frankly wasn't paying that much attention to her. After comparing notes with a few friends who described her as creepy!Eponine, stalker!Eponine, and lack-of-social-skills!Eponine, I went back and saw her again and loved her. She's not afraid to present a grubbier, creepier, and less sympathetic Eponine than fangirls are used to--she's overly forward with Marius, then wonders why he doesn't like her. She seems to spend most of the second act (okay, and part of the first act too) building up to a state of complete emotional breakdown, until she's cringing and panicking about the slightest thing in the letter scene, and her OMO is more an outgrowth of her acting than a chance for her to sit back and show off her voice. I liked that she actually looked and sounded like she was dying in ALFOR, and I liked the slightly crazy look she had about her in Look Down, though I wish she'd done more of it.
- Adam Jacobs: I know he's sort of "either love him or hate him," but I happen to love him. He's just so cute. I don't like his voice, which is still nasal and has funny vibrato, but I'm willing to overlook that because of how adorable his Marius is. When I saw him on the national tour I loved how much he played up the funny aspect of AHFOL, and he does it even more in the revival--he has a good sense of how goddamn ridiculous it is for a random boy to drop into Cosette's garden and start singing about hearts full of love, and he and Ali play off each other wonderfully. He also wasn't too touchy-feely with Celia during ALFOR; he was definitely only trying to comfort her, and one never really got the sense that Eponine was a rival for Marius' affections. I do rather wish he'd tempered his adorable dorkiness with a bit more seriousness, but all in all I like him a lot.
- Ali Ewoldt: Is also made of adorable, and has improved since I last saw her. In December I remarked (though I might not ever have posted it) that Ali had a beautiful voice, was cute as a button, and only had about three facial expressions. She was trying, but she didn't really express Cosette's frustration with Valjean, her curiosity, and her feelings for Marius as well last time as she did this time. This time I just wanted to hug her, and it was not Alex but Ali's grief over Valjean dying that made me almost burst into tears in the finale. Her Cosette is just so likeable.
- Aaron Lazar: Wow. Just wow. He's just so... Enjolraic. He's quite serious about not being taken for a "GI Joe Enjolras" (his words), and like Celia the influence from the book is obvious. Solemn, reserved, quite capable of being nice to Marius but on the whole rather distant from the rest of the students. He and Drew Sarich have subtext so thick you could practically grab a handful of it. Orgasmic voice, too--baritenor but with very powerful high notes, only complaint is that he has a tendency to go sharp now and then.
- Drew Sarich: A guilty pleasure. XD His Grantaire is way different from anything in either the book or the musical--he's still drunk and boisterous and likes to take the piss, but there's an odd sincerity underneath. He's ludicrously over the top with his Grantaire the Flamingly Gay thing, but around Drink With Me it dissolves into a nice warm glowing UST with Aaron. And he has cute puppy dog eyes.
Other Notes on the Show
Act One
- When the Bishop gives Valjean the candlesticks, Alex was staring at them with a look that could only be captioned "My precioussss."
- The reorchestrations for "What Have I Done?" (and Javert's suicide) are weird. If you showed me the original score I could point to the part that got cut and say "it just doesn't sound right without that," but since all I have is words here I'll just settle for saying they sound weird.
- I am 90% sure that the backdrop with the shutters wasn't there in the beginning of ATEOTD on the tour. Can someone back me up on this?
- There was this great moment in the factory scene where Valjean's about to leave, Fantine goes after him, and when she realizes he's not listening she turns around only to find that while she was following him everyone in the factory turned against her. It was right around "There's a kid that she's hiding in some little town."
- Costuming actually has enough money for decent Fantine wigs this time around! If only they could do something about the foreman wig.
- There are a lot of revival reorchestrations that I like. The IDAD ones are not among them. Ugh. Even with Nikki singing, they just sound weak.
- Someone has probably already explained the ladders, but here we go again: on either side of the stage, there are ladders coming down from the boxes. Certain entrances are done down these ladders, including the sailors in Lovely Ladies, and the sides of the stage in general get used a lot more than they used to be.
- There are also whores and clients conducting their business on the sides of the stage while Fantine sells stuff. This was a welcome distraction when it was Daphne, not-so-welcome when you're trying to focus on Nikki and there's a sailor getting sex0red two feet in front of you.
