Les Mis Review! (no way, it's here at last!) - rather, more of a "Les Mis ramble". You are warned.
I told myself I wasn't going to write this.
I intended to at first, but as one thing led to another and the day became more distant, little demon doubts came clawing up from inside me saying “this is no longer really relevant; you saw it so long ago; it's a ridiculous idea at this point; you still don't really want to”. All true (to an extent). But you see, I have this problem - I get an idea in my head and I can never really banish it. Like in Inception, it is an infectious virus... no, more, it is lysogenic. It incorporates itself into my very DNA and it waits, biding its time, until one day when the environmental trigger keys it in and BOOM, it explodes, and it's everywhere, and you can do nothing but suffer and die under it.
Alright, so it's not quite that bad; but if I don't write this it will nag me forever. Therefore, o idea virus, I give in to you. So, here it is: long-awaited and oft-postponed but fully alive.
On Tuesday, Jan 4th, 2011, I saw the 25th Anniversary US Tour of Les Mis, as presented at the Papermill Theater in Philadelphia, PA. Attending: myself, my friend Sheri (who went on the European adventure with me and saw Rudolf), my brother, and both parents. We were seated in the first row, Parkett, at the far right of the theater, for act 1. For act 2, my parents and brother scrounged up seats in 5th row orchestra, and my friend and I got front row box seats.
Side Note to all interested: my mom is THE resource for getting good theater/arena seats. Somehow when we went to see Stars on Ice last year (I've been a Lysacek fan since his '05 Worlds bronze) we upgraded from 12 rows back on corner ice to on-ice seats, front and center. Dear Mom, I love you, love, Carol. ;)
Philly is 3.5 hrs away from my CT home by car, so we booked two hotel rooms, drove down the day of, checked in to the hotel, napped and had dinner, and then headed downtown for the play. The rooms made a great venue for the hour-plus of discussion chatter that is a MUST following any musical. The car ride made a great venue for listening to the Les Mis CD. Thankfully, New England withheld from dumping one of its lovely snowstorms on us (there were a lot of those this year) and the drive was largely uneventful, unless you count my brother and I composing “Sheri is bored” songs with inventive lyrics to the tune of Beethoven's 9th and various other works of classical magnitude.
Enough rummaging in the dust of family memories; on to the show.
I have noticed this odd thing about musicals. Odd, and delicious; they are like good cheese, or wine. Their best flavor comes with memory, and as the days since you saw them recede, the more glorious they become in your mind. I love a good film, do not get me wrong. But a good movie is a bit like a flash of lightning. It is all searing brightness and purple aftermath and a rumble that rattles your bones, and when one strikes particularly close, everyone in the house makes comments about it. But when the storm has ended - sometimes even before the rain stops - the memory of those lightning bolts is dull and gray, and you quickly forget.
Not so with theater. It is a seed; it is planted and it sprouts and it lives on and on, and flowers long after the closing chord has ended. So, to this day, I can rustle up the most glorious purple prose about Phantom, and sputter and sigh Rudolf's praises, as if I had just seen either work. Theater makes a mark, good theater doubly so; and, ladies and gentlemen, there is no question that Les Mis is good theater.
I will admit it took me a while to get “into” Les Mis, as a show. It seems to have this chronic problem of often having a dark stage with a single person on singing to themselves/the audience. I do love the ensemble numbers (particularly the thousand and one reincarnations of “Look Down”), but the highlight moments are when the principles are all on stage together. One Day More, for example; the Finale; even Red and Black.
That leads me to another thought. I love the orchestrations of Les Mis. (Who can forget the booming brass in the overture - or in the “Stars” theme, particularly post-jump for Javert?) But it doesn't have all that many songs I walk out loving on their own. Perhaps this is a fait accompli of being a Wildhorn fan. Frank writes some stunning ballads. Everything he's ever done (that I have heard), there is a song - or three - that just gets STUCK, and I sing it over and over, and it is vicious and charming and enchanting all on its own. This is the Moment / Dangerous Game / Confrontation. Mut zur Tat / Wie jeder / Du bist meine Welt. I will be there / Every day a little death / I know those eyes. So on, and so forth. But Kunst/Levay are the same way; there are songs in Elisabeth that demand to be pounded out on their own, that are strong and compelling on their own.
And, you know what? I don't really like the melodies of Les Mis. Stars, for example. I'm a massive Javert fan and this is his song. The orchestrations are beautiful. The song has its moments but... it falls short. I Dreamed a Dream can really be belted to lovely effect, but I listen to the melodic line for its own sake and it just... does not grab me, not the way “Wishing you were somehow here again” does, not even the way “Kann ich einfach geh'n?” does. I find this difficult to properly explain...
