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tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-09-07 09:01 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2008-09-07 09:01 pm
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Wolf Trap LM review
Wolf Trap Les Mis was... weird, but fun. In a word, it was basically the revival sans turntable, with projections for scenery and slightly different sets and decent orchestrations. Same stupid cuts as the revival (mostly) and, the strangest thing was, exact same blocking even though the sets were different. Seriously. People would be on a different part of the stage in accordance with the sets, but even so it was 100% standard blocking with a revival flavor, right down to the Pile o' Sailors at the beginning of Lovely Ladies and the exact point in Master of the House when people start dancing on the tables. It was kind of a brainfuck seeing such familiar blocking with the projections and the different stage--I kept expecting to hear "I love bosoms!" or "Dinner dinner dinner." (The ensemble was similarly awesome in this production, but I was too far back to hear things like that.) Oh yes, and even the new sets look like they had a huge budget poured into them to get that old-and-skeevy-yet-artful look of the original production.
Ways it was different from the revival are mostly due to the venue: first of all there's a twenty-six-piece orchestra playing the original orchestrations, which is just fantastic. The sound is huge. So is the stage, and honestly the traditional staging works best on a huge stage, from the crowd scenes (bolstered by about a dozen high school kids who got to be in the ensemble) to the solos where someone's alone angsting on a huge stage and looking dwarfed and lost and forlorn. Also notable: they've expanded the color palette from the greys and browns of the original production, so now there's a lovely range of colors in the projected scenery and in the costumes. Cosette and Fantine get pretty deep-blue dresses, Eponine somehow ended up in something pink and artfully torn, etcetera.
Brief cast breakdown:
Rob Evan: Eh, he was decent. A little wobbly at the beginning and end of BHH, and his full voice is nothing to rave about, but he was believable enough as Valjean.
Rob Hunt: Oh, you all know I already like Rob. But I just have to mention that after seeing him do the Suicide (as a complete mad scene, because it's Rob) with the original orchestrations, my jaw was quite literally hanging open. It's breathtaking.
Nikki Renée Daniels: So lovely as usual. I'm so glad I got to see her Fantine again, because she has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard on Broadway.
Anderson Davis: Is adorable as Marius. Especially since the concept of AHFOL as awkward-but-cute seems to have caught on, and he got to literally facepalm at "I'm doing everything all wrong." Vocally, though, he reminded me of Adam Jacobs (sans nasal vowels) through most of the show, and he didn't seem to hit his stride until Empty Chairs. But then he really let loose and sounded wonderful, so I forgive him.
Deborah Lew: Pretty. She played a very accessible, almost modern Cosette, and although she sometimes sounded a little too pop-belty for my tastes, it never crossed the line into obnoxious.
Jenny Fellner: Very resonant, powerful belt; it was beautiful during OMO, so much so that I hate to qualify that by saying she got too shouty during ALFOR. I liked her OMO, actually; the blocking was a lot better than the revival, and she looked pretty close to a breakdown at the end.
Edward Watts: I didn't pay too much attention to him, actually, because he came off way too much like a GI Joe Enjolras. He did have a nice full baritone voice, but overall he came across like Mike Maguire on a good day.
Laurent Giroux and Cindy Benson: Laurent as Thénardier was okay; it was good to hear people actually laughing during Master of the House. Cindy as Madame was definitely in the high-strung Jennifer Butt model, but it takes a certain amount of skill to pull that off, and she just came across as shrill.
Kids: Their Gavroche was great--not stiff or boring at all. Seemed like a street rat, not a cute kid singing the lines. I got Kylie as Young Cosette, and jesus she's grown. She didn't look more than a head shorter than Mme T. And she's still good.
Ensemble: Nice and rowdy--makes me wish I'd been up close to see what shenanigans they were getting up to. "Better than an opera" concludes with Grantaire and one of the other boys (Courfeyrac maybe?) having a mock sword fight while Enjolras looks on disapprovingly.