- Blocking for Fantine's arrest has been changed slightly for the revival. Fantine's now way off on stage right, and Norm gets to do some fun center-stage pwning of random whores before he deals with her.
- Shiny new orchestrations for Valjean's intervention; there's I think a cello echoing him on "I've seen your face before." Also, very sensible of Alex to tell the policemen, "Take her to the hospital," in between his "I will see it done!"s.
- This time I was limited view matinee and back row evening, so I couldn't see Alex's reactions to "I have only known one other," etc. But in December they were fabulous. Nervous tics ahoy when Javert was doing his spiel, and he staggered back in astonishment at "but he's just been re-arrested and he comes to court today."
- Norm's enunciation makes the line sound like "No, not even Jeanne Valjeanne."
- Norm bows and gets the hell out the instant he's done with "This time there is no mistake," and it looks really awkward. Surely a two-second pause wouldn't put the orchestra into overtime? :p
- I, um, hadn't noticed that Javert is in the courtroom until Saturday. I know Valjean needs someone to sing the "and so, Javert, you see it's true" line to, but it looks really stupid to have him be there and not catch Valjean. Even if it's Norm and he does put up a good effort to grab him.
- The hospital now has the light from a window projected on the wall, which is a nice touch.
- sdfjklj; They fixed the rhyme in Come to Me! Finally. How hard was that?
- Also Fantine is no longer staggering around the room--she sings the whole thing from in bed. All three of them did it that way, so I assume it's standard now.
- At the end of the Confrontation Alex kisses Fantine on the forehead, which I thought was sweet. (If only he could've been that sweet with Cosette.) And the blocking for their scuffle at the end is definitely different from what it was on the tour.
- Castle on a Cloud sounds really awkward with the second verse cut. Not that it matters much, since the little Cosettes in this production kind of suck.
- You'll note that everyone who comments on Master of the House has something to say about the ensemble and nothing to say about Gary? Yeah, that's because Gary's not funny and the ensemble's hilarious. At some point Drew the Drunk collapses with his head in the lap of another customer, who promptly smacks him away in horror. The lantern looks really fake though.
- Jenny milks her verse for all it's worth and by god it's funny. There is some awkwardness around the final lines, though; in December "Raise it up the master's ass!" was the only line she did with an American accent, now she just says "arse" and lets it not rhyme.
- Gary's over-acting in the Waltz of Treachery was kind of flinch-worthy. Jenny so seriously outclasses him here. And he totally destroyed the timing of both the old "Colette / Cosette" joke and "Your intentions may not be correct."
- I think the only time I've actually watched the show from the mezzanine before was at a theater in Connecticut with a tiny stage, and may I just say that the Look Down set looks so much more impressive from the orchestra. It looked so... small from the back row of the mezzanine. XD
- On the other hand, when I was right up front in the limited view section, one of the beggars plopped down in front of me with a sack full of what smelled like the entire cast's dirty socks.
- At her entrance, Celia was swaggering around in the exact same half-crazy stance I've always pictured Eponine having when she first wanders into Marius' room. She also did the Sutton Foster thing with the sprawling out on the stage and kicking her legs around. She didn't do anything like that the rest of the show, which disappoints me, but it was a nice touch.
- And she was really grabby with Adam. Really grabby. He wasn't flirty with her, just patronizing, but he didn't look as skeeved out as I would've been if I had Eponine smacking my ass at random moments.
- Adam continues to be the cutest thing ever, between the following Ali around the stage, trying to protect her from Montparnasse, and putting on his "Me! Me! Pick me!" look when Javert asks "Was there a witness to this?" After Alex and Ali run for it, he wanders around frantically looking for her, and at one point appears upstage under the bridge, making gestures I originally interpreted as a 19th century French version of the dance known in goth clubs as Beseeching Gestures To The Heavens. Then I realized he was talking to Celia on the bridge.
- Norm! Norm! I thought you'd given up on the human metronome thing, but you just had to keep it for "Could it be he's some old jailbird..." Okay, I'll forgive you, because your 'Stars' is pure, vocal sex.
- ABC Café was fun. The revival seems to have stripped down the "Enjolras and Marius are best buddies" thing (though Adam still gets a nice long hug after ALFOR) and replaced it with heaps of Enjolras/Grantaire. Accordingly, Aaron barely looked up to tell Adam he was late, and actually delivered a lot of the lines in his "our little lives don't count at all" speech straight at Drew.
