Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-05-07 02:23 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-05-07 02:23 am
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Disillusionment, bah.
And now for the weekly (but not for much longer) Les Mis report.
First off, Ben Davis is fantastic. But ever since the cast change, Ben, Lea, and the barricade boys are pretty much the only things keeping the show going. The boys are fantastic for the most part, but there's only so much they can do to hold up the show when one of the decent performers has 25 minutes of stage time and the other dies halfway through Act I. It just feels to me like the revival has lost its steam. Or maybe, as I'm beginning to believe, the revival is basically Les Mis Lite held together by a few great performances, duct tape, grit, and sheer force of will. Of the really stellar leads--Celia, Aaron, Ali, and Jenny--three out of four are gone and the show is feeling empty without them. Max is okay, but his Enjolras is such a nonentity that he fades right into the rest of the students and the barricade scenes lack a focal point. That's a huge blow to the show right there after how much Aaron dominated his scenes. Celia's demented Eponine was such a breath of fresh air, and Mandy is so horrifyingly annoying, that I want to smack somebody in the face with a clue-by-four. And the show could have been rescued somewhat by a really good Mme T, who's practically a cameo role but who can add a lot with a good actress, and instead we have Ann Harada who is a total dud. (I might be cheered up a little next week by seeing Adam and Ali again; both the Marius understudies are good individually, but Adam and Ali are practically a matched pair as Marius and Cosette, and Ali doesn't play off either Doug or Dan as well as she does Adam.)
Honestly, Celia, Aaron, and Jenny were the main basis of the show's energy for me. I didn't really care if it was Les Mis lite, because it could have been one of those pretentious stripped-down Doyle productions and all three of them would still have fucking rocked and totally carried the show. And now they're gone and the whole thing feels kind of limp, and I've been noticing how much the cuts suck and the reorchestrations suck and the tiny size of the orchestra sucks. Most of the original Broadway production bootlegs I have feature, um, less-than-stellar casts, but I'm starting to understand some of the nostalgia for the old production. I've become so used to the cuts and so desensitized to the tiny pit and the crappy reorchestrations that the other night I randomly teared up when listening to an audio of the oboe solo that had the full orchestra, because I wasn't expecting it to sound so full and so beautiful.
Okay, enough whining. ;) Suffice to say I won't be going up every week to see the new cast.
Ben really is fantastic as Javert. My last three consecutive Javerts--Drew Sarich, Norm Lewis, and Rob Hunt--have all had histrionic tendencies in their own special ways, so the first thing that struck me about Ben is that he's restrained. He doesn't shout! He doesn't flail! He doesn't require any suspension of disbelief for me to totally buy into his Javert! And more than that, his body language is so perfect, and he is Javert to his very fingertips when he's onstage, and omg I love it. So many nice little touches too, especially in the Suicide, which was just amazing. His voice sounded the tiniest bit gravelly, which could be the tail end of his flu, and in any case it didn't detract from his performance--I was just looking for signs he had been sick, and that was the only one I could find.
Dan... okay, I had this problem with his Marius on the tour, and I still have it, and I can't shake it and it's really annoying. He looks and sounds like my freshman philosophy professor. Only as Marius, not in his various ensemble roles. This means several things: one, I get distracted; two, I keep thinking he looks older than he actually does; three, I can only pick out things I like about him piecemeal because my general impression is always "omg it's Sam!"; and four, this is the guy who broke a window in his excitement during a discussion on the Platonic forms, then asked the class if it was still a window. Which means I have no trouble picturing Dan!Marius ranting about Napoleon, but anything else gets into weird territory. Piecemeal things I liked: He was very cold to Eponine in Look Down. (Doubly fun since it's Mandy and it gives me vindictive pleasure to see her treated badly, argh most annoying Eponine ever.) His AHFOL was tender without being doe-eyed and mushy. His Marius seemed to have matured emotionally by the time he hit Empty Chairs. And his interactions with Gary in the wedding were priceless. All the same, I just cannot enjoy him as Marius. Ack.
Alex still meh, cracked twice during BHH. Lea still brilliant--she doesn't swear at Stephen Trafton as Bambi! only at Dan! Mandy's voice during OMO gave me flashbacks to the Barbie Girl song. Ali still adorable, and I love how she handles the scene where she lies to Valjean. Max is offensively bland; would almost prefer Drewjolras, at least he was visibly the leader and the center of attention. Enjolrati should not blend into the crowd. Gary still camp as a row of tents. Half expected Ann to add "it sucka-sucka-sucka-suck to be me" to her verse in Master of the House, she really needs to lose the Christmas Eve voice. Drew not as outrageously gay as he was earlier in the run, though he was very grabby with Max in the final battle. Max does not encourage Drew's slashiness and this makes me sad. Was third-row in the first act, before the tall annoying people in front of me drove me up to an empty mezz seat, and I swear Drew and Nehal were both smirking at me.
Esprit de l'escalier was hard at work at the stage door. I swear most of the people I talked to must think I'm a complete social retard, since I was very bad about holding up my end of various conversations. Yay awkward pauses. And I forgot half the things I wanted to say to various people. Only exception was Nehal, who apparently thinks it is the height of awesome that we're both from DC.
Sunday matinees are fun because I actually get home at a reasonable hour. Pulled up in front of the house at a quarter past twelve. This is the second time in a row the people next to me on Greyhound have been talking to each other in Russian--why yes, I do spend boring bus rides eavesdropping on the people around me and figuring out what languages they're speaking.
