back from London (a review of love and hate)

bigR · back from London (a review of love and hate)

hello, everybody. I'm back from London! Still tired, awfully busy, and even more excited than I thought I would be.
An absurdly long review of the show is coming as soon as I have the time to write it, but I should warn you that it is probably going to be mostly about drew sarich.
I was a little wary about him since from what i'd seen on video I really liked his Javert but I also disliked his Enjolras, and well, I had small issues about him not looking the part (too young, too slim, too energetic)But, God, I did love his Valjean!

lesmisloony

*awaits*

bigR

Well, as you probably already know given the fact that I kept repeating it a hundred times before going to london, I hadn�t see the show for about 10 years.
That�s why I had the feeling that it was probably going to be a disappointment. I was really afraid I was going to find it overdramatic, noisy, pass�, pompous and tacky.
But I simply loved it, once again. The bloody show grabbed me by the neck from minute one, and when it was over it felt like it had been only 5 minutes. And that it is a lot to say in favour of a show coming from someone who hated half of the performers and wanted Marius, �ponine, Enjolras and half the barricade boys dead from the moment they opened their mouths! Actually I felt so much love and hate during the show that I feel sorry for the few performers (joan ampil, jansens) who falled in the nowhere land of "it was alright but I won't remember you"

First, about the rumors about whether the show is closing soon or not. My feeling is that it is still one of the more popular shows in London and will be running for a long time. We went to see Cabaret on Friday evening and we were able to buy tickets the same day. They were also available tickets for the weekend performances of most of the shows. But Les Mis was sold out 2 or 3 weeks ago.

(By the way, one question about english theatres. How can they be so stingy as not to offer free programmes to the audience? I�m not talking about a souvenir brochure or a complete programe, but a simple leaflet with the names of the performers. I did not care so much at Les Mis, since I was buying both programe and souvenir brochure any way, but I did not buy the brochure in Cabaret because I thought the procedure was a rip-off and now I do not even have the names of the performers! Ican check the nternet, i know, but come on, it is stingy!

Back to Les Mis. First bad impression: the stage . It was SO incredibly tiny thant my friends and me kept wondering how on earth would they fit in the barricades or the Paris scene. Well, the reduced barricade fitted quite well finaly, but during Look Down the performers had to climb to the stage from the stalls which was weird since there was no room for them to walk around the set.

Orchestra: tiny aswell. But you know, lately I had been listening mostly to the revival orchestra, and its cringing orchestrations, so listening to the old opening music was just glorious. I have to say that I remembered it much more powerful and moving thought, but I couldn�t say whether it is due to time and memories embellishment or to the symphonia thingy.

Oh! I also tried to keep in mind some of the particular fixations of several members of the forum, like Quique and Lesmisloony, and pay close attention to the orchestrations or Montparnasse so that I had something to tell you when I got back, but I miserably failed.
With the music, because as nearly everyone born south of the Rhine river, I am a victim of the lack of musical education we suffer on our schools and to tell and instrument from another would have taken 100% of my concentration. With Monty, because well, they were just too many things to look at the same time and I couldn�t concentrate.
I guess that when you see the show for the first time it is not a problem because you just focus on the main characters and you simply don�t know that they are so many other things you should be paying attention to at the same time. Also, when you see he show repeatedly for a period of time, you can fixate on a different thing everyday. But last Saturday I just wanted to take in so many things at the same time that it was impossible.

Another bad thing: the cuts. I hate so much right know the people at theatremonkey and elsewhere who�ve been writing that the cuts were restored a year ago!! I was convinced that I was going to see the �uncut� thing as I had always known it, and was totally reasured when I saw they had the inn scene in the prologue, but that was the end of my joy. The cuts are all there, my ears still hurt from the cuts in �Come to me�, and they even cut off some things that were still on the revival, like the �here upon the stones, etc.��

And a last �general� coment about my issues with people not looking their parts or having inconvenient accents:
Well, although i still prefer it when the actors do look their parts I have to admit that you were right and I was wrong and from the moment I got submerged in the story it was no such a big issue as I though it would be.
In fact, I was distrustful during the first lines of Melanie La Barrie (Mme. Th�nardier) because she didn�t seem agressive enough for a mme. Th�nardier but the truth is that I did not even noticed whether she was white, black, blue or green. She was a fun mme. th�nardier and I enjoyed her performance.
On the other hand I hated Baruwa�s Enjolras SO much that I couldn�t care less about how he looked like (well, that�s not totally true. I didn�t care about his ethnicity but I never got used to his baldness, specially because during the wedding and several other scenes he was wearing a wig that he took off to play enjolras!) .
Accents: Hans Peter Janssens accent was a bit distracting at first but I got quickly used to it. Drew�s accent does not seem as thick as it was in broadway (after all he�s been living in london for 6 months now) and in any case he was the heart of the production to that point that you forgot that it was him who had the �wrong� accent. Actually, when after the american accented monologue, the ensemble started �at the end of the day� I catched myself thinking: �wow, these people have really thick british accents�.