Projections: Some of them were really weird or distracting, like the abstract ones during the solos. Some of them were lovely and atmospheric, like the Bishop of Digne one and the Parisian street scenes and the Rue Plumet. Others were just on crack, like the smokestacks belching flame in Montreuil-sur-Mer. (?!) And did they really need a giant "CAFÉ ABC" sign projected on the scrims during Red and Black?
Some notes on specific scenes:
I think I mentioned the factory projections in Montreuil-sur-Mer, but they deserve another resounding what-the-fuck. How does glass bead factory = flaming smokestacks?
Confrontation was fierce. This production has a lot of Valjean and Javert standing six inches apart singing into each other's faces, which I'm sure will make shippers happy.
Castle on a Cloud looks like something out of Pan's Labyrinth. There's a forest projection in the background, and then the Thénardier inn setpiece is silhouetted looking all spidery and... Pan's Labyrinth-y. Probably unintentional, but creepy as hell.
Standard blocking was maintained all the way through Look Down, then started to get more interesting around Red and Black. There's the aforementioned swordfight, then in DYHTPS there are some pretty awesome manipulations of the set to produce the effect of a crowd of people rushing down a narrow street.
Okay, I admit it, I would not be displeased to see AHFOL-as-balcony-scene turn into a trend. It's just so goddamn cute and gives them something to do besides make eyes at each other. This one went:
Marius: (gazing up at Cosette, who has her back to him) A heart full of love!
Cosette: (turns around) ...!!!!
Marius: ...! (*shit, let's try again*) A heart full of song!
Cosette: (disappears inside, looking stricken)
Marius: (buries head in hands) I'm doing everything all wrong! Oh god, for shame--
Cosette: (emerges on the ground floor looking ready for some hot Frenchboy action)
Marius: ...:D
Fucking adorable.
Barricade scenes: The half-built barricade in the first scene looks a lot more impressive in this production. The finished product looks a lot like the Broadway one, but the Rue Mondétour projection definitely adds a little something.
More barricade boys playing their own instruments in Drink With Me. The guy playing Grantaire had been using an annoying grating voice up to then, but in his verse of DWM he sounded beautiful. (I miss the Broadway Enjolras/Grantaire subtext though.)
Gavroche's death was just weird. They used Little People for some unfathomable reason, and since there was no rotating barricade he just went way downstage and let the audience pretend that was the other side of the barricade.
Final Battle: Enjolras goes down about halfway through and Grantaire runs up and starts waving the flag. Then he gets shot too and ends up sprawled on top of Enjolras supporting the flag with his dead body, in a pose that looks almost like the Iwo Jima memorial. Only with more slash and more death.
Javert's Suicide, as I've said, was fantastic. Because it's Rob with a twenty-six-piece orchestra and it sounds thunderous, and when he jumps, the projection goes up dizzyingly and looks a lot more like falling than the original production. Just awesome.
I loved what they did with Empty Chairs too. It's Marius lying wounded in bed, and they bring back the ABC Café projections in the background, with all the boys posed on the barricade behind a scrim.
The only changes made to the revival cuts were the use of Little People and... the first half of Valjean's Confession has been restored. Hallelujah. It never flowed right without it.
The wedding was unremarkable aside from some very pretty church projections and the presence of an actual priest to marry Marius and Cosette.
Finale was pretty much standard blocking. Nikki and Jenny sound really good together, and that last "Will you join in our crusade" was so powerful you could practically feel it vibrating in your chest. There is a lot to be said for big orchestras and big ensembles.
Overall: Very good, very professional production; some of the projections were a little dodgy but the rest ranged from decent to fantastic. I wish they'd reimagined the show a little more though instead of recycling the standard blocking.
And I got about a billion hugs from Rob at the stage door. Awwwww. Rob is adorable.