Seeing the show next week, and then after that I have nothing planned for it except maybe Valjean Understudy Week in June. If anyone wants to go up and see it with me, I'd be happy to, but otherwise I probably won't bother for a while. Maybe I'll get around to posting things besides Les Mis reviews now and then. ;)
First off, Ben Davis is fantastic. But ever since the cast change, Ben, Lea, and the barricade boys are pretty much the only things keeping the show going. The boys are fantastic for the most part, but there's only so much they can do to hold up the show when one of the decent performers has 25 minutes of stage time and the other dies halfway through Act I. It just feels to me like the revival has lost its steam. Or maybe, as I'm beginning to believe, the revival is basically Les Mis Lite held together by a few great performances, duct tape, grit, and sheer force of will. Of the really stellar leads--Celia, Aaron, Ali, and Jenny--three out of four are gone and the show is feeling empty without them. Max is okay, but his Enjolras is such a nonentity that he fades right into the rest of the students and the barricade scenes lack a focal point. That's a huge blow to the show right there after how much Aaron dominated his scenes. Celia's demented Eponine was such a breath of fresh air, and Mandy is so horrifyingly annoying, that I want to smack somebody in the face with a clue-by-four. And the show could have been rescued somewhat by a really good Mme T, who's practically a cameo role but who can add a lot with a good actress, and instead we have Ann Harada who is a total dud. (I might be cheered up a little next week by seeing Adam and Ali again; both the Marius understudies are good individually, but Adam and Ali are practically a matched pair as Marius and Cosette, and Ali doesn't play off either Doug or Dan as well as she does Adam.)
Honestly, Celia, Aaron, and Jenny were the main basis of the show's energy for me. I didn't really care if it was Les Mis lite, because it could have been one of those pretentious stripped-down Doyle productions and all three of them would still have fucking rocked and totally carried the show. And now they're gone and the whole thing feels kind of limp, and I've been noticing how much the cuts suck and the reorchestrations suck and the tiny size of the orchestra sucks. Most of the original Broadway production bootlegs I have feature, um, less-than-stellar casts, but I'm starting to understand some of the nostalgia for the old production. I've become so used to the cuts and so desensitized to the tiny pit and the crappy reorchestrations that the other night I randomly teared up when listening to an audio of the oboe solo that had the full orchestra, because I wasn't expecting it to sound so full and so beautiful.
Okay, enough whining. ;) Suffice to say I won't be going up every week to see the new cast.
Ben really is fantastic as Javert. My last three consecutive Javerts--Drew Sarich, Norm Lewis, and Rob Hunt--have all had histrionic tendencies in their own special ways, so the first thing that struck me about Ben is that he's restrained. He doesn't shout! He doesn't flail! He doesn't require any suspension of disbelief for me to totally buy into his Javert! And more than that, his body language is so perfect, and he is Javert to his very fingertips when he's onstage, and omg I love it. So many nice little touches too, especially in the Suicide, which was just amazing. His voice sounded the tiniest bit gravelly, which could be the tail end of his flu, and in any case it didn't detract from his performance--I was just looking for signs he had been sick, and that was the only one I could find.
Dan... okay, I had this problem with his Marius on the tour, and I still have it, and I can't shake it and it's really annoying. He looks and sounds like my freshman philosophy professor. Only as Marius, not in his various ensemble roles. This means several things: one, I get distracted; two, I keep thinking he looks older than he actually does; three, I can only pick out things I like about him piecemeal because my general impression is always "omg it's Sam!"; and four, this is the guy who broke a window in his excitement during a discussion on the Platonic forms, then asked the class if it was still a window. Which means I have no trouble picturing Dan!Marius ranting about Napoleon, but anything else gets into weird territory. Piecemeal things I liked: He was very cold to Eponine in Look Down. (Doubly fun since it's Mandy and it gives me vindictive pleasure to see her treated badly, argh most annoying Eponine ever.) His AHFOL was tender without being doe-eyed and mushy. His Marius seemed to have matured emotionally by the time he hit Empty Chairs. And his interactions with Gary in the wedding were priceless. All the same, I just cannot enjoy him as Marius. Ack.
Alex still meh, cracked twice during BHH. Lea still brilliant--she doesn't swear at Stephen Trafton as Bambi! only at Dan! Mandy's voice during OMO gave me flashbacks to the Barbie Girl song. Ali still adorable, and I love how she handles the scene where she lies to Valjean. Max is offensively bland; would almost prefer Drewjolras, at least he was visibly the leader and the center of attention. Enjolrati should not blend into the crowd. Gary still camp as a row of tents. Half expected Ann to add "it sucka-sucka-sucka-suck to be me" to her verse in Master of the House, she really needs to lose the Christmas Eve voice. Drew not as outrageously gay as he was earlier in the run, though he was very grabby with Max in the final battle. Max does not encourage Drew's slashiness and this makes me sad. Was third-row in the first act, before the tall annoying people in front of me drove me up to an empty mezz seat, and I swear Drew and Nehal were both smirking at me.
Esprit de l'escalier was hard at work at the stage door. I swear most of the people I talked to must think I'm a complete social retard, since I was very bad about holding up my end of various conversations. Yay awkward pauses. And I forgot half the things I wanted to say to various people. Only exception was Nehal, who apparently thinks it is the height of awesome that we're both from DC.
Sunday matinees are fun because I actually get home at a reasonable hour. Pulled up in front of the house at a quarter past twelve. This is the second time in a row the people next to me on Greyhound have been talking to each other in Russian--why yes, I do spend boring bus rides eavesdropping on the people around me and figuring out what languages they're speaking.
Seeing the show next week, and then after that I have nothing planned for it except maybe Valjean Understudy Week in June. If anyone wants to go up and see it with me, I'd be happy to, but otherwise I probably won't bother for a while. Maybe I'll get around to posting things besides Les Mis reviews now and then. ;)