And I�ve been writing for ages and I still haven�t started with the performers� I warned you it would be long!

Orestes Fasting

lesmisloony

Kragey

So how would you rate the performance, out of 10?

Quique

Quique

bigR

Oh, I did notice Montparnasse! He was wearing the green and pink jacket and the actor had incredibly long blond hair, (his real hair) so he was difficult to miss. He looked really cool. What I meant is that I did not have the time to pay enough attention to notice any thing peculiar about his performance. I was waiting for his scene with �ponine just before the robbery to pay closer attention to him, but since that is one of they things they cutted....

And, ehem, that last post wasn't my review. My real review is coming, but it is becoming so long (mainly because I can't stop writing about how wonderful drew's valjean was) that it isn't finished yet, and now I am too sleepy, so it will have to wait for tomorrow.

And Orestes, if you think that you have seen a bad enjolras wait until I tell you about the highly "innovative" way of dying that Baruwa decided to incorporate to his totally gay Enjolras... I can't wait to share my horror...
hint: erase any thoughts of dignified death from your mind.

Moci

Quique

That's crazy that you have to buy the program over there. I think it's been that way for years. If I remember correctly, my brother had to purchase it when he saw it at the Palace in '91.

Moci

Quique

They sold ice cream at the Palace???

And I thought it was bad when they sold Milk Duds and Cracker Jack at the Pantages in L.A.

Moci

lesmisloony

bigR

I find perfectly normal to sell a brochure or a big programme with pictures and such... but not to give the audience a free leaflet with the names of the actors? I couldn't believe it.

The ice-cream thing also shocked me, but not as much as the fact that the audience was allowed to take the drinks they buyed at the bar into the stalls. When I saw it at Cabaret, I though it was allowed because, you know, it is was a cabaret after all, but in the Queens there was also people drinking beer during the show, so...

Now, finally, my review:

Valjean (drew sarich): Although I can understand why some people might dislike his valjean (given that he is so diferent from the classical angelic valjean we have seen 1.000 times), Drew is undoubtly the heart and soul of the current London production.
A confession: for me, once the prologue is over, valjean is the less interesting character in the musical. With other roles you see the performers take risks or try to do new things but Valjean is once and again the same old saintly man going through the same motions. I�ve always found him boring to watch, I don�t care whether it is portrayed by colm wilkimson, JOJ, or whoever you want. It is always the same. Yes, some performers have finer voices than others, and some are better actor than others, but at the end of the day, after the prologue, they all become Saint Valjean and the fun is over (well, I love confrontation and fantine�s arrest, but that�s all). I always know what they are going to do and what to expect from them.
But Drew Sarich had me wondering all the time what he was going to do next and I loved everyone of his choices. He won me over from the moment I saw him in the first scene looking like Jesus Christ (that�s a long wig he wears) and moving and acting like a wild animal. He really plays the hurt animal who wants to activelly hate everyone because that way he feels safer and he even jumped at people who crossed his path to scare them.
And I can�t express how much I loved the way he reacts to the bishop. I don�t know if he used to do that in broadway too (I�ve only watched little bits of his broadway valjean and he didn`t do it), but while all the valjeans I�ve seen look bewildered and grateful or a little bit scared by what was happening to them, this was the first time I saw Valjean resenting the bishop. And that�s book valjean. Hugo goes on and on about how valjean resents the bishop and is angry against him because he has destroyed the peace of mind he had achieved when he decided to hate the world. Drew does not let the bishop approach him and he even does menacing nd agressive gestures at him. And he is still resentful and angry and not just bewildered and ashamed during the monologue. I think that this is the 1st time that an actor has made me go throught all the emotions valjean should be feeling during that song, the first time I�ve really seen his internal fight. And this goes on during the whole show. I understand how some people may feel that drew�s valjean is too intense, but I feel so grateful to see an actor who does not just go throught the motions, not even for a single moment, or who does not portray a character the same way everyone else as done it before. Of course it is risky, because you can do it completely wrong, but this is not the case.