- Drew has also improved since the beginning of the run. He hasn't toned it down much, but "I am agog," etc. was better than last time. He's so busy standing on tables pretending to be Don Juan that he accidentally knocks Bossuet's drink over, causing an amusing little scene that he and Nehal drag out until Aaron lays in the smackdown.
- For those who haven't heard yet, Drew's R is extremely and extravagantly gay. Off the top of my head, and excluding his interaction with Aaron, I remember him draping himself over Marius, flirting with Joly, attempting to kiss Courfeyrac, demonstrating the screwing they'll never forget by humping Bossuet, and having his head in Feuilly's lap through most of Drink With Me. Now, I appreciate a slashy R as much as the next fangirl, but Drew is way too far over the top.
- Justin Bohon as Joly has been replaced by the heartbreakingly pretty Anderson Davis.
- Drew and Celia still exchange words right after DYHTPS, but Drew no longer shouts "Oh, MARIUS!" How disappointing. XD
- The incident of the broken gate gets its own section, haha.
- The first time I saw the revival, I thought, "Oh, yay, new Cosette dress!" Now I think I like the old one better. It might have been frumpy and ugly, but at least it didn't give the impression that Cosette was wandering around the garden in her chemise.
- Alex, who really is Crankypants Valjean for most of the second act, is very stern with Ali, more so than is usual or appropriate. I was watching him closely in In my Life on Saturday, and though I did see this time that he's quite tormented about not being able to tell her anything, I still don't like how stern he is. Ali plays off it really well, though, and I suppose it does help flesh out Cosette's character and make her more likeable.
- Adam's fricking adorable in AHFOL. He's picked up on the crucial point that a random boy dropping into Cosette's garden and singing about hearts full of love is so ridiculous it's funny. He's terribly awkward and embarrassed in the beginning, going in full force and then stopping short--"A heaaaart full of loooove! Oh--um--a heart full of... song?"
- Right before he goes over the gate, Adam gives Celia his jacket, which gives her something nice to play off of in AHFOL and ODM.
- Much as I may bitch and moan about Alex's falsetto, in full voice he really is quite powerful. In fact, he was kind of drowning everyone else out in ODM, haha.
Act Two
- I really like the fife & drum rendition of DYHTPS that they use to open the second act. One of my favorite new orchestrations.
- Celia literally facepalmed and looked about ready to cry on "He said to give it to Cosette." In fact, she spent most of the time from Eponine's Errand up to OMO working up to a state of nervous breakdown.
- I wish more Valjeans would really act in the letter scene. It's important, dammit! Alex did take a nice long pause before "...you love me as well," and I liked how he went all soft when he read, "He prays for you." But somehow I wanted more than that.
- Celia set up OMO pretty well. It flowed naturally from her impending breakdown, and there was no sense of "Okay, guys, this is my big solo!" I didn't pay much attention to the song itself though. Celia might have a nice take on Eponine, but it would take a far more radical reinterpretation of OMO to make me actually pay attention.
- Also, in the evening, I was on an aisle and there were a few latecomers waiting next to me to be seated during OMO. And one of them was singing along. sdfjkl;j
- Bossuet--who, I might add, has a nice big bald spot--didn't actually seem that upset by R's surprise buttsex. In fact, he just laughed and thumped him on the back.
- And Blake Ginther is now taking the high note on "we'll be theeeere." Thank god; it sounded wrong when he went down.
- I really wish Jacob Levine would stop screaming all his lines.
- Also not liking the bit with Norm jumping away from his captors and spreading his arms. Melodramatic much?
- Celia looked pretty out of it all through ALFOR, as if she were--gasp!--really dying. In fact, at times she seemed outright delusional, which just lent that much more weight to Adam's initial "Okay, let's humor the crazy girl!" reaction. Well, maybe not humor so much as comfort. All throughout the last half he had this look like "holy crap she's really going to die in my arms," and he seemed quite traumatized by the whole thing.
- Traumatized to push Aaron away when he hugged him, in fact. Who in their right mind refuses a hug from Aaron?
