Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Les Miz Review

Here is my review of the UK National Tour of Les Miserables, as taken from my official trip journal:

Les Miz Review

Okay, where to start with Les Misérables. It was…INCREDIBLE!!! Absolutely wonderful! I haven’t seen it in eleven years, so it was a treat indeed! The cast was amazing. The set was fantastic!  The scenic design was based on the paintings of Victor Hugo. I was unaware that he was a painter! Cool!

The theatre was the Edinburgh Playhouse. It was deceptively large. From the outside, it looks really small! But when we went in, we went down about 2 flights of stairs to get to our seats. We were in the “stalls”, which was the equivalent of the Orchestra section. The seats were really great!

We saw the understudy for Jean Valjean. If the actually guy sitter than the guy we saw – wow! The guy we saw was FANTASTIC!

I was impressed with Fantine acting-wise, but I did not like her singing on “I Dreamed a Dream”. It was a bit harsh for my taste in voice quality. I think she misinterpreted the song. Otherwise, I thought she was great!

Other cool things: Javert was FANTASTIC! The students were great. Enjolras, especially. I loved “Do You Hear the People Sing”. Marius was fantastic as well. He had a gorgeous tenor voice that could melt butter. When he sang with Cosette, they had a gorgeous blend. Eponine was really good, but she pop-cized a few notes in “On My Own” and I was not okay with that. But otherwise, she was fine.

They have eliminated the revolve, which was such an integral part of the original set design. I was trying to figure out how they were going to do the big reveal of Enjolras’ body after the battle, since the barricade couldn’t turn. After Gavroche got killed, Enjolras jumped over the barricade. A few minutes later, after everyone else had been picked off, the barricade split in two and there was Enjolras, laying on a cart, flung backwards like he had always been before on the barricade. Not quite the same, but still extremely effective and powerful.

Oh, I almost forgot – “Bring Him Home” was absolutely exquisite. Theatrical perfection.

One of my favorite elements of this production was the use of projection. They are getting really good with it. During “One Day More”, the projection made them look like they were really marching. My favorite was when Valjean and Marius were down in the sewers and it made them look like they were really moving through a huge sewer while Valjean was carrying and dragging Marius.

Oh, my gosh – Javert’s Soliloquy was FANTASTIC!! I have never seen or heard a Javert go completely mad like this guy dyd. It was so cool! And when he jumped off the bridge, he was suspended in the air and the projection showed the water below him. It was SO COOL!

Ah, the end…I started crying around the time Fantine’s ghost showed up. By the time Eponine’s ghost came on, it was game over. I pretty much bawled, especially after the very best line in the entire show: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Oh, I almost forgot – “Empty Chair at Empty Tables”, there were candles all over the stage. As Marius was singing, all the dead students came out and picked up the candles. Gorgeous scene.

I saw one of the classiest curtain calls I have ever seen in my life – Everyone bowed together, since they were all on stage. Then they scattered and did the traditional curtain call. Then—everyone left the stage except for Valjean. He got his own bow again, and then everyone came back onstage to bow again. That was really cool! I loved it!

I’m so glad that Dad said I could get tickets for a show. Almost makes up for not being able to see a show on the West End in London. Almost.


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