Ways it was different from the revival are mostly due to the venue: first of all there's a twenty-six-piece orchestra playing the original orchestrations, which is just fantastic. The sound is huge. So is the stage, and honestly the traditional staging works best on a huge stage, from the crowd scenes (bolstered by about a dozen high school kids who got to be in the ensemble) to the solos where someone's alone angsting on a huge stage and looking dwarfed and lost and forlorn. Also notable: they've expanded the color palette from the greys and browns of the original production, so now there's a lovely range of colors in the projected scenery and in the costumes. Cosette and Fantine get pretty deep-blue dresses, Eponine somehow ended up in something pink and artfully torn, etcetera.
Brief cast breakdown:
Rob Evan: Eh, he was decent. A little wobbly at the beginning and end of BHH, and his full voice is nothing to rave about, but he was believable enough as Valjean.
Rob Hunt: Oh, you all know I already like Rob. But I just have to mention that after seeing him do the Suicide (as a complete mad scene, because it's Rob) with the original orchestrations, my jaw was quite literally hanging open. It's breathtaking.
Nikki Renée Daniels: So lovely as usual. I'm so glad I got to see her Fantine again, because she has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard on Broadway.
Anderson Davis: Is adorable as Marius. Especially since the concept of AHFOL as awkward-but-cute seems to have caught on, and he got to literally facepalm at "I'm doing everything all wrong." Vocally, though, he reminded me of Adam Jacobs (sans nasal vowels) through most of the show, and he didn't seem to hit his stride until Empty Chairs. But then he really let loose and sounded wonderful, so I forgive him.
Deborah Lew: Pretty. She played a very accessible, almost modern Cosette, and although she sometimes sounded a little too pop-belty for my tastes, it never crossed the line into obnoxious.
Jenny Fellner: Very resonant, powerful belt; it was beautiful during OMO, so much so that I hate to qualify that by saying she got too shouty during ALFOR. I liked her OMO, actually; the blocking was a lot better than the revival, and she looked pretty close to a breakdown at the end.
Edward Watts: I didn't pay too much attention to him, actually, because he came off way too much like a GI Joe Enjolras. He did have a nice full baritone voice, but overall he came across like Mike Maguire on a good day.
Laurent Giroux and Cindy Benson: Laurent as Thénardier was okay; it was good to hear people actually laughing during Master of the House. Cindy as Madame was definitely in the high-strung Jennifer Butt model, but it takes a certain amount of skill to pull that off, and she just came across as shrill.
Kids: Their Gavroche was great--not stiff or boring at all. Seemed like a street rat, not a cute kid singing the lines. I got Kylie as Young Cosette, and jesus she's grown. She didn't look more than a head shorter than Mme T. And she's still good.
Ensemble: Nice and rowdy--makes me wish I'd been up close to see what shenanigans they were getting up to. "Better than an opera" concludes with Grantaire and one of the other boys (Courfeyrac maybe?) having a mock sword fight while Enjolras looks on disapprovingly.
Projections: Some of them were really weird or distracting, like the abstract ones during the solos. Some of them were lovely and atmospheric, like the Bishop of Digne one and the Parisian street scenes and the Rue Plumet. Others were just on crack, like the smokestacks belching flame in Montreuil-sur-Mer. (?!) And did they really need a giant "CAFÉ ABC" sign projected on the scrims during Red and Black?
Some notes on specific scenes:
I think I mentioned the factory projections in Montreuil-sur-Mer, but they deserve another resounding what-the-fuck. How does glass bead factory = flaming smokestacks?
Confrontation was fierce. This production has a lot of Valjean and Javert standing six inches apart singing into each other's faces, which I'm sure will make shippers happy.
Castle on a Cloud looks like something out of Pan's Labyrinth. There's a forest projection in the background, and then the Thénardier inn setpiece is silhouetted looking all spidery and... Pan's Labyrinth-y. Probably unintentional, but creepy as hell.
Standard blocking was maintained all the way through Look Down, then started to get more interesting around Red and Black. There's the aforementioned swordfight, then in DYHTPS there are some pretty awesome manipulations of the set to produce the effect of a crowd of people rushing down a narrow street.