There are two songs that buck that trend, as far as ballads. On My Own is the first, and honestly, I think one of the great reasons why the Les Mis neophyte walks out of the theater loving Eponine. It is a song that fits in context, but has life outside of context. You are not going to burst out singing Stars while walking down the street... but On My Own fits. It finds heartstrings and tugs on them.
The other one is Bring Him Home... but only when done particularly well. Drew does it well. Alfie Boe does it well. Lawrence Clayton (my Valjean) - not so much, alas.
The thing about the songs of Les Mis: they all come together into a seamless production. Even the recitative works well; all the conversations between Javert and Valjean, for example. That is not beautiful music. It's actually quite repetitive and bounces back and forth between the same two notes. You won't sing it in the car. (Unless you're a Javert fangirl, as I am, in which case, all bets are off.) However it works, and it works very well, and it sweeps you along and connects the musical together. Particularly beautiful are those moments with multiple lines of dialog overlapping and chasing different memories... think “A Heart Full of Love” when Eponine (later: Valjean) join in; think the Finale; think One Day More.
Les Mis is a self-integrated masterpiece where no one part outshines all the others. It is the “ensemble” of scores, with every bit wound into every other bit. Nothing stands out as brighter and more beautiful, but it all works. That is its strength, and its weakness.
Now, as to my own production, and the 25th anniversary restaging in general.
Lawrence Clayton was my Jean Valjean. I loved the idea of casting an African American in the role and in that respect, he did not disappoint. “Bring Him Home” with a bit of soul-slide in the voice? Heck, yes! My biggest regret is there wasn't more of this! From time to time it would appear, but then it would vanish again. Apparently earlier in the tour there was more of it, and he toned it down, which is such a pity.
In classic terms, though, Clayton didn't impress me. Now he wasn't a *bad* JVJ or anything of the sort. He was just... standard. He became the narrative device around which the story and the rest of the cast spun, but I didn't get particularly excited when he made any entrances on stage. He had short (almost shaved) hair, and for some reason no beard, so I missed the traditional “graying” that shows that JVJ is aging. I think he tried to make up for it by roughening his voice as the night went on, but I didn't really like the effect... it just made it sound like he was struggling. (Maybe he was; it could have been an off night? We had some discussion about this with the family afterward. My mom thought it was an off night, my dad thought it was deliberate.) His Bring Him Home was a nice moment, but it wasn't stunning. I really do consider that song a “showstopper”; everyone waits for it to happen, and all the action ceases when it does. In fact, in this staging, everyone actually “froze” on stage, even those barricade boys who weren't quite asleep yet.
Betsy Morgan was our Fantine, and she was EVERYTHING I want a Fantine to be. The best Fantine I have ever heard or seen - and I say this not just because she was live. Her “I Dreamed a Dream” had actual bite to it at the beginning, nearly snarling at the foreman, and all the right elements of power and wistfulness. She had blonde hair (YES!), which she got back for the finale! That was fabulous! Ever so much more beautiful and angel-like than the cropped hair variation.
Cosette (Jenny Lativer) was an operatic little Christine-esque role, also with blonde hair, which I thought was a lovely touch. A nice, clean soprano, but she doesn't really get a lot to do.
Opposite Cossette, Justin Scott Brown made a Fabulous Marius. Again, the best Marius I have seen. I'm not a great fan of Michael Ball, and am definitely not a Nick Jonas fan. He “looks” suitably Marius-esque but carried his part in Red and Black very well.
Completing the love triangle was Chasten Harmon as Eponine. Another African American cast, and no... it didn't bother me that the (white) Thernardiers had a black daughter. Nor did it confuse my mom, who gets hung up on oddities like that, so I thumb my nose at everyone who whined about this casting. Eponine had a clear-as-a-bell pop voice that makes me want to see her as Mary in JCS terribly, terribly much. I absolutely loved the contrast between pop-Eponine and opera-Cosette, both trying to woo the heart of Marius. It only served to really emphasize the idea that they came from different worlds... and where else do you get to hear such radically different voices harmonizing together? It was truly exquisite. I also dump more love on Harmon for her fabulous rendition of “A Little Fall of Rain”. I have often heard too much acting and too little singing in this part. She managed to make all the right notes pure, while conveying every inch of the dying Eponine and all the pain she was going through. Nailing the acting without massacring the song. Major, major points.
Gavroche was also so very, very good. He was a bold, brash little pipsqueak, cute, and he made you fall in LOVE with him. Everything from his cocky poses to the way he tossed a mocking salute at Javert right before Stars started...! He made you fall in love, and it really hit you when he died.