- Valjean letting Javert go brings out the weakest parts of Norm's performance, IMO. It's here that the random shouting begins, and this is the scene where it's most ineffective. He's also oddly abrupt, which happened once or twice before but wasn't worthy of comment until this scene. Doesn't help that Alex is at his crankiest here, and looks about ready to smack Norm for implying that he wants a bargain.
- Drink With me is lots of cracktastic fun all around. I got over the weirdness of the onstage guitar and accordion the second or third time I saw it, but the sincerity of Drew's R is still weird. He delivers his verse without a trace of sarcasm and when he's done it's Aaron who stops another barricade boy from smacking Drew. Aaron also goes over later and whispers something in his ear, and the looks they give each other throughout DWM are so loaded with subtext that Aaron's whispering was about equally likely to be a reprimand or a proposition for some furtive snogging in the rue Mondétour.
- I also feel obliged to mention that Dan!Combeferre spends all of DWM and BHH in a corner of the barricade reading a book. <3
- BHH was eh. The forte parts were fun, but Alex's falsetto really is quite strained. Saturday matinee he even cracked on "prayer."
- Aaron's dismay in Dawn of Anguish is so wonderful. It's hard to express, but he looks so upset that he has to give the order not to waste lives.
- I don't care that most people don't like the changes to Gavroche's death. Little People fully deserved to be put out of its misery, and Ten Little Bullets is much more relevant anyway. Suck it, Kretzmer.
- All Enjolrati seem to have a different reaction to Gavroche's death. Paul Donkers let out a "NOOOO!" worthy of inclusion in the Revenge of the Sith outtakes. Victor Wallace just stood there with his head thrown back in anguish. It will never, ever cease to be entertaining that Aaron Lazar expresses his grief by staying bent over the barricade with his arse in the air.
- Adam and Aaron had almost no interaction in the final battle; I don't even think Aaron noticed Adam was down. Drew and Alex looked after Adam a bit, then Drew charged up the barricade when Aaron started waving the flag. Drew was jabbing his rifle over the barricade as though to fend off phantom soldiers, haha. I liked that.
- Jenn and I noted at intermission that the evening audience clapped for absolutely everything. So just for fun, we tried to start a round of applause for dangling Aaron because by god he deserved it, but no go. I have nothing to say about an audience that will applaud Mme Thénardier's "Mam'zelle Crapaud" spiel but not Enjolras' death.
- When Alex got up he made this little noise of horror at all the slaughter, which I thought was a nice touch.
- Norm's Suicide is very fragmented and out-of-control. I like the effect, but I really don't like the random shouting. Or his jump, which looks... unrealistic. To put it kindly.
- Still boggling at the reinstatement of Turning. Of all the cut material you could bring back, why Turning? It was one of the only cuts I was actually glad of.
- Okay. I admit it. I was not paying much attention to Adam during Empty Chairs. Like OMO, I usually don't pay attention during Empty Chairs at all unless there's some really interesting acting going on, and on top of it there's Adam's voice, which isn't nearly as appealing as his acting. In fact, I hate his voice, so ECAET = dead barricade boy ogling opportunity.
- Though really, even if Adam had a great voice, I would have forgotten all about him when Drew and Aaron put their arms around each other. OTP.
- Every Day was made of cute, thank you Ali.
- Speaking of cuts that deserved the chop more than the Turning ones, Valjean's confession just never flowed well with the cuts. Haaate.
- Mme T's new dress in the wedding is hideous. I know that's the point, but like Drew's R, it's a bit too far over the top.
- Dan was part of the circle of guests dancing with Cosette when Marius is off bargaining with the Thénardiers. I was having flashbacks to the 3nt seeing him with Ali, awwwww.
- Speaking of Ali, at some point when the Thénardiers are in the background they grab her for a dance, and I loved her confused/disgusted/terrified reaction. Just a little reminder that yes, she is theoretically playing the same character as the girl in the rags in Act I.
- Alex has improved in the finale. He still looks old - I never thought he had a problem with that, actually - but he's toned down the shaking a bit and it looks more believable now. And this is one of the few scenes where his Valjean really does melt and act all tender, and awwww.
- Daphne the broken and hoarse-voiced might have served some sort of artistic purpose in Act I but she just ruined the effect of the finale. I was so glad that Nikki and Haviland were properly ghostly Fantines and actually sounded appropriately haunting.