Also, to the point I�ve reached of my re-reading of the brick (I�ve just finished the second part and the convent), Hugo is quite insistant on the fact that the �bagnard� is always inside Valjean and even after rescuing Cosette he is on the edge to return to his �hate the world� philosophy. With drew you can see during the whole show how the �bagnard� is always inside him, and the road of renuntiation and redemption is a long one. The convict does not magically disappear from one day to the other. And, for example, at the end of �who I am� (during which I also loved the way he shows every emotion he is going through), when he throws away the Madeleine mask his dignified gestures become closer to the animal valjean he was playing before.

I also loved the way he interacted with javert. During fantine�s arrest and the runaway cart he is colder with him than most valjeans and I also liked the little sardonic smiles he gave him while javert is telling about champmathieu, and during confrontation you can really see how he is stronger than him and he is refraining himself all the time and trying to get out in a peaceful way. He is also harder than usual with javert when he lets him go at the barricades, but I liked it. I like a valjean who acts the right way but is angry and annoyed by javert prosecution and shows it.

I also really loved him when he was with cosette. I�ve read somewhere that he was a bit too violent with the child and clumsy and unconfortable with grown-up cosette, but if that was the case in broadway his performance has certainly improved since then, because he is the most affectionate, protective and tender valjean ever. You can see how much he loves her every single second. Claire-Marie Hall (Cosette) was also really good (maybe my favorite cosette) and it was great to see both of them together (and this from someone who usually finds valjean and cosette interaction during�in my life� quite boring). I loved them both so much that during �One day more�, instead of looking at everyone else, I was fixated on valjean and cosette packing their stuff in the corner (and it seems that it wasn�t such a weird thing to do, because during the interval my 2 friends told me they had being doing the same thing!).
Now, althought I usually sleep through �bring him home� *hides* , this time I found myself anxiously waiting for it. And of course, it was great. It is obvious than drew has no trouble at all with the high notes, and he sings the song as if it was the easiest thing on the show, but what I really loved was that for the first time, BHH was not just a prayer of an old good and saint man who wants to generously offer his life as long as the boy lives. Don�t ask me how on earth he managed to get that across but for the first time I saw a valjean who resented marius, who was praying for his life, and was sincere, but was not at peace, a valjean who wasn�t a boring saint and yet his passionate acting and the song did not clash at all, and it was as moving as it should be. Still wondering how he managed to do it� and I really liked the protective way he kept watching him afterwards. His reactions to marius were also very interesting during the �confession�. You could clearly see how he disliked and almost hated the boy.
The final scene was diferent from what I�ve seen before too. First, it was scary how old drew managed to look. He probably puts more effort than other actors in showing valjean�s aging process because he knows that he looks too young for the part, but the truth is that drew is one of the few valjean�s who become older and older scene by scene. During the final he is gostly. I�ve never seen a more worn and exhausted valjean. You really can see that he can�t keep on fighting anymore. And he actually DIES. He does not just sit there and then gets up to join fantine and �ponine in their glory, and blah, blah. He dies.
And well, I could keep on talking about drew for ages, but what do you want?, he is the first beliveable valjean I�ve ever seen and the valjean to which I�m afraid I will measure every next one I see. Maybe he is too intense for some people, but I loved to see an actor who was never for a second just repeating learned gestures like a rutine (although at the same time, he seems really confortable with the part after all this months, and I really liked the way he throws spoken words and short sentences of his own here and there).

Javert (Hans Peter Janssens): one of the few performers that I neither loved or hated. I liked his deep dark voice, and they way he portrayed a calm javert who tried to reason the mayor during the fantine�s arrest was kind of interesting. He was at his best during Confrontation, (but then, he had to, or drew would had eaten him alive!), but his Stars were flat and boring, and lacked emotion. At first I had the impression that his suicide was going to be good, because he looked conveniently desperate and lost during the first lines, but the moment he started walking the bridge I got the impression that he was just singing some words and doing movements he knew too well, while his mind was somewhere else. Maybe he�s been for too long on the role.

