Thoughts on "Les Miz"

[bjarvis]

This afternoon, we went to see "Les Misérables" at the Kennedy Center. The ticket for cuyahogarvr was a birthday present from his second daughter who was coming to see the show; kent4str and I bought adjacent seats for the same show. While I'm familiar with the musical soundtrack and have read the book --in its original french, thank you very much-- I hadn't seen the show before.

No rotating stage in this show, but, wow, they made good use of scrim projections.

God, I couldn't get the "Forbidden Broadway" lyrics out of my head. I was chuckling in all the wrong places.

The ending was happier than I remembered from the novel.

As expected, the kid who played Gavroche was too annoying to let live. Why can't he die in Act 1 instead of Fantine?

I just love looking through the list of roles and can only imagine what conversations the actors must have had:
"Hey, Mom! I got a role in a musical!"
"Wonderful, dear! Which musical?"
"Les Miz!"
"Excellent! I knew those years of singing and dance lessons would pay off! Which role?"
"Crazy Whore #1!"
"You are dead to me."

In all, it was a great show and I'm glad we went. Do see the production if it comes to your town. Just don't listen to "Forbidden Broadway" first.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who is playing one of the leads. What did you think of Andrew Varela as Jauvert?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Excellent performance.

And I totally want his long coat. Hawt.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure to tell him! :)

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

I second Brian - he was one of the best in the cast. He got a great mention in the review in the Washington Post this week, too.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

We toured together in Evita back in the early 90's. He met his wife Susan on our tour ... Hard to believe they've been married almost 20 years!! WOW!

[apparentparadox]

Which Forbidden Broadway riff on it? They did a couple.

The whole "It's too high" Jean Val Jean song? Or "10 years more" (my fav: get them off the bus, what a bunch of crap, what this town needs: another tourist trap)

I read the translation (sorry, no French). I was getting sick of all the anti-war battle stuff until I realized that's probably why he wrote the book in the first place.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

"At the end of the play you're another year older." That's my favorite.

And I *did* that show for four years... back in the days when it was over 3 hours long. So I should know!! ;-)

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I loved the show at the original length. I wonder where the cuts have been made. Tim and I plan to see it when it plays Minneapolis in December.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Neil, the cuts are mostly indistinguishable. Sometimes they'd cut two bars of intro, sometimes a verse or leave out a repeat, sometimes a beat or even a half a beat! All of that times a hundred added up somehow to fifteen minutes, which brought the running time from 3:10 (with intermission) to 2:55. And a mandate to start on time! ;-)

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

I noticed the cuts, but Michael didn't, so they really are hard to spot most of the time.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The "I sang one song and didn't die" riff.

[apparentparadox]

I guess I should have pegged you as a Fantine.

[apparentparadox]

I forgot to mention that we were at a local community theater benefit recently, and their kids group did the song "Into the Woods". I was just hearing "Into the Words" from Forbidden Broadway. It made that part of the show more enjoyable.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

One, two, twelve-eight!!