- Just in case the evening show wasn't exciting enough, a really annoying, bouncy ringtone came on halfway through Haviland's first entrance and its owner refused to turn it off. This may or may not have been responsible for her fumbling a verse a couple minutes later and having to repeat "take my hand."
- Ali in the finale = win. Her grief over Valjean's death almost propelled me into tears when I was up front, and her reading the letter and then diving into Adam's arms at the crescendo was just perfect.
And... whew. That shouldn't have taken a week to finish writing/typing up, but I am a lazy procrastinator, what can I say?
Exciting Things
Yes, the business with the garden gate gets its own cut, haha. What can I say, it's the first time I've seen something major go awry at a Les Mis performance, and it was exciting!
First sign that something was wrong was right as DYHTPS ended and the gate was wheeled out. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of clinking and thumping as the gate rolled out, but everything happened on time and it looked like a minor thing--the gate made it through the quarter-turn at the beginning of In My Life all right, even if one side was hanging suspiciously ajar. No, I don't think I realized that the left half of the gate wasn't anchored to the stage until Adam tried to climb over it and it rolled halfway down the stage.
Poor Adam.
It was at about that point that I noticed the
Big pause before One Day More as the fubared gate was taken offstage. I thought that would be the end of it, but no! ODM was crooked. I forget exactly what was odd about where Alex was standing at the beginning, but I put it down to disorientation until Aaron entered. On the side. I don't know what exactly was up with that, but I think it was because he had to be directly behind the grate the Thénardiers pop out of, and the revolve was in a weird position. In any case, except for a suspicious amount of sideways marching to get in the right position, ODM went on as normal. I bet the cast was happy for the excitement, haha, except maybe Adam who had to climb over the broken gate.
Stage Door
Stage door was fricking mobbed at the matinee. It must have been either the Kreeger family reunion or a field trip from Doug Kreeger's old high school, because I overheard a couple of people after the matinee talking about how neat it was to see him onstage, and he got a huge cheer when he emerged. Between the huge crowd and the normal post-matinee need to go out and grab some food, we didn't actually get to talk to anyone until the evening.
Evening was a lot more laid-back. Chatted a bit with Haviland and promised to send her a copy of the recording, and said hi to a few former 3nt folks from
mmebahorel and alligatorandme. lady_iphigeneia and I also pestered Norm about whether Random Things
- Yes, I have recordings of all the performances.
- Souvenir brochures are out! I'll post scans of mine if I can, but they're really worth the $10. There's a fold-out section in the back with little "Les Mis through the years" photos, but aside from that section everything is brand spanking new pictures of the revival cast. They even changed the text a little, gasp!
- Limited view orchestra is neat. People come down the ladders right in front of you, and you come in through this little alcove that has the same décor as the sets themselves--burlap curtain, grungy bucket right in front of your face, and possibly the only actual paving stones in the whole theater. They're not lying about the view being limited, so don't spring for this section if it's your first time seeing the show, but it's really neat to have a close view and actors sitting so close you could poke them if you wanted.
- However, the limited seats on house right--and, I assume, the regular right orchestra tickets in the first few rows--are bad, bad, bad for recording. That icky audio of the first preview with the mad-crazy bass and percussion was probably made from this section; you're practically sitting on the percussion section, and though it makes the louder numbers pretty exciting, it gives you a pretty skewed sound balance whether you're recording or just sitting back and enjoying the show.
- Had back row mezzanine for the evening performance, but it was only row K or L, so it's not actually that far back. I don't usually get mezzanine seats, so I was enjoying my panoramic view, haha. One last recording note, which is that if you are a nervous type, make sure you get a seat in the middle of the section if you're recording from back row. I had an aisle seat, and all the ushers in the mezzanine were hanging out right next to me before the show and for the first ten minutes of each act.
- The box seats through which the actors enter to go down the ladders are not available on Telecharge, but according to random lady at the stage door who had them, you can get them through the box office itself. Might try that next time, heh.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's a week late, feel free to kick me.
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All Enjolrati seem to have a different reaction to Gavroche's death. Paul Donkers let out a "NOOOO!" worthy of inclusion in the Revenge of the Sith outtakes. Victor Wallace just stood there with his head thrown back in anguish. It will never, ever cease to be entertaining that Aaron Lazar expresses his grief by staying bent over the barricade with his arse in the air.
