Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-02-17 11:57 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-02-17 11:57 am
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DAMN IT. I haul ass to the stage door last night, have an interesting conversation with Randal, and discover that a revival of LM is opening on Broadway--and then I come back to LJ to break the news this morning and it's all over teh_intarwebz! Worst timing evar.
Er, yeah. My mom, the Grand Master of Bailing Out Hapless Teenagers, has found me a hotel room with wireless internet. Should be popping by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zachary_evans's house this afternoon.
Okay. I don't know if the tour folks got a nice little break before Boston and were all rested and bouncy, or if it was the fact that I was sitting third row center and was close enough to see Randal's spit, or if they were just having a good night or something.... but there was something about it last night that made it even better than when I saw it in DC. And of course, when Les Mis is really good, that makes it even more emotionally draining as usual--I almost burst into tears halfway through the second act, and was shaking when I left the theater.
Randal was about the same as ever, i.e. awesome beyond belief. There's a definite shift in the balance between his acting and his singing as the show goes on: in the prologue he comes across as a good singer and a tremendous actor, and by Bring Him Home it's gone and flipped, and his acting is good and his voice is terrific. I never get bored watching him, even when he's singing parts I've heard 34890235 times before, because he just brings so much intensity to the role, and you can tell he's gone over every word with a fine-tooth comb and decided what to do with it. <3 him so much.
Still not too keen on Robert Hunt. He comes across as perpetually too young for Javert, and perhaps a tad too sadistic as well. He had a few good moments in 'Stars,' but overall I liked Trent Blanton loads better.
I think the audience response played a large part in the energy of the performance tonight. After one of the bishop's parts in the prologue someone in the back started clapping hesitantly, and pretty soon the whole house was applauding him like mad. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of it; there were cheers after Valjean's soliloquy, and throughout the show when there was applause it never had the chance to die down per se--it was cut off when the conductor decided enough was enough and moved into the next song. XD
Joan was mediocre as usual. There's nothing wrong with her Fantine, she just failed to elicit much of a response from me until she was coughing and hacking and being dragged around the stage, at which point she cut a pathetic enough figure to rouse a bit of pity. Matt Clemens was filling in for Trent Blanton's parts and whoa, props to his Bamatabois. "Here's something new, I think I'll give... it a try..." Slimy, very slimy.
Confrontation was where the energy started to build up. Okay, it was mostly Randal supporting it, but yeah.
Little Cosette was--hmm. Very little? XD I don't know if she was actually smaller than the girl I saw last time, but she came across as a lot more frightened and subdued. Jennifer Butt was great as always. Hilariously funny, but in less of a caricature way and more of a "oh my God, I swear I know someone like this" way. Plenty of laughs during MotH, but the audience seemed quite horrified at the Thénardiers' sliminess. Looking around during the Waltz of Treachery and Dog Eat Dog, I saw plenty of "hi, can I kill you now?" expressions, and the laughter was a bit more muted after those.
I have the vague impression that some interesting things might have happened during Look Down, the robbery, Stars, etc., but that brain space is currently occupied by a whole lot of OMG VICTOR WALLACE. The times I saw him in DC I was just sort of "Too sexy for his vest? Check. Good voice? Check. Okay, good Enjolras, nothing special." I laughed at the silly fangirls who probably only liked him because it was their first time seeing the show and they were caught up in the general Enjolras-ness. But... can I bear his children now? Please? He was practically on fire tonight, especially in Act One. ABC Café went thusly:
Victor Wallace: The time is near, so near it's stirring the blood in their veins!
Everyone in the audience who is attracted to men and a few who aren't: ....hi sex0r me now plz?
Victor Wallace: And yet beware--don't let the wine go to your brains!
Matt Clemens: *jumps, stares, and is generally slashy*
Audience: *doesn't blame him*
[snip]
Victor Wallace: Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play?
Victor Wallace's pants: *are very tight*
Audience: Are you a rich young boy? Can we play with you?
Not joking. *falls over* He was great. (And to Whom It May Concern, You Know Who You Are: Charles Hagerty, AKA Joly, was almost as hot. Especially in costume. Mmmmm.)
Randomly, I never noticed the girls in men's clothes in DYHTPS before. *snerk*
Unfortunately, no microphone failure in the garden scene this time, although Leslie wasn't as over-mic'd this time around. Adam Jacobs' voice is less nasal than last time I saw him, which is a plus, and he had several adorable dorkboy moments in AHFOL. Cosette's wig is even more hideous up close, but I like her assertive like she is here.