Fantine (Joanna Ampil): another dispasionate review. Her fantine was sweet and defenceless and I should probably have written this review earlier because the only thing I remember clearly is that her �I dreamed a dream� was o.k. but I disliked her vibratto. It�s weird because I perferctly remember Batamabois, the sailors, the pimp and the crones from Lovely ladies but I can�t remember Fantine. I guess that this means something. She was alright but she didn�t leave a lasting memory.

Women�s Ensemble: I liked the women�s ensemble better than the men�s. The 2 crones in lovely ladies were really creepy and looked over 80, and the factory girl (alice fearn), was really mean with Fantine and really jealous and possessive with the foreman.

Young Cosette: cute and she did not try to belt. I don�t ask for more.

And now I am sleepy again, and i didn't finish yet (no wonder, since this review seems to come out longer than the brick itself)

lizavert

Now I want to see Drew Sarich as Valjean! Smile

Orestes Fasting

Yes, Drew is really intense in every role he plays. When he makes bad acting choices the intensity backfires spectacularly--his Enjolras is hands-down the worst I've ever seen--but I think it really worked for Valjean, who is at risk in the show of becoming a static, saintly character. Valjean is supposed to be constantly evaluating his own decisions, struggling against the urge to lapse back into vice; while he does always come out on top in the end, that carries no weight if he was never really at risk of failing. So while Drew's portrayal doesn't always line up with book!Valjean's constant exterior calm, it does get the message across, and that's what counts.

I don't know if Drew's read the book--I suspect he hasn't, or at least doesn't use it to create his charaterizations--but I read in an interview somewhere that he wanted Valjean to be almost like a comic book hero, larger than life.

I'm 90% sure that Valjean being harsh with Cosette, and almost violent with Javert at the barricade, was a directorial decision that was forced on the actors. All three of the principal Valjeans--Alex, Drew, and JOJ--did it, even though they had very different interpretations and for JOJ especially it was almost out of character. The fact that Drew's not doing it in London just convinces me further.

bigR

Vanessa20

God, I wish I could see Drew now! I saw him in New York and liked him, but it sounds like he's improved so much. By the way, does he still pause before taking Eponine's hand in the Finale? I liked that little detail in New York; that he actually managed to acknowledge the strangeness of being led to salvation by a girl he didn't even know.

Orestes Fasting

lesmisloony

Hehe, how many languages d'you speak again, bigR? Like... all of them? Wink

Trust me, we all respect that English is your second or third or whatever language. No one's going to mock you unless they somehow know *more* languages than you or are a total jerk. In fact, I spent half the review marvelling at how great your English really is.

Re: Drew... it's weird how memorable he is. When I saw the revival back in June he was Grantaire (a character that I could easily take or leave) and somehow he ended up becoming the focus of the entire show for me and my friend. We went to Build-a-Bear later and actually ended up partially naming the bear I built after Grantaire because of him. ... I... may have told that story before.

But yeah. Drew's a cool-seeming guy.

LesMisForever

eponine5

I find your review interesting. My opinions on the actors you've reviewed so far are nearly the opposite of yours Laughing

. I find Drew Sarich good but not amazing (I�ve only seen him once in the role, though, so he may have improved), I love Joanna Ampil�s Fantine, and I don't see much in Claire-Marie Hall. I�m kind of indifferent to Hans Peter Janssens as well, but that may because his interpretation is too stiff to see for two years running. I love his Stars, though.
One thing�what do you mean about the actors having to �climb to the stage from the stalls�? Do you mean climbing from the audience seating (which I've never seen) or climbing down from the knooks in the side of the stage?
As for the buying of both the programme and the souvenir brochure, I�m kind of used to it and was quite surprised when on Broadway they just handed out the playbills. However, the programmes here do have more stuff about the show than the average playbill, so I guess that evens it out a bit�

LesMisForever

Great indepth review.

I haven't seen Drew, so i can't comment on that.

However, i agree more with Eponine5 regarding Jo Ampil. For me, she is absolutely brilliant. My favourite "live" Fantine.

JHP is good, but not great in my opinion. I don't mind stiff Javerts, because i think that is how they should be.

I am also curious about the actors "climbing from the stalls" comment. I have never seen, or heard about it before. I suspect something was lost in translation

bigR

About the performers climbing. Yep, there was a "translation problem". Not sure about what a knook is, but that's probably it.