Victor Wallace made me laugh and laugh. Kevin Earley did it best, though. He just stared straight into the audience and realized they were all doomed. I wish I'd seen him more than once.
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Oh, do tell about the first time!
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More accurately, though, I guess it was a case of the gate NOT gliding at all.
http://shawk.livejournal.com/220937.html#cutid1
http://alligatorandme.livejournal.com/1305270.html#cutid1
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fjkdjdkfdfjdk!!!!!11 ; ; WHY. I liked Justin Bohon! He looked so dorky! I loves my dorky Joly!
...is the n00b!Joly really really REALLY pretty?
...
I'd imagine you know who this is 8D
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http://www.pittsburghclo.org/shows/42ndcast.cfm
I find it amusing that the replacements (so far) are all Les Miz newbies, too. It's not like there's a lack of alumni out there. Makes me wonder if this is on purpose. ;-)
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But Justin Bohon had more of a...geekiness about him. XD More rapeable imo.
Because LM casting is all about the surprise buttsex.
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(And I suspected I'm older than he is - I mean, I think I'm older now than Andy was when he was hired to fill in with Broadway company and I developed an obsession with the back of his head.)
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I love when things go wrong. It keeps the show exciting. ;)
Did you ever see Chip as Thenardier? I suspect he's better than Gary Beach, who I have not seen.
Oh, and, I'm sure Disney makes people sign a non-disclosure agreement, but it's now been announced that he is in The Little Mermaid. Cue color-blind casting wank, part 3,694.
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Hahaha, I haven't been to BWW since the color-blind casting thing last made fandom_wank. Has it asploded again?
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Well, apparently Norm Lewis let it slip in an interview with PatiB on BWW, which I think was posted this morning. It's only a matter of time before it gets wanky somewhere. Paging Fenchurch!
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making gestures I originally interpreted as a 19th century French version of the dance known in goth clubs as Beseeching Gestures To The Heavens
This made me laugh so hard.
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Also Fantine is no longer staggering around the room--she sings the whole thing from in bed. All three of them did it that way, so I assume it's standard now.
It's standard here now and we were told it's from Broadway, if that helps.
And she was really grabby with Adam. Really grabby. He wasn't flirty with her, just patronizing, but he didn't look as skeeved out as I would've been if I had Eponine smacking my ass at random moments.
.. she didn't really, did she?
After Alex and Ali run for it, he wanders around frantically looking for her, and at one point appears upstage under the bridge, making gestures I originally interpreted as a 19th century French version ofthe dance known in goth clubs as Beseeching Gestures To The Heavens. Then I realized he was talking to Celia on the bridge.
Standard blocking. ;-)
Adam's fricking adorable in AHFOL. He's picked up on the crucial point that a random boy dropping into Cosette's garden and singing about hearts full of love is so ridiculous it's funny. He's terribly awkward and embarrassed in the beginning, going in full force and then stopping short--"A heaaaart full of loooove! Oh--um--a heart full of...song?"
I cannot stand Adam from what I have heard and seen but YES, YES; that is how you play that song. I never knew I could enjoy it until I saw it done like that. It's HILARIOUS when done right!
And Blake Ginther is now taking the high note on "we'll be theeeere."
YOU GOT THAT BIT BACK?! All of it? Oooh I am jelaous!!
It was at about that point that I noticed the
ninjaDid I get that from you? Because I had this sudden flash of "hahah ninjas" after the confession and started giggling on Friday and I had no idea why.
There's a fold-out section in the back with little "Les Mis through the years" photos
Hey, we have that too! Like so. Same one?
which the actors enter to go down the ladders are not available on Telecharge, but according to random lady at the stage door who had them, you can get them through the box office itself. Might try that next time, heh.
Hey, cool! We have no boxes. The set was built on top of them.
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She DID. And he looked up like "Who did thaaa--oh, hi, Eponine."
Standard blocking. ;-)
But he made it look like Beseeching Gestures to the Heavens, which amused me.
Adam is one of those people who really don't audio well; his voice is annoying and nasal as shit, but he is adorable enough to be forgiven in that regard, and his acting is usually spot-on.
YOU GOT THAT BIT BACK?! All of it? Oooh I am jelaous!!