Lalala, One Day More was good. More OMGEnjolras.
Why do they keep getting stiff little squirts who can't act for Gavroche? Okay, he was cute as all hell, but he just sort of... stood there. Hmph.
Second act was liekwhoa. Initially it seemed a bit more subdued, but somewhere in the middle of the barricade part it just hit me right in the gut.
I thought almost throughout that I had Melissa Lyons pinned down. She's an enjoyable Eponine, awkward and street-ratty, and once I got a good idea of how she worked the part I stopped noticing her as much. I mean, there are only so many times you can listen to "On My Own" before you start to tune it out. But I think she changed up her ALFOR a bit, and IMO the version she did last night was as close to book!Eponine's death as you can get with such a godawful song. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but she seemed fragmented, scared, as if she were trying to convince herself (and Marius) that everything would be all right, and failing. She sort of crawled into his arms on "I'll sleep in your embrace at last." Adam, for his part, seemed maybe a little too into it at first, but later in the song I could believe he was just trying to comfort the poor girl before she died. No kiss afterwards, which I have mixed feelings about--ew to Marius kissing her passionately on the lips right before she goes to join the choir invisible, but come on, a forehead kiss? Please?
Drink With Me slashy as usual. Mmmmm, Feuilly/Jehan/Joly. And Bring Him Home was just... hi, can I steal Randal Keith's voice?
Gavroche's death is one of those scenes that doesn't get any less rattling and emotional even when you've seen it before. Those gunshots are loud, and there's always that "will he make the throw?" moment of suspense. (He didn't last night.) I came so close to crying during the final battle, but I don't think I would've had such a reaction if I hadn't already been all adrenaline-filled and "ohmyfuckinggod" over Gavroche. Hands-down the most emotionally brutal moment of the show.
Oh yes. "Let others riiiiiiise..." *thud* And he was shouting something when he was waving the flag right before he went down--it sounded like "La liberté!" Poor Victor's French isn't terribly good, but I forgive him because he's a sexy bastard.
More "I keel j00! I KEEL j00!" looks from the audience during Dog Eats Dog. He really digs into it, doesn't he?
I continue to be unimpressed by Robert Hunt's Javert. He's bonkers, but not in the right way.
More adorkable Marius during ECAET and Every Day. Empty Chairs, for the record, nearly made me start crying again. Damn this show and its tear-jerking songs. This is when I really got a sense of how much LM can utterly flatten you emotionally when it's done well--I wanted it to never end, but at the same time I wanted it to be over so I could go off and slit my wrists somewhere. Waugh. I didn't really appreciate the wedding or Beggars at the Feast too much because I was thoroughly mired in angst mode and rather annoyed by the funneh.
And then the amazing thing about the Finale is that it lifts you right up out of angst mode. You still feel like someone has grabbed your heart and run it through a food processor, you're still shaking and going "oh my God," but the uplifting bit of the ending doesn't feel tacked on or Disneyfied, it feels uplifting.
Curtain call was fun. I managed enough presence of mind to yell incoherent fangirl gibberish at the stage when the Amis came back for their bows, and got a few funny looks for that. XD
Took me forever to get out of the theater afterwards, so I missed a lot of people at the stage door. Most notably I passed right by Victor Wallace on the street, but as he was talking to friends I was too shy to grab him. But salvation awaited at the stage door: a bunch of extremely friendly and outgoing fangirls who didn't know overmuch about the show but were determined to talk to everyone, no matter how minor a role they played. So it was a bit of a I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine deal: I identified the principals and took pictures; they initiated conversations. I think I scared the guys playing Combeferre and Montparnasse by knowing more about their characters than they did. XD Talked to Randal a bit about the mechanics of the show, the Asian tour, and such, and he told us all about the Broadway revival as if it were common knowledge already. And Joan, for all I'm not too hot on her Fantine, is very nice in person. And likes Forbidden Broadway, wewt. Maybe when I go back on the 21st a few of them will recognize me. XD "Oh look, it's one of the Crazy Fans!" (Every time I've gone to the stage door there has been a marked difference between the Fans and the Crazy Fans. The Fans like the show. The Crazy Fans have read the book three times, know all the actors by name, and have memorized the show in French. The Batshit Fans stalk the actors, but I've only ever seen one of them.)