Also, it is really interesting how 2 people can have such different opinions. It seems that we desagree on everything, eponine5

Well, here, finally, comes the second part of my absurdly long review (but after so long far away from Les Mis you have to forgive me!). Disagreement is always welcome (although I might suffer serious psychological damage if you dare to say that you liked cassandra compton or edward baruwa!):

Th�nadier and Mme. Th�nadier (Chris Vincent and Melanie La Barrie) : at first Melanie la barrie seemed too sweet for a mme. Th�nardier. Well, maybe sweet isn�t the word, but she certainly wasn�t the ogress she is supposed to be with cosette. She was more funny than terrible. But the moment Th�nardier kicked in, I really enjoyed waatching them together. Melanie LaBarrie accentuated the funny aspecs of mme. Th�nardier over the terrible ones, and she was subtler than usual with lines like �there�s not much there�. I really enjoyed her interactions with Chris Vincent. During the waltz of treachery you could see by the glances they exchanged how he was the brains behind the operation, encouraging her with movements of the hand when she was going on about the medicines, directing everything. Also, when valjean and cosette leave, the Th�nardiers didn�t do the crazy happy dance with the money, but instead they looked dissatisfied and frustrated and Chris Vincent was angry and even said: �we could have get twice as much� or something of that order. I liked it better than the happy dance.
Chris Vincent Th�nardier was much less clownish than other Th�nardiers. He played the character a little bit drunk, but quite serious and very calm and malignantly clever. During the waltz he was studying Valjean all the time, and you could see that he was not just a funny character put there to add some comical relief, but something more dangerous. This doesn�t mean he wasn�t funny. He got big laughs with his �inspector, may I go�, but there was something else about him. I really liked his performance and my only complaint about his Th�nardier is that his absense of clowniness made him a little invisible during Master of the House, but then the ensemble was being so rioutious and hilarious, that I could hardly focus on Th�nardier. Oh, and I loved his �dog eats dog�. Very creepy.

Gavroche (I don�t know his name because he isn�t in the program and those bloody british Wink

didn�t even give us a flyer with the names of the performers): I don�t really have to say anything about him. Just a complaint. Since London has the same cuts than Broadway, couldn�t we at leat have �10 little bullets� during Gavroche death as the americans did? It�s so much better than the reprise of �little people��

�ponine: And the hate begins. Cassandra Compton�s �ponine was the dream of every eppie-bopper on this planet. She was Little Mermaid and Belle combined. Really, try to picture a tiny pretty girl with a doll face and absolute lack of personality and a permanent smile on her lips. I hated her from the moment I saw her strolling around Paris with that look that said �I�m so brave, and so nice, and although my life sucks I don�t show it�. Really, I wanted her dead from minute one. And then it wasn�t only her constant smiles but the fact that instead of living the story she looked like she was performing for the audience all the time, as if she couldn�t forget that we were there and has to constantly show us cute and how nice she was. In the interlude I declared that if I watched her sing �on my own� smiling from begining to end, I will climb on the stage and slap her in the face. But what she actually did glued me on my sit. Of course she smiled. All the time. But at the end of the song she decided to throw in something more lively than the usual and she went to the botton of the stage, she took her hat into her hands, and while singing the three �I love him� she run to the front of the stage, holding her cap with both hands in front of her, as if it were a top hat and she was performing Cabaret or a chorus line, or something like that, and ended the song holding it out there, like some kind of trophy� after that, I just wasn�t able to get up and do the slapping.
Yesterday, though, I found an interview with her where she says about �ponine: �It looks on the surface that she�s a girl that loves a guy and that�s it,� she says. �But it�s not. She�s got a very complex, very tough background, and I think I�ve really grown in this last year, coming back to audition for the role and getting it this time round. I love playing her, because it isn�t just �Oh, I love him.' It�s so much more than that. Her journey, up until her death, is so selfless. She never once feels sorry for herself. The trick is, it�s so difficult to want the audience to feel sorry for you, but not feel sorry for yourself. The fantastic thing is that I don�t feel miserable when I play her. She�s got so much energy, and she doesn�t feel sorry for herself�she�s tough.�
I should have read that before and I would have been warned.