...so we did. I'd totally forgotten it was gone - there were other cuts I was more apt to fume about when I saw the tour.
Hey, we have that too! Like so. Same one?
Think so. The photos might be different, I'm not sure, but same type of thing.
Hey, cool! We have no boxes. The set was built on top of them.
Yeah, the addition of the entrances through the boxes seems to be one of the "special" things about the revival. I actually wish they'd used it more.
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And her acting in the Finale really is great. I love her and Adam. <3
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Drew is doing the "oh Marius!" bit still - just not every time, apparently. He did it on Saturday. (I missed him humping Nehal Joshi? Damn! I'm still vastly amused that they have Nehal as Bossuet *g*. Twice now I've been in nearly the same seat, restricted view house right, and I really need to see it from the other side.)
Oh, speaking of humping in front of your face - in LL, the expression on Parnasse's face when his whore finished with him could have been either death or pleasure. I couldn't tell. He collapsed, his hand over his stomach, and kind of slunk around the corner. I think he needs to work on whether she stabbed him or not. I really ought to be able to tell that sort of thing, don't you think?
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Oh interesting. Because he attempted surprise buttsex on Nehal all four times I saw him, but I don't remember him doing the "oh Marius!" thing at any of the performances I saw. Huh. (And the humping was definitely visible from the restricted view seats.) He and Aaron must be switching things up too, because it now seems to be a toss-up whether Drew gets the cold shoulder in DWM or whether they stare at each other from across the barricade.
Hahaha, that was JD Goldblatt? That was certainly an... interesting... distraction from the locket scene.
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I've only seen it twice, though (other shows demand my attention), and had the same seat both times, so I'm missing a lot since I haven't had the opposite view. There could have been all kinds of buttsex but if it's happening stage right as opposed to center, I'm generally not noticing it. I am noticing that Danny is being a good boy as Combeferre, but I'm not surprised because I know Danny has not only read the novel but uses it and seems to have a similar interp to mine.
Do former 3NT folks think you're automatically cool because you know me? *g* (actually, I am curious, because in the past, with certain people, dropping my name has been a really good thing to do at the stage door if you want to talk to someone beyond "hi, you were great, can I have a picture?" That may just have been Trent, however.)
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Sort of. Dan and Adam were quite a bit friendlier after I told them I knew you/followed the 3nt, but we never really got into a conversation. This could have been because they were in a hurry, or it could just have been that I lose at making conversation about anything that isn't hideously dorky. XD
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They're sane boys when it comes to fans, and I'm very glad they are. Not because it makes me a special BNF to know them, but because they are much less likely to have freaks get too close.
I've only ever made dorky LM conversation with them anyway. Of the people who are now in Broadway company, I think Chip is the only one I've had regular non-LM conversations with, and I didn't even meet him until last winter in DC. In Barnes and Noble. Between shows. Because he came up to chat. I think that was the moment that confirmed I had been around the tour too long :)
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(Anonymous) 2007-03-06 06:26 am (UTC)(link)So, you have the audio of the show? I've been searching online for anyone who has a bootleg of it...what's your policy as far as your music? Do you share, trade, neither?
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XDD I’d heard about the attempted kissing and Bossuet getting the surprise buttsex, but not the other bits.
Also, in the evening, I was on an aisle and there were a few latecomers waiting next to me to be seated during OMO. And one of them was singing along. sdfjkl;j
....Ew. I’m sorry.
I also feel obliged to mention that Dan!Combeferre spends all of DWM and BHH in a corner of the barricade reading a book. <3
Awwww. ^___^
All Enjolrati seem to have a different reaction to Gavroche's death. Paul Donkers let out a "NOOOO!" worthy of inclusion in the Revenge of the Sith outtakes. Victor Wallace just stood there with his head thrown back in anguish. It will never, ever cease to be entertaining that Aaron Lazar expresses his grief by staying bent over the barricade with his arse in the air.
...It’s really tempting to make some kind of remark about him wanting comforting buttsex, but I’ve used that word too much already.
Still boggling at the reinstatement of Turning. Of all the cut material you could bring back, why Turning? It was one of the only cuts I was actually glad of.
Aw. I was kind of hoping that they had cut more of it.
Ack, this comment is way too long.
