I still don’t like it at all but to be honest it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was sitting in the theatre. I don’t think audio gets across what it was really like at all in any case. Sometimes I listen to stuff I thought was brilliant live and then it doesn’t have the same impact listening back to it. Other times I go to show people parts I thought were terrible and then they sound alright listening to the audio.I Dreamed A Dream - Sierra Boggess
idk, this is me done with this cast for a while until there are understudies on; they’re fine on occasion for comedy value, but that’s only going to take you so far
I absolutely get what you mean and I actually thought it was alright until I got to Fantine’s Arrest (which you can hear on the other post with the audio). Sure she throws away notes and it’s quite obvious because the music goes on awkwardly after that, but she finished off stronger I think (kind of emotionless but well I expected this much). Then I got to Arrest and it’s really not that good because she screams certain words (rat!) and she sounds rather spoiled and childish and the little desperation she had seems very self-centred. (also her diction gets worse I know people harp about this but I wish it wasn’t so noticeable) I think I’ll have a listen to the rest of the show later.
I’m just extremely worried the way they are (mis)casting people? Sierra is a soprano and it’s not her fault she can’t sing Fantine’s low notes or the range to belt properly. And Linzi was a lovely Eponine but the colour of her voice doesn’t quite suit Mme Thenardier’s character at all so she makes it sound more comedic than theatening. They should have just not cast them and that would have be that.
Well, yeah, of course I also imagine them as white when I think of the characters in the abstract. But theatre (for all intents and purposes) isn’t about hyperrealism; it’s about transporting the audience and communicating ideas through what most would consider fairly unorthodox…
I’m just going to quickly put my two cents in for what it’s worth. I see what both of you are saying but if I had a £1 for every time somebody asked me or over heard someone being confused if Eponine was the same little girl, if she is related to the Thenardier’s and so on then I would be seeing Les Mis for free for the rest of the year.
It is about suspension of belief but it is extremely confusing to a lot of people who don’t know the show. My wish is that they would just cast a little girl of the same ethnicity. It doesn’t seem like a hard thing to do.
I’m going to agree because while most people here are seasoned theatre goers and know the plot backwards, there are many casual ones like tourists who catch it because it’s famous, and someone recommended them… It would have been great if they’d cast a young Eponine of the same ethnicity, but then there are understudies and alternating young actresses so it would be so hard to work out completely. I don’t think they should cast some minority in the cast somehow for the sake of it. People are cast for a variety of reasons, and often they turned away for things they can’t change. And theatre is still much less discriminatory than film or TV.
I don’t think it’s right for people to dislike an actress just because of continuity issues, but at the same time I can’t blame them for being confused. When I watched the show the first time, the fact that Eponine was the Thenardiers’ daughter and that it was the same little girl in the inn was just completely lost on me.
Olivier 2012 performance
Just some snap opinions, really text heavy day today!
First of all costume changes! I’ve posted about that mid-season Cosette costume change yesterday, the lacework on the collar and the (gasp) belt buckle is different is different but I really love the new dress.
Cast-wise, ooh Leanne Rogers Mme Thenardier is interesting, it’s unfair to tell from 10 seconds but I think I like Katy better (wow this sort of completes my secret project I’m working on (; ). Shaun Javert is wonderful as ever, and Alexia is really growing on me (more on that later). And hah I love close-ups of the ensemble, George Miller Feuilly is the best. Also Chris, James, and Jay, Carl and the girls are pretty fantastic in the background, Jay and Dylan (?) does this waltz thing at 1.53 that’s very cute.
Well some things that are not so good - where’s Enjolras’ gun? Poor Liam just looks so uncomfortable without it. And they had a sign language interpretor. Bless the chap that tries to keep up with One Day More!
Haha, this was “snap”.
Les Misérables - Stars
Jay Bryce (second u/s) as Javert
17th March 2012, evening - his second performance in the role
(the Suicide is also up there)
I thought it was solid but the “And so it must be!” really made me pay attention. I love that line when it’s delivered well.
i think the new song in the film should’ve been given to adult cosette, so she could be more fleshed out as a character.