Marius (Gary Watson): he was non-existant. I wanted him dead too, although I knew this time it wouldn�t happen, but my hate was less intense because he was so bland and so unimportant that it was easy to just focus him out. He wasn�t just nice, but also very flirty with �ponine and totally unmemorable with Cosette. At the caf� he was just sitting there, expressionless and scarcely interacted with the other students. I can�t really talk about ALFOR. I just watched him and Cassandra Compton for about five seconds. She made me nervous and he was imperceptible, so somehow after a few lines I found myself watching the women making bullets at the table on the right hand corner of the stage and finding them much more entertaining. I mean. If I am playing a major character, and something really important is happening to me, and people at the audience are paying more attention to some undescript women in a corner, you got a casting problem. I didn�t like him either in ECAET. His voice and his expression lacked emotion and he tried to make up for it by overacting a lot. Some girls behind me were fascinated because apparently he was such a �cuttie�, but I did not even see that.

Cosette: (Claire-Marie Hall). I loved her! She was so cute, and lively, and young, and innocent, and impatient during �in my life�.. And she was kind of �modern� in a good way. When she was running to the garden gate, wishing that marius would appear she totally remainded me of a teenager waiting for an actor at the stage door, with all the intensity and the silliness of a 15 years old�s crush. A pitty she did not have a marius to match her up during AHFOL. And she was great with Drew. There was so much love and tenderness between them... Adorable.

Enjolras: (Edward Baruwa): when a bald black man is surrounded by a dozen of longhaired white guys hanging on his every word you would thing that this would be enough to make him stand out.
Now, picture me, as obsessed with enjolras as Orestes is Wink

, making internal happy jumps during the first notes of the caf� music and getting ready not to miss a single thing about him. Well, to sum it up, I�ll just say that until the middle of �do you hear� I did not realize that instead of the traditional black vest, enjolras was wearing a stripped brown one. That�s how memorable he was and how much he stood out. The guy had the stage presence of an oyster and his voice wasn�t powerful at all (he actually sounded more like a marius). Add to this the non-existant Marius sitting there and staring into the void, a bunch of students who seemed asleep on stage and a grantaire that was making me angry all the time, and you will understand why by the middle of �red and black� I wanted all the students dead ( Prouvaire excepted!, the guy had the most beautiful voice and I had been trying to locate him since I heard him in the chaingang). They all together managed to give what�s probably the worst rendition of �do you hear� I have ever heard. No wonder the people did not join the revolution.
Now, to comment further on baruwa�s enjolras I need to bring up Grantaire.

Grantaire (Richard Woodford): I�d loved his Foreman and his traveller. The Foreman was great: cocky, vulgar, extra-masculine. His traveller was simply hillarious. He played the first traveller to get to Th�nardier�s inn and at the beginning he was conveniently shy and scared until the second traveller sat in front of him and then they both started to eye each other and at some point I realized: �oh, god, these two are totally flirting with each other� (well, maybe that�s what got me and my friends totally oblivious of Chris Vincent performance during MOTH, but it was so fun to see that new romance evolve ). At some point the second traveller took a sit besides richard woodford and they started to throw funny love looks at each other, until they ended up holding hands in a more tender way than cosette and marius. So, it was obvious that the guy was funny and a pretty good actor and I was expecting good things from his grantaire.
He was more serious than other actors on the role, and more subtle too (he didn�t do the tradicional bottle or paper thing, which was o.k. because it�s been done too many times), but the moment he started interacting with enjolras I just wanted to get up and slap him (yes, I wanted to slap a lot of people that evening). Enjolras was being as revolutionary and enjolraic as baruwa could manage but every single time he turned his back, woodford would point at him and laugh at him, with a �silly boy how can you say such things?� look and a superior attitute that would make happy every fanfic author who writes about wise!grantaire and sillyboy!enjolras who got them all killed. I spent the whole song expecting that enjolras would catch him to see his reaction, but he didn�t.
And we come to the barricades. After ALFOR enjolras tries to approach marius to confort him, when grantaire steps in between with an accusing attitude and an a angry look that says �see? That�s what happens when you start a revolution, silly boy!� And the worst thing is that Enjolras looked totally intimidated by him and just backed off. It was as if the power relation between the two of them was inverted. A stern look from grantaire was enough to make him back away... it made it seem as if he was really guilty of something...
However, after �drink with me� I suddenly fell in love with woodford�s grantaire and forgave everything he�d being doing. Woodford sang his angsty lines and ended up standing in front of Baruwa who was giving him a serious look, when suddenly without transition and completely out of the blue, Baruwa suddenly throws himself at Woodford�s arms and embraces him and holds him tight for a while. I was sure that nobody in the theatre could be as amazed as i was at the moment, until enjolras climbed back to the barricade and I was able to see the Grantaire's expression. The guy was shaking his head and crossing the stage, totally dumbfounded, as if he couldn�t understand or believe what on earth had happened, with such a look of irreality and amazement on his face... probably the exact reaction that book grantaire would have had if something like that had happened to him. And then, when the poor boy finally gets across the stage and dares to look up, enjolras, who is watching him from the barricade raises his hand and makes a little �coucou, I�m here!� sign that I�m not sure I�ll be able to describe. Do you picture the way que queen of england waves her hand when she salutes the crowds?. Well imagine she bended her wrist in a very gay way and then she moved her fingers up and down... At this point Grantaire just collapsed onto the floor looking amazed and terrified at the same time.
And my review on baruwa�s enjolras in definitely coming out longer than I intented but I promise that I�ve saved the best for the end. The glorious death!
The last attack begins, marius gets shot, enjolras stumbles down the barricade and he just remains there. People are fighting around him and he just kneels watching marius as if he couldn�t believe that people actually get hurt in real revolutions and then, when I started to worry about whether he would have time to pick up the flag before the music ended, he suddenly realizes that marius is dead and in a desperate reaction he climbs back to the barricade, waves the flag, gets shot, falls over the barricade, grantaire rushes over to save him, and then, you suddenly see an arm raising from the other side of the barricade, then a head, a face, a breast, and enjolras REAPPEARS with a look of horror painted on his face, as if there was a shark or some kind of monster eating his legs, and with his arm outstreched he cries: HELP ME!!!!!!!!!! before desappearing again. I can�t even comment about it.