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Re: Norm -- He has a very nice voice but I'm not sure he's quite suited for the role of Javert. I mean I'm never really happy with the way anyone does Javert but he just seems awkward doing it. Stars though, I have to agree, was quite nice.
Re: The Various Fantines -- Nikki wasn't bad, in fact she was a refreshing relief after Daphne. But I really think Haviland was much better. She might have flubbed the line in the Finale but her voice was better and so was her acting. And yes, on further reflection I do believe that was a blonde wig. Also, in the Finale -- I liked the faint echo the sound people put behind Nikki's and Haviland's voices. I don't remember that happening before and I thought it was a nice touch. It wouldn't have worked on the trainwreck that is Daphne's voice, though. Heh.
Re: Gary -- My favourite Thenardier is and always will be JP Dougherty, but I really liked Gary, probably because he just doesn't do the same old tired jokes. But he could be better, and yes, even I winced all the way through the Waltz of Treachery.
Re: Ali -- I know it's damn hard to sing a high C sitting in a chair, but I winced both times on Saturday. And I totally thought I was the only one who thought that dress in the AHFOL scene looked like her nightdress.
Re: Jacob Levine -- I found him rather endearing, actually, and not just at the stage door when he went soliciting people for autographs.
Re: Aaron -- do I even need to waste the keystrokes? ♥
-I remember the backdrop with the shutters. And this is from 1998 in Toronto, so maybe it used to be in, then got taken out, and is now back again?
-I totally didn't notice Norm in the courtroom scene. I might have been too focused on other parts of the stage, however. Oops.
-Yeah, I spent most of Master of the House watching the boys. Good god, such a fun ensemble. It's not just because Gary's weird, but because the ensemble is actually pretty damn fun to watch, not just your standard fare blah-blah-drunkards.
-Ahahaha, I didn't get the ragpicker on Saturday night, but one of the beggars in Look Down kept giving the audience in that limited-view corner dirty looks. "What are YOU staring at?!" looks. I was amused.
-Who in their right mind refuses a hug from Aaron? Not me! :D Although Adam gets to hug him (at least) eight times a week, so you know. He might be changing things up a bit now and then.
-Dan!Combeferre is pretty much my entertainment during Bring Him Home. HE IS SO CUTE. OMG.
-BAD AUDIENCE. WHY YOU NOT APPLAUD DANGLING!AARON. I was so hoping he'd ask about that, to be honest. Dammit, I will try again.
Re: The gate -- the part about that whole affair that amused me the most was the SET TECHNICIAN standing on stage hanging on to it while the actors were doing their thing around him. I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. He looked so awkward standing there. XDDD
I definitely plan on getting those left-side seats again, although rather than going for the C-row seats, I'd really like the B or A seats that really ARE right in front of the stage. Holy crap. XD
Also, I found a fun technique for recording on the sly when I went to see Piazza with my grandmother. I sat between my aunt and my grandmother, and I set up my mic and recorder in my bag before I even got in the car to go. So all I had to do was reach into the pocket, and turn it on and push record, and I just left it record until I got home. Granted, I had to do a lot of editing in Audacity since over half the recording was audience noise and such, but I barely thought of it, and neither my aunt or my grandmother noticed I was recording. So I have a feeling that might help with the aisle seats close to ushers in future.
...I actually had more commentary in mind the first time I read this, but you know what, this was long enough. XD
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I'm terribly glad someone brought up the "Crankypants Valjean" issue (that made me laugh!), which irked me when I saw the show in November/December. Alex seemed really, really stern with Ali in "In My Life", which gives off a bad vibe for their relationship; canonically, of course, Valjean catered to her every whim. Moreover, when Alex released Norm, I got a bad feeling about that. I've always felt that Valjean's attitude toward Javert during that scene should be more along the lines of "Yep, you're free to go, and just remember that I'm a pretty nice guy" than "Get the hell out of here before I change my mind, idiot!". Well, whatever.
Re: Norm- Yeah, his "metronome" parts are somewhat unappealing, but his belting sections are great- they remind me of Kasper Holmboe, whom I love. :)
Re: Adam- His voice is rather vibrato-heavy, but I confess to liking him quite a lot; I think his acting makes up for his vocals.
Your reviews are always fabulous! I love how much consideration you put into them. :)
(Oh, and if you could scan the brochure photos, I would be eternally grateful.)