The Thernardiers were delightful. I'm not a fan of their characters, nor of their number. I hear time and time again that “Master of the House”... well, brings down the house, but I have never particularly liked it. Oh, it was great staging, with Thernardier stealing shoes and wallets and coats left and right with a waggle and a grin at the audience. Also, one of the travelers brought in a caged parrot that ended up in the sausages XD that was hil-ar-i-ous... they played their comic relief very well. I'm just not a fan of those roles.
I was very impressed, however, by Enjolras - Jeremy Hays. So impressed that I used him as the model for my Enjolras when drawing my “Les Mis Cast” images of the past months. The Enjolras of my imagination will now always have that wild, Charlie White-esque mop of curly golden hair. He had a powerful baritone, just the right force and drama, that made Red and Black the dream of a song I first fell in love with (before anything else in Les Mis). He handles a gun like he knows how to use it and rips the whole revolution along in his wake.
The biggest impact was made on me, however, by Andrew Varela's Javert.
I am a Javert fangirl, understand. I mourned the character massacre in the first half of the most recent film, and rejoiced over the rendering in the second half. I watched the 25th Anniv concert on PBS recently half because I wanted to see a clean-cut Norm Lewis in the role, having missed him on Broadway (alas!). I have read the book and savored every Javert passage, and picked apart his psychology enough to write him as a character. See, I am what the D&D world (though I have never played) calls “lawful”. I follow rules. I like chains of authority. I set up logical systems for my world and then I remain within them and things make sense within them. Javert... he is a “lawful neutral” character. He has defined his world and he twists everything around him to fit that definition... until Valjean. Valjean shatters him. (I also like broken characters. See: Rudolf.)
I know my favorite kind of Javert. I am a Richard Woodford admirer in the role. I like someone with an iron backbone who does not move around to much, who clips all his words and staggers his meter just the slightest, who is more statue than man, all stone and shadow up until the moment he shatters. So when Varela walked into the role... I didn't like him at first. He played up the human side. He was not stiff and perfect. He was not so cold; he let emotion slip through. But as the musical wound on, I found myself loving him more and more. His “Confrontation” (my favorite song!) with Clayton was deliciously angry... it actually sounded like they might kill each other! Also, in this staging, it was much more physical. Not JVJ and Javert standing shouting at each other, but they also grapple with this length of chain, tripping and wresting and nearly choking each other. Dynamic! But what really got me was Varela's portrayal of Javert falling apart.
It starts when Javert is captured at the barricades. Rather than just tie him to a chair, they frog-march him on and off stage at various points. The best part was he was brought on right when Eponine was carried off. One of the students pinned up up against the door with a gun and a vicious snarl, as Eponine was carried off right next to him. Javert kind of throws this glance over his shoulder and has this awesome sneer on his face. It's like, “I told you: you will wet yourselves with blood! Where she has gone, the rest will follow!” Complete contempt. Utterly lovely!
His half of JVJ letting him go was great. (I didn't like Clayton's half. He pretty much just shouted all of JVJ's lines. “YOU ARE WRONG! And ALWAYS have been wrong! I'M A MAN! The same as any other. YOU ARE FREE....” and so on. It lost all its musical power and build. =/
After the barricade fight was over - okay I need to diverge here for a moment.
I missed the rotating stage. Badly. You don't get to see both sides of the barricades. Gavroche's death happens offstage. Yes, it still has emotional impact, but not nearly the same punch as seeing him killed before your eyes. Also, the music has several measures of dramatic “DUN DUN DUN” music that usually accompanies the barricade swiveling back around to reveal all the stunned students (and Grantaire). The music is still there, but it's so awkward, because *nothing happens*. Everyone just stands there through it. Um. We already revealed their shock during the moment of the shooting. Now nothing happens.
Now, one thing I did like: rather than one big cannon blow killing all the students, you see them individually shot. They all get 2-3 seconds of limelight time as they stagger into death, and you can see the other students becoming desperate as their comrades fall around them. Great stuff! Not so great: the death of Enjolras. When it's his turn, he sort of stumbles forward and out of sight. Since there are no rotating barricades, you have that fabulous musical swell that usually reveals Enjy draped over the red flag of revolution as the barricades rotate. This time? Nope, no such luck. All this powerful music and... nothing happens. Let down!!