One final thing! About the bows. What�s this thing with making the actors take the bows 2 by 2? And then they are so rushed! Is it another way to get the show under 3 hours? I had scarcely had time to get up for drew when he went back and joined the ensemble? And what�s worst. What do you do if cassandra and joanna ampil take their bows at the same time? I don�t want to stay silent with Joanna but I don�t want to applaud Cassandra. Same thing with Marius and Cosette. I want to cheer her but not him. And it was even worst with Baruwa since he came out with Gavroche. How can you not applaud the poor child? That silly system is really unfair for the good performers.

lizavert

Oh dear god! That Enjolras sounds painful to watch. And that death scene, Yikes!

Orestes Fasting

You have no idea how happy I am that someone else gets just as pissy as I do when the Enjolras/Grantaire power dynamic is reversed. It can ruin the entire revolution subplot if done effectively.

lesmisloony

Oh my God.

Just... no. That's... no. No.

I was going to make a comment about the Eponine, but that Grantaire/Enj thing totally sidetracked me, so here:

curlyhairedsoprano91

Thanks for this, BigR!

This Eponine sounds so painful. And so ... -insert eppybopper turns of phrase-

Oy.

EponineMNFF

OMG that's EXACTLY what I thought when I saw Cassandra Compton as Eponine. I actually considered throwing something at her in the middle of Eponine's Errand, but I didn't want to get escorted out of the theatre. She actually was RIFFING during On My Own. WTF.

And did you notice that she did this weird thing with her shoulders when she sang? It was like a shimmy or something. So weird. >.<

bigR

lesmisloony

Well, I think clearly that guy was portraying Enjorlas.

Elin

Gavroche (I don�t know his name because he isn�t in the program and those bloody british didn�t even give us a flyer with the names of the performers)

There's a cast board by the box office. (And the kids are listed in the program, just not their performance schedule.)

Quique

Hehehe. I love how you want half the cast dead, BigR. XD

Great review, btw. Makes me glad I am not seeing it in London just yet. Though I'd love to see Drew.

Catherine

Y'know when I went to see it, I thought the R/Enjy hug was intentional at the end of Drink With Me. Mind you, after seeing it I was pretty damn confused about the characters of them, I was sure Enjolras was meant to be powerful! I really wanna see Drew again now, I'm so glad he got a good review off you guys, I know its pretty genuine, I knew it wasn't good me who loved him! =]

musicool · eponine

I think you may have the wrong person as Cassandra never takes of her hat during on my own... !

LesMisForever

Enjolras cried: Help me! Shocked

.

All i can say is what Victor Meldrew (probably only the British know him) would have said "I don't belieeeeeve it!"

Timmy_Wishes he was Quast

bigR · Re: eponine

bigR

Catherine

Rumours you say? Well, I'm going in June anyway. BB again. I'm gonna stagedoor it too. =]

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