Okay, I admit it, I would not be displeased to see AHFOL-as-balcony-scene turn into a trend. It's just so goddamn cute and gives them something to do besides make eyes at each other. This one went:
Marius: (gazing up at Cosette, who has her back to him) A heart full of love!
Cosette: (turns around) ...!!!!
Marius: ...! (*shit, let's try again*) A heart full of song!
Cosette: (disappears inside, looking stricken)
Marius: (buries head in hands) I'm doing everything all wrong! Oh god, for shame--
Cosette: (emerges on the ground floor looking ready for some hot Frenchboy action)
Marius: ...:D
Fucking adorable.
Barricade scenes: The half-built barricade in the first scene looks a lot more impressive in this production. The finished product looks a lot like the Broadway one, but the Rue Mondétour projection definitely adds a little something.
More barricade boys playing their own instruments in Drink With Me. The guy playing Grantaire had been using an annoying grating voice up to then, but in his verse of DWM he sounded beautiful. (I miss the Broadway Enjolras/Grantaire subtext though.)
Gavroche's death was just weird. They used Little People for some unfathomable reason, and since there was no rotating barricade he just went way downstage and let the audience pretend that was the other side of the barricade.
Final Battle: Enjolras goes down about halfway through and Grantaire runs up and starts waving the flag. Then he gets shot too and ends up sprawled on top of Enjolras supporting the flag with his dead body, in a pose that looks almost like the Iwo Jima memorial. Only with more slash and more death.
Javert's Suicide, as I've said, was fantastic. Because it's Rob with a twenty-six-piece orchestra and it sounds thunderous, and when he jumps, the projection goes up dizzyingly and looks a lot more like falling than the original production. Just awesome.
I loved what they did with Empty Chairs too. It's Marius lying wounded in bed, and they bring back the ABC Café projections in the background, with all the boys posed on the barricade behind a scrim.
The only changes made to the revival cuts were the use of Little People and... the first half of Valjean's Confession has been restored. Hallelujah. It never flowed right without it.
The wedding was unremarkable aside from some very pretty church projections and the presence of an actual priest to marry Marius and Cosette.
Finale was pretty much standard blocking. Nikki and Jenny sound really good together, and that last "Will you join in our crusade" was so powerful you could practically feel it vibrating in your chest. There is a lot to be said for big orchestras and big ensembles.
Overall: Very good, very professional production; some of the projections were a little dodgy but the rest ranged from decent to fantastic. I wish they'd reimagined the show a little more though instead of recycling the standard blocking.
And I got about a billion hugs from Rob at the stage door. Awwwww. Rob is adorable.
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(And why are there no pictures of this production?! I've no idea what it looks like.)
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Also lol at Eponine in pink.
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I thought the barricade staging was v. clever, with the lighting and the boys coming downstage to cover for the removal of the national guardsmen and Gav.
Ed Watts is my new baritone. I want to have sex with his voice. Jenn and I both noticed how much he sounds like Ben Davis, tone-wise, though Ben was better as Enjolras. It was like Ben singing but Tewks acting, sorta, so kinda weird, but oh, how nice it was to listen to.
Anderson was telling us about how he kept vetoing costume pieces - he kept arguing to be all in black the whole time, because Marius is supposed to be in mourning, but the best he managed was getting to wear his wedding pants for the whole show. (and then I geeked out over novel!Marius and the horrible tragedy of the green coat, and I am so incredibly in love with Anderson right now.)
Rob gives good hugs :)
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I think I brought up how always gets a better dress in the regionals because dark wig + black dress + no scenery = not good. And then he started complaining about the costumes, and he argued to have Marius in black the whole time because he's supposed to be in mourning, at which point I was joking 'Poor Marius, he can only go out at night because he can only afford a green coat!', which led to Anderson telling us he'd finally read the novel. And fought with Fred to make Marius as dorky as possible. Because Marius is a dork, particularly when he's fanboying Napoleon.
The only thing that would have made the conversation more win would have been hugs for all.
(at least with Rob, you can just glomp on and squeeze like there's no tomorrow. Because it's Rob.)
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