Now, where was I - ah yes! One thing that worked quite well. The barricades were pulled apart on the end, and Enjy and Gabroche are revealed on the back of a cart being pulled by one of the soldiers “cleaning up the mess”. Javert dashes on stage with a Real Flaming Torch (!! so cool) and holds it close to them, examining the bodies. His jacket is undone, his hair is mussed, and madness glitters in his eyes. You can see that Javert is already losing it. He doesn't just break down all at once on the bridge; he goes sliding down a long slippery slope. And it works SO much better. You can see JVJ's decision to let Javert go free has been eating manically away at him.
Which brings me to the highlight of the show: Javert's suicide. Good God. I wish I had a recording. Half my soul for a recording. I have listened to half a hundred versions of this song and no one, NO ONE, compares to Varela. He tore out my bleeding heart. I'm a Javert fan, you say; you cannot trust me. Let me tell you, this song was THE thing on everyone's lips when the curtain went down and the lights came up. My God it was beautiful. I find myself unable to express it. The sheer anguish in Varela's “It was MY RIGHT! To die as well... but now I live... but live in HELL...” - he put the emphasis in different places than I had ever heard it before and it was so... so RIGHT. Also, he did not shout the song; he sang it emotively.
Best of all, they restaged the jump. Usually Javert steps over the railing, and it is pulled up behind him as he mimes falling. Not so. He steps ONTO the railing, and sings half the song balancing precariously on the edge (or so it seems). In truth he stands (sits/reclines on) on a piece of “invisible” black set. When he jumps, the railing is lifted, and then the set piece he is sitting on pulls back so that he recedes from the audience towards the back screen of the theater, until he vanishes through a black door that swallows him up. The projection spins from stars and Paris to a view of the river, so that you would swear you were watching Javert from the side, and then after he jumped, you rushed to the railing edge and looked down as he fell away from you, arms flailing, hitting the river with his back.
Whoa. Just, whoa.
There is one further highlight I absolutely must mention: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. The staging was completely redone. There are no chairs or table. Instead, during “Turning” (the song just before), all the women of Paris come out holding lit votive candles in little glasses. They leave them behind scattered across the stage when Marius comes in with his long coat and cane. As he sings, he picks one of the candles up. Of course, during “phantom faces at the window”, all the barricade boys emerge as ghosts. Rather than staying in their line, they migrate to the candles and pick them all up, as if joining in Marius's vigil. There is this one heartbreaking moment when Marius staggers around, candle raised, as if he could almost see them... he approaches Enjolras and lifts the candle as if peering into his face... and they his eyes move past, and he does not see Enjolras anymore; he has never seen him at all; the ghosts are ghosts and all is lost. The barricade boys recede back into the shadows. At the very end, Marius blows out his candle. The vigil ends.
Alas.
Tissues required...
There were other staging changes. One Day More suffered a bit from it, I think; there were balconies to the left and right, where the Thernardiers appeared, and Cosette. (I missed her running to meet Marius in the middle). The triangle of marchers was done away with, replaced with a great and innovative series of staggered lines that would sweep past each other, advancing up from downstage in dramatic fashion. There were no trapdoors, so the sewers were grates to the left and right. When Marius and Cosette met, Cosette was up on the balcony, not in the garden, and she came down to see him. The very opening scene takes place rowing a ship, rather than in a rock quarry. JVJ gets his release when the ship makes land, and they all haul the oars offstage.
The projections were a GREAT addition. Particularly good was when JVJ dragged Marius through the sewers: their movement made it look like the Sewer walls receding away from the audience as JVJ staggered towards us.
I only noticed one lyric change, which I was sad to see missing: in the sewers, JVJ did not sing the line, “Look down, Javert! He's standing in his grave! Give way, Javert! There is a life to save!” - which is a pity, since it references the “Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave” from the prolog.
As far as acting, the only change I really missed was that Fantine no longer spits in JVJ's face during her arrest scene. I liked that. :(
I think that's more or less everything... in mightily jumbled fashion, mind you! I wish we had had a better Valjean, someone captivating in his own regard, rather than just the turnpoint, the plot-carrier for the rest of the cast. I heard actually that the cover did wonders with the role, and almost wish we had had him. It was the premiere night in Philly though (I think?) so that was not going to happen. The featured roles and the ensemble were fabulous - strong voices, great acting. For the most part the sets were improvements (much more going on than “dark stage, lone person singing in the spotlight”) and the orchestra was flawless. There was a guy at the end of my row furiously conducting with great enthusiasm XD to the amusement of my family.
Ah... Les Mis. I have seen you at last, and you did not disappoint, not in the slightest. Also: I have gotten my friend to learn JVJ's part in Confrontation, so I finally have someone to counterpoint my Javert against!
Speaking of which...
My brother had seen the recent movie, and afterward said, “I went in loving Valjean, and expecting to love him. But now that it's over, I like Javert more.”