Er, yeah. My mom, the Grand Master of Bailing Out Hapless Teenagers, has found me a hotel room with wireless internet. Should be popping by
zachary_evans's house this afternoon.Okay. I don't know if the tour folks got a nice little break before Boston and were all rested and bouncy, or if it was the fact that I was sitting third row center and was close enough to see Randal's spit, or if they were just having a good night or something.... but there was something about it last night that made it even better than when I saw it in DC. And of course, when Les Mis is really good, that makes it even more emotionally draining as usual--I almost burst into tears halfway through the second act, and was shaking when I left the theater.
Randal was about the same as ever, i.e. awesome beyond belief. There's a definite shift in the balance between his acting and his singing as the show goes on: in the prologue he comes across as a good singer and a tremendous actor, and by Bring Him Home it's gone and flipped, and his acting is good and his voice is terrific. I never get bored watching him, even when he's singing parts I've heard 34890235 times before, because he just brings so much intensity to the role, and you can tell he's gone over every word with a fine-tooth comb and decided what to do with it. <3 him so much.
Still not too keen on Robert Hunt. He comes across as perpetually too young for Javert, and perhaps a tad too sadistic as well. He had a few good moments in 'Stars,' but overall I liked Trent Blanton loads better.
I think the audience response played a large part in the energy of the performance tonight. After one of the bishop's parts in the prologue someone in the back started clapping hesitantly, and pretty soon the whole house was applauding him like mad. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of it; there were cheers after Valjean's soliloquy, and throughout the show when there was applause it never had the chance to die down per se--it was cut off when the conductor decided enough was enough and moved into the next song. XD
Joan was mediocre as usual. There's nothing wrong with her Fantine, she just failed to elicit much of a response from me until she was coughing and hacking and being dragged around the stage, at which point she cut a pathetic enough figure to rouse a bit of pity. Matt Clemens was filling in for Trent Blanton's parts and whoa, props to his Bamatabois. "Here's something new, I think I'll give... it a try..." Slimy, very slimy.
Confrontation was where the energy started to build up. Okay, it was mostly Randal supporting it, but yeah.
Little Cosette was--hmm. Very little? XD I don't know if she was actually smaller than the girl I saw last time, but she came across as a lot more frightened and subdued. Jennifer Butt was great as always. Hilariously funny, but in less of a caricature way and more of a "oh my God, I swear I know someone like this" way. Plenty of laughs during MotH, but the audience seemed quite horrified at the Thénardiers' sliminess. Looking around during the Waltz of Treachery and Dog Eat Dog, I saw plenty of "hi, can I kill you now?" expressions, and the laughter was a bit more muted after those.
I have the vague impression that some interesting things might have happened during Look Down, the robbery, Stars, etc., but that brain space is currently occupied by a whole lot of OMG VICTOR WALLACE. The times I saw him in DC I was just sort of "Too sexy for his vest? Check. Good voice? Check. Okay, good Enjolras, nothing special." I laughed at the silly fangirls who probably only liked him because it was their first time seeing the show and they were caught up in the general Enjolras-ness. But... can I bear his children now? Please? He was practically on fire tonight, especially in Act One. ABC Café went thusly:
Victor Wallace: The time is near, so near it's stirring the blood in their veins!
Everyone in the audience who is attracted to men and a few who aren't: ....hi sex0r me now plz?
Victor Wallace: And yet beware--don't let the wine go to your brains!
Matt Clemens: *jumps, stares, and is generally slashy*
Audience: *doesn't blame him*
[snip]
Victor Wallace: Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play?
Victor Wallace's pants: *are very tight*
Audience: Are you a rich young boy? Can we play with you?
Not joking. *falls over* He was great. (And to Whom It May Concern, You Know Who You Are: Charles Hagerty, AKA Joly, was almost as hot. Especially in costume. Mmmmm.)
Randomly, I never noticed the girls in men's clothes in DYHTPS before. *snerk*
Unfortunately, no microphone failure in the garden scene this time, although Leslie wasn't as over-mic'd this time around. Adam Jacobs' voice is less nasal than last time I saw him, which is a plus, and he had several adorable dorkboy moments in AHFOL. Cosette's wig is even more hideous up close, but I like her assertive like she is here.