There is another song she has in the Original London cast… I forget what it’s called, but I think it’s quite beautiful, actually.
If it doesn’t go to Cosette, I think Javert could use another song. One that clarifies his origins a bit more.
It’s called I Saw Him Once, and it’s beautiful. I think Cosette was a character they kept cutting in the early days because the show was four hours long.
And poor Fauchelevent! The only lines he has now are “Monsieur le Maire, I have no words, you are a saint.”
i can’t stand michael ball’s marius or rebecca caine’s cosette. i think they are incredibly overrated.
Talented people are never overrated!
Also, seeing as they were cast as Marius and Cosette in 1985, you probably haven’t even seen them perform! Because vocally they are perfect together.
i love shaun dalton’s javert and i really think he should be cast as principal javert instead of just being understudy.
The same goes for all the main roles this year (except Thenardier, that one’s going to Carl) the understudy is as good as, if not better than the principal. I wouldn’t mind if that meant that they would get bumped some point in time… But some of them have been understudy for a long time (like Jeff who was u/s Javert for like four or five years in total before he left) yet new actors still get cast.
But yes Shaun was great when I saw him. It’s really too bad they’ve already cast Tam.
I really recommend The Story of Musicals by BBC4 for anyone who’s interested in British musical theatre. It’s very detailed and gives a lot of information, rehearsal and show footage for every post-war musical that has come and gone, as well as news reports from that time and interviews past and present. It’s so well narrated by Imelda Staunton and so well documented. I think I squealed every time one of my favourite musicals came up, which sadly didn’t go past the 1990s… this worries me.
The only downside is that it’s also about three hours long. Watch it with all the stamina of a theatre goer!
It’s worth seeing it just for young Cammack and young ALW and Michael Ball, and Cliff Richard, hahaha
i was always able to understand the students well enough, but then i went into my first year of college, and occupy wall street happened. now i feel this deep connection with them; it just sort of clicked. i really get them now.
I mean no disrespect to the OP, but I always thought there was a great difference between the Les Amis fighting for the poor who had no voice, and relatively privileged kids who wanted their student loans forgiven. 1832 was when problems were rampant throughout Paris that were basically ignored by the rulers, problems such as a shortage of food, harvest failures, class divides, and a cholera epidemic that was wiping out the city (coincidentally, it was what killed General Lamarque as well). They were problems that threatened the very lives of the poor and while Occupy had very good premises, beyond the empty slogans they had no unified aim or solution except to tax the rich (which we are doing quite a bit, already). And although income disparity is a problem of today, governments are aware of it and doing something about it unlike in 1832. In fact in France now the leading opposition candidate Socialist Francois Hollande is proposing a 75% tax rate for incomes greater than 1 million euros.
I’m sorry but it bothers me in the same way that reporters comparing Occupy to the Arab Spring irks me… sure it is the same spirit of revolution, but it’s a very different situation.
19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. Upon this horrifying improbability is founded all of Hugo’s novel. However, it is not an entirely arbitrary time period; it’s actually pretty necessary to the setup.
Valjean goes to prison in 1796, the same year as Napoleon’s rise to fame. He is finally released in 1815, basically contemporaneous with Waterloo. Had he left prison any earlier, it’s reasonable to assume that, as an ex-convict, he’d be little more than cannon fodder in the Napoleonic wars. Barring a similarly miraculous encounter and transformation (and remember - the Bishop was raised to office by Napoleon himself, thus sidestepping the corruption of Church politics), a Valjean who served 5 years would probably be a dead Valjean.
Thus, even though so much of the book is VH trying to deal with Napoleon’s legacy, Valjean essentially sits out the Napoleonic era.
I think it should be noted that Valjean didn’t get sentenced 19 years just for stealing bread, his original term of sentence was 5 years, the rest of the 14 was because he tried to escape. Can’t blame him for wanting to, but if it’s true that the Bishop would probably be corrupted, and that an ex-convict would be just a forgotten footnote in the wars had he not been sentenced extra for escaping, it’s really a happy coincidence. Man really makes his own fortune, doesn’t he?