Dear world:
I win.
Das Ende.
I intended to at first, but as one thing led to another and the day became more distant, little demon doubts came clawing up from inside me saying “this is no longer really relevant; you saw it so long ago; it's a ridiculous idea at this point; you still don't really want to”. All true (to an extent). But you see, I have this problem - I get an idea in my head and I can never really banish it. Like in Inception, it is an infectious virus... no, more, it is lysogenic. It incorporates itself into my very DNA and it waits, biding its time, until one day when the environmental trigger keys it in and BOOM, it explodes, and it's everywhere, and you can do nothing but suffer and die under it.
Alright, so it's not quite that bad; but if I don't write this it will nag me forever. Therefore, o idea virus, I give in to you. So, here it is: long-awaited and oft-postponed but fully alive.
On Tuesday, Jan 4th, 2011, I saw the 25th Anniversary US Tour of Les Mis, as presented at the Papermill Theater in Philadelphia, PA. Attending: myself, my friend Sheri (who went on the European adventure with me and saw Rudolf), my brother, and both parents. We were seated in the first row, Parkett, at the far right of the theater, for act 1. For act 2, my parents and brother scrounged up seats in 5th row orchestra, and my friend and I got front row box seats.
Side Note to all interested: my mom is THE resource for getting good theater/arena seats. Somehow when we went to see Stars on Ice last year (I've been a Lysacek fan since his '05 Worlds bronze) we upgraded from 12 rows back on corner ice to on-ice seats, front and center. Dear Mom, I love you, love, Carol. ;)
Philly is 3.5 hrs away from my CT home by car, so we booked two hotel rooms, drove down the day of, checked in to the hotel, napped and had dinner, and then headed downtown for the play. The rooms made a great venue for the hour-plus of discussion chatter that is a MUST following any musical. The car ride made a great venue for listening to the Les Mis CD. Thankfully, New England withheld from dumping one of its lovely snowstorms on us (there were a lot of those this year) and the drive was largely uneventful, unless you count my brother and I composing “Sheri is bored” songs with inventive lyrics to the tune of Beethoven's 9th and various other works of classical magnitude.
Enough rummaging in the dust of family memories; on to the show.
I have noticed this odd thing about musicals. Odd, and delicious; they are like good cheese, or wine. Their best flavor comes with memory, and as the days since you saw them recede, the more glorious they become in your mind. I love a good film, do not get me wrong. But a good movie is a bit like a flash of lightning. It is all searing brightness and purple aftermath and a rumble that rattles your bones, and when one strikes particularly close, everyone in the house makes comments about it. But when the storm has ended - sometimes even before the rain stops - the memory of those lightning bolts is dull and gray, and you quickly forget.
Not so with theater. It is a seed; it is planted and it sprouts and it lives on and on, and flowers long after the closing chord has ended. So, to this day, I can rustle up the most glorious purple prose about Phantom, and sputter and sigh Rudolf's praises, as if I had just seen either work. Theater makes a mark, good theater doubly so; and, ladies and gentlemen, there is no question that Les Mis is good theater.
I will admit it took me a while to get “into” Les Mis, as a show. It seems to have this chronic problem of often having a dark stage with a single person on singing to themselves/the audience. I do love the ensemble numbers (particularly the thousand and one reincarnations of “Look Down”), but the highlight moments are when the principles are all on stage together. One Day More, for example; the Finale; even Red and Black.
That leads me to another thought. I love the orchestrations of Les Mis. (Who can forget the booming brass in the overture - or in the “Stars” theme, particularly post-jump for Javert?) But it doesn't have all that many songs I walk out loving on their own. Perhaps this is a fait accompli of being a Wildhorn fan. Frank writes some stunning ballads. Everything he's ever done (that I have heard), there is a song - or three - that just gets STUCK, and I sing it over and over, and it is vicious and charming and enchanting all on its own. This is the Moment / Dangerous Game / Confrontation. Mut zur Tat / Wie jeder / Du bist meine Welt. I will be there / Every day a little death / I know those eyes. So on, and so forth. But Kunst/Levay are the same way; there are songs in Elisabeth that demand to be pounded out on their own, that are strong and compelling on their own.
And, you know what? I don't really like the melodies of Les Mis. Stars, for example. I'm a massive Javert fan and this is his song. The orchestrations are beautiful. The song has its moments but... it falls short. I Dreamed a Dream can really be belted to lovely effect, but I listen to the melodic line for its own sake and it just... does not grab me, not the way “Wishing you were somehow here again” does, not even the way “Kann ich einfach geh'n?” does. I find this difficult to properly explain...