Lalala, One Day More was good. More OMGEnjolras.
Why do they keep getting stiff little squirts who can't act for Gavroche? Okay, he was cute as all hell, but he just sort of... stood there. Hmph.
Second act was liekwhoa. Initially it seemed a bit more subdued, but somewhere in the middle of the barricade part it just hit me right in the gut.
I thought almost throughout that I had Melissa Lyons pinned down. She's an enjoyable Eponine, awkward and street-ratty, and once I got a good idea of how she worked the part I stopped noticing her as much. I mean, there are only so many times you can listen to "On My Own" before you start to tune it out. But I think she changed up her ALFOR a bit, and IMO the version she did last night was as close to book!Eponine's death as you can get with such a godawful song. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but she seemed fragmented, scared, as if she were trying to convince herself (and Marius) that everything would be all right, and failing. She sort of crawled into his arms on "I'll sleep in your embrace at last." Adam, for his part, seemed maybe a little too into it at first, but later in the song I could believe he was just trying to comfort the poor girl before she died. No kiss afterwards, which I have mixed feelings about--ew to Marius kissing her passionately on the lips right before she goes to join the choir invisible, but come on, a forehead kiss? Please?
Drink With Me slashy as usual. Mmmmm, Feuilly/Jehan/Joly. And Bring Him Home was just... hi, can I steal Randal Keith's voice?
Gavroche's death is one of those scenes that doesn't get any less rattling and emotional even when you've seen it before. Those gunshots are loud, and there's always that "will he make the throw?" moment of suspense. (He didn't last night.) I came so close to crying during the final battle, but I don't think I would've had such a reaction if I hadn't already been all adrenaline-filled and "ohmyfuckinggod" over Gavroche. Hands-down the most emotionally brutal moment of the show.
Oh yes. "Let others riiiiiiise..." *thud* And he was shouting something when he was waving the flag right before he went down--it sounded like "La liberté!" Poor Victor's French isn't terribly good, but I forgive him because he's a sexy bastard.
More "I keel j00! I KEEL j00!" looks from the audience during Dog Eats Dog. He really digs into it, doesn't he?
I continue to be unimpressed by Robert Hunt's Javert. He's bonkers, but not in the right way.
More adorkable Marius during ECAET and Every Day. Empty Chairs, for the record, nearly made me start crying again. Damn this show and its tear-jerking songs. This is when I really got a sense of how much LM can utterly flatten you emotionally when it's done well--I wanted it to never end, but at the same time I wanted it to be over so I could go off and slit my wrists somewhere. Waugh. I didn't really appreciate the wedding or Beggars at the Feast too much because I was thoroughly mired in angst mode and rather annoyed by the funneh.
And then the amazing thing about the Finale is that it lifts you right up out of angst mode. You still feel like someone has grabbed your heart and run it through a food processor, you're still shaking and going "oh my God," but the uplifting bit of the ending doesn't feel tacked on or Disneyfied, it feels uplifting.
Curtain call was fun. I managed enough presence of mind to yell incoherent fangirl gibberish at the stage when the Amis came back for their bows, and got a few funny looks for that. XD
Took me forever to get out of the theater afterwards, so I missed a lot of people at the stage door. Most notably I passed right by Victor Wallace on the street, but as he was talking to friends I was too shy to grab him. But salvation awaited at the stage door: a bunch of extremely friendly and outgoing fangirls who didn't know overmuch about the show but were determined to talk to everyone, no matter how minor a role they played. So it was a bit of a I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine deal: I identified the principals and took pictures; they initiated conversations. I think I scared the guys playing Combeferre and Montparnasse by knowing more about their characters than they did. XD Talked to Randal a bit about the mechanics of the show, the Asian tour, and such, and he told us all about the Broadway revival as if it were common knowledge already. And Joan, for all I'm not too hot on her Fantine, is very nice in person. And likes Forbidden Broadway, wewt. Maybe when I go back on the 21st a few of them will recognize me. XD "Oh look, it's one of the Crazy Fans!" (Every time I've gone to the stage door there has been a marked difference between the Fans and the Crazy Fans. The Fans like the show. The Crazy Fans have read the book three times, know all the actors by name, and have memorized the show in French. The Batshit Fans stalk the actors, but I've only ever seen one of them.)