There are two songs that buck that trend, as far as ballads. On My Own is the first, and honestly, I think one of the great reasons why the Les Mis neophyte walks out of the theater loving Eponine. It is a song that fits in context, but has life outside of context. You are not going to burst out singing Stars while walking down the street... but On My Own fits. It finds heartstrings and tugs on them.
The other one is Bring Him Home... but only when done particularly well. Drew does it well. Alfie Boe does it well. Lawrence Clayton (my Valjean) - not so much, alas.
The thing about the songs of Les Mis: they all come together into a seamless production. Even the recitative works well; all the conversations between Javert and Valjean, for example. That is not beautiful music. It's actually quite repetitive and bounces back and forth between the same two notes. You won't sing it in the car. (Unless you're a Javert fangirl, as I am, in which case, all bets are off.) However it works, and it works very well, and it sweeps you along and connects the musical together. Particularly beautiful are those moments with multiple lines of dialog overlapping and chasing different memories... think “A Heart Full of Love” when Eponine (later: Valjean) join in; think the Finale; think One Day More.
Les Mis is a self-integrated masterpiece where no one part outshines all the others. It is the “ensemble” of scores, with every bit wound into every other bit. Nothing stands out as brighter and more beautiful, but it all works. That is its strength, and its weakness.
Now, as to my own production, and the 25th anniversary restaging in general.
Lawrence Clayton was my Jean Valjean. I loved the idea of casting an African American in the role and in that respect, he did not disappoint. “Bring Him Home” with a bit of soul-slide in the voice? Heck, yes! My biggest regret is there wasn't more of this! From time to time it would appear, but then it would vanish again. Apparently earlier in the tour there was more of it, and he toned it down, which is such a pity.
In classic terms, though, Clayton didn't impress me. Now he wasn't a *bad* JVJ or anything of the sort. He was just... standard. He became the narrative device around which the story and the rest of the cast spun, but I didn't get particularly excited when he made any entrances on stage. He had short (almost shaved) hair, and for some reason no beard, so I missed the traditional “graying” that shows that JVJ is aging. I think he tried to make up for it by roughening his voice as the night went on, but I didn't really like the effect... it just made it sound like he was struggling. (Maybe he was; it could have been an off night? We had some discussion about this with the family afterward. My mom thought it was an off night, my dad thought it was deliberate.) His Bring Him Home was a nice moment, but it wasn't stunning. I really do consider that song a “showstopper”; everyone waits for it to happen, and all the action ceases when it does. In fact, in this staging, everyone actually “froze” on stage, even those barricade boys who weren't quite asleep yet.
Betsy Morgan was our Fantine, and she was EVERYTHING I want a Fantine to be. The best Fantine I have ever heard or seen - and I say this not just because she was live. Her “I Dreamed a Dream” had actual bite to it at the beginning, nearly snarling at the foreman, and all the right elements of power and wistfulness. She had blonde hair (YES!), which she got back for the finale! That was fabulous! Ever so much more beautiful and angel-like than the cropped hair variation.
Cosette (Jenny Lativer) was an operatic little Christine-esque role, also with blonde hair, which I thought was a lovely touch. A nice, clean soprano, but she doesn't really get a lot to do.
Opposite Cossette, Justin Scott Brown made a Fabulous Marius. Again, the best Marius I have seen. I'm not a great fan of Michael Ball, and am definitely not a Nick Jonas fan. He “looks” suitably Marius-esque but carried his part in Red and Black very well.
Completing the love triangle was Chasten Harmon as Eponine. Another African American cast, and no... it didn't bother me that the (white) Thernardiers had a black daughter. Nor did it confuse my mom, who gets hung up on oddities like that, so I thumb my nose at everyone who whined about this casting. Eponine had a clear-as-a-bell pop voice that makes me want to see her as Mary in JCS terribly, terribly much. I absolutely loved the contrast between pop-Eponine and opera-Cosette, both trying to woo the heart of Marius. It only served to really emphasize the idea that they came from different worlds... and where else do you get to hear such radically different voices harmonizing together? It was truly exquisite. I also dump more love on Harmon for her fabulous rendition of “A Little Fall of Rain”. I have often heard too much acting and too little singing in this part. She managed to make all the right notes pure, while conveying every inch of the dying Eponine and all the pain she was going through. Nailing the acting without massacring the song. Major, major points.
Gavroche was also so very, very good. He was a bold, brash little pipsqueak, cute, and he made you fall in LOVE with him. Everything from his cocky poses to the way he tossed a mocking salute at Javert right before Stars started...! He made you fall in love, and it really hit you when he died.
The Thernardiers were delightful. I'm not a fan of their characters, nor of their number. I hear time and time again that “Master of the House”... well, brings down the house, but I have never particularly liked it. Oh, it was great staging, with Thernardier stealing shoes and wallets and coats left and right with a waggle and a grin at the audience. Also, one of the travelers brought in a caged parrot that ended up in the sausages XD that was hil-ar-i-ous... they played their comic relief very well. I'm just not a fan of those roles.
I was very impressed, however, by Enjolras - Jeremy Hays. So impressed that I used him as the model for my Enjolras when drawing my “Les Mis Cast” images of the past months. The Enjolras of my imagination will now always have that wild, Charlie White-esque mop of curly golden hair. He had a powerful baritone, just the right force and drama, that made Red and Black the dream of a song I first fell in love with (before anything else in Les Mis). He handles a gun like he knows how to use it and rips the whole revolution along in his wake.
The biggest impact was made on me, however, by Andrew Varela's Javert.
I am a Javert fangirl, understand. I mourned the character massacre in the first half of the most recent film, and rejoiced over the rendering in the second half. I watched the 25th Anniv concert on PBS recently half because I wanted to see a clean-cut Norm Lewis in the role, having missed him on Broadway (alas!). I have read the book and savored every Javert passage, and picked apart his psychology enough to write him as a character. See, I am what the D&D world (though I have never played) calls “lawful”. I follow rules. I like chains of authority. I set up logical systems for my world and then I remain within them and things make sense within them. Javert... he is a “lawful neutral” character. He has defined his world and he twists everything around him to fit that definition... until Valjean. Valjean shatters him. (I also like broken characters. See: Rudolf.)
I know my favorite kind of Javert. I am a Richard Woodford admirer in the role. I like someone with an iron backbone who does not move around to much, who clips all his words and staggers his meter just the slightest, who is more statue than man, all stone and shadow up until the moment he shatters. So when Varela walked into the role... I didn't like him at first. He played up the human side. He was not stiff and perfect. He was not so cold; he let emotion slip through. But as the musical wound on, I found myself loving him more and more. His “Confrontation” (my favorite song!) with Clayton was deliciously angry... it actually sounded like they might kill each other! Also, in this staging, it was much more physical. Not JVJ and Javert standing shouting at each other, but they also grapple with this length of chain, tripping and wresting and nearly choking each other. Dynamic! But what really got me was Varela's portrayal of Javert falling apart.
It starts when Javert is captured at the barricades. Rather than just tie him to a chair, they frog-march him on and off stage at various points. The best part was he was brought on right when Eponine was carried off. One of the students pinned up up against the door with a gun and a vicious snarl, as Eponine was carried off right next to him. Javert kind of throws this glance over his shoulder and has this awesome sneer on his face. It's like, “I told you: you will wet yourselves with blood! Where she has gone, the rest will follow!” Complete contempt. Utterly lovely!
His half of JVJ letting him go was great. (I didn't like Clayton's half. He pretty much just shouted all of JVJ's lines. “YOU ARE WRONG! And ALWAYS have been wrong! I'M A MAN! The same as any other. YOU ARE FREE....” and so on. It lost all its musical power and build. =/
After the barricade fight was over - okay I need to diverge here for a moment.
I missed the rotating stage. Badly. You don't get to see both sides of the barricades. Gavroche's death happens offstage. Yes, it still has emotional impact, but not nearly the same punch as seeing him killed before your eyes. Also, the music has several measures of dramatic “DUN DUN DUN” music that usually accompanies the barricade swiveling back around to reveal all the stunned students (and Grantaire). The music is still there, but it's so awkward, because *nothing happens*. Everyone just stands there through it. Um. We already revealed their shock during the moment of the shooting. Now nothing happens.
Now, one thing I did like: rather than one big cannon blow killing all the students, you see them individually shot. They all get 2-3 seconds of limelight time as they stagger into death, and you can see the other students becoming desperate as their comrades fall around them. Great stuff! Not so great: the death of Enjolras. When it's his turn, he sort of stumbles forward and out of sight. Since there are no rotating barricades, you have that fabulous musical swell that usually reveals Enjy draped over the red flag of revolution as the barricades rotate. This time? Nope, no such luck. All this powerful music and... nothing happens. Let down!!
Now, where was I - ah yes! One thing that worked quite well. The barricades were pulled apart on the end, and Enjy and Gabroche are revealed on the back of a cart being pulled by one of the soldiers “cleaning up the mess”. Javert dashes on stage with a Real Flaming Torch (!! so cool) and holds it close to them, examining the bodies. His jacket is undone, his hair is mussed, and madness glitters in his eyes. You can see that Javert is already losing it. He doesn't just break down all at once on the bridge; he goes sliding down a long slippery slope. And it works SO much better. You can see JVJ's decision to let Javert go free has been eating manically away at him.
Which brings me to the highlight of the show: Javert's suicide. Good God. I wish I had a recording. Half my soul for a recording. I have listened to half a hundred versions of this song and no one, NO ONE, compares to Varela. He tore out my bleeding heart. I'm a Javert fan, you say; you cannot trust me. Let me tell you, this song was THE thing on everyone's lips when the curtain went down and the lights came up. My God it was beautiful. I find myself unable to express it. The sheer anguish in Varela's “It was MY RIGHT! To die as well... but now I live... but live in HELL...” - he put the emphasis in different places than I had ever heard it before and it was so... so RIGHT. Also, he did not shout the song; he sang it emotively.
Best of all, they restaged the jump. Usually Javert steps over the railing, and it is pulled up behind him as he mimes falling. Not so. He steps ONTO the railing, and sings half the song balancing precariously on the edge (or so it seems). In truth he stands (sits/reclines on) on a piece of “invisible” black set. When he jumps, the railing is lifted, and then the set piece he is sitting on pulls back so that he recedes from the audience towards the back screen of the theater, until he vanishes through a black door that swallows him up. The projection spins from stars and Paris to a view of the river, so that you would swear you were watching Javert from the side, and then after he jumped, you rushed to the railing edge and looked down as he fell away from you, arms flailing, hitting the river with his back.
Whoa. Just, whoa.
There is one further highlight I absolutely must mention: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. The staging was completely redone. There are no chairs or table. Instead, during “Turning” (the song just before), all the women of Paris come out holding lit votive candles in little glasses. They leave them behind scattered across the stage when Marius comes in with his long coat and cane. As he sings, he picks one of the candles up. Of course, during “phantom faces at the window”, all the barricade boys emerge as ghosts. Rather than staying in their line, they migrate to the candles and pick them all up, as if joining in Marius's vigil. There is this one heartbreaking moment when Marius staggers around, candle raised, as if he could almost see them... he approaches Enjolras and lifts the candle as if peering into his face... and they his eyes move past, and he does not see Enjolras anymore; he has never seen him at all; the ghosts are ghosts and all is lost. The barricade boys recede back into the shadows. At the very end, Marius blows out his candle. The vigil ends.
Alas.
Tissues required...
There were other staging changes. One Day More suffered a bit from it, I think; there were balconies to the left and right, where the Thernardiers appeared, and Cosette. (I missed her running to meet Marius in the middle). The triangle of marchers was done away with, replaced with a great and innovative series of staggered lines that would sweep past each other, advancing up from downstage in dramatic fashion. There were no trapdoors, so the sewers were grates to the left and right. When Marius and Cosette met, Cosette was up on the balcony, not in the garden, and she came down to see him. The very opening scene takes place rowing a ship, rather than in a rock quarry. JVJ gets his release when the ship makes land, and they all haul the oars offstage.
The projections were a GREAT addition. Particularly good was when JVJ dragged Marius through the sewers: their movement made it look like the Sewer walls receding away from the audience as JVJ staggered towards us.
I only noticed one lyric change, which I was sad to see missing: in the sewers, JVJ did not sing the line, “Look down, Javert! He's standing in his grave! Give way, Javert! There is a life to save!” - which is a pity, since it references the “Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave” from the prolog.
As far as acting, the only change I really missed was that Fantine no longer spits in JVJ's face during her arrest scene. I liked that. :(
I think that's more or less everything... in mightily jumbled fashion, mind you! I wish we had had a better Valjean, someone captivating in his own regard, rather than just the turnpoint, the plot-carrier for the rest of the cast. I heard actually that the cover did wonders with the role, and almost wish we had had him. It was the premiere night in Philly though (I think?) so that was not going to happen. The featured roles and the ensemble were fabulous - strong voices, great acting. For the most part the sets were improvements (much more going on than “dark stage, lone person singing in the spotlight”) and the orchestra was flawless. There was a guy at the end of my row furiously conducting with great enthusiasm XD to the amusement of my family.
Ah... Les Mis. I have seen you at last, and you did not disappoint, not in the slightest. Also: I have gotten my friend to learn JVJ's part in Confrontation, so I finally have someone to counterpoint my Javert against!
Speaking of which...
My brother had seen the recent movie, and afterward said, “I went in loving Valjean, and expecting to love him. But now that it's over, I like Javert more.”
Dear world:
I win.
Das Ende.