Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Elin |
Broadway cast changes - starting April 24http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=16837 |
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| Orestes Fasting |
I usually try to keep my inner fangirl's Capslock o' Doom thoroughly in check, but...
AARON!!! *sob* (Okay, seriously, three of my four favorite principals are being replaced. Allow me a moment of fangirly distress here.  )
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| Sweeney Hyde |
I'm just glad that Lewis is going...although I don't like the idea of him as King Triton...I haev read a lot of reviews saying he was no good as Javert as far as the acting goes. | ||||
| The Very Angry Woman |
And one with, of all people, Max Von Essen. That deserves a 
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| Orestes Fasting |
...at least they're not making Drew principal Enjolras? | ||||
| sherwills |
and wow! Ann Harada as Mdme Thenardier. That is one interesting casting!
Loved her to bits as Christmas Eve in AQ. What an extraordinary effortless voice. I'm sure she's gonna reinvent the character. Lea Salonga, Ann Harada, Celia Keenan-Bolger! That's it, I'm coming to Broadway next month!!! |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
He'd be more interesting, at least. von Essen has a decent voice, but when I saw him as Jesus, I had no idea why people would bother following such a boring fellow. I'll give him a chance, but the JCS experience sticks in my mind. |
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| AndrewShatterhand |
Celia won't be there anymore. |
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| kitty17794 |
Awww, I'm sad they are leaving and I don't have a chance to see them...but hopefully the replacements are just as good. 
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| Eponine93 |
Well, this information is the perfect crap ending to the perfect crappy day.
Seriously.... AARON! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually started crying when I read this article. I'm not surprised Aaron is leaving, but I really wish I could see him again. Celia, too. I was planning on taking a trip to the TKTS board with the money I'll get as graduation gifts and seeing Les Mis again in the summer, but if Aaron and Celia aren't in the show, I don't know if it will be worth it. The worst thing is for me that I won't get to see Celia live. From all the bootlegs I saw, I really enjoyed her Eponine and since my chances of getting to see it again before she leaves are less than nothing, I'm going to have to rely on the bootlegs alone. I'm sort of interested in seeing Ann Harada as Madame Thenardier. Even though I was lucky enough to see Jenny Galloway, for me, Madame Thenardier is just a funny minor part that doesn't make or break the show. However, I am really interested in her Madame T because Ann's very different from Jenny Galloway and it will be very interesting to see how the rest of the cast reacts. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
... |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Hey, I'm with her. If her day was anything like mine, I don't blame her for snapping when she came home to find out that Aaron and Celia were leaving. Crappy day all around, this was just icing on the cake.
How far do you live from NYC? Is a weekend trip during the school year feasible? |
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| Quique |
F*ck, I'm REALLY upset over this! 
I so wanted to see the original revival cast, especially Lazar, Galloway, and Lewis (don't care too much for Bolger). Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Have you seen Celia live? She didn't really impress me on any audios, but I liked her live. She's obviously read the book--she plays Eponine sympathetically, but still grungy and stalkery and slightly demented.
Norm, on the other hand, impresses me less and less the more often I see him. Great voice, but he doesn't have the stage presence required for Javert and he tries to make up for it by shouting a lot. So I'm actually quite excited about seeing Ben Davis step in--I've heard good things about him, and as talented and affable as Norm is, I don't like his Javert that much. I guess I'll have to reserve my opinion on Ann Harada until I've seen her. It will be really hard to top Jenny, but it was inevitable that she'd have to leave. I'm just wary about whether Ann will be directed to play Mme Th�nardier as more comic than sinister, to match Gary. Jenny and Gary seem rather mismatched in that way, and I'd much rather see sinister Th�nardiers than funny Th�nardiers. It won't make or break the show for me, but Jenny's performance just made the whole thing so much more awesome. I have to say I'm rather dubious about Mandy. From what I've seen and heard in interviews with the revival cast, reading the book is encouraged but not required. The original principals all seem to have read at least the relevant bits, while there are a few understudies who seem like they wouldn't know the factory foreman from Mme Victurnien if you smacked them in the face with a Brick. Which isn't to say they didn't have decent interpretations, only that the interpretations didn't seem based on the novel. And Eponine in the book is so different from Eponine in the musical that an actress who hasn't read the original will have no chance at guessing how to incorporate elements of the book into her interpretation. All of which is me trying to say that... unless someone sits Mandy down and has her take a good hard look at Hugo's original version of her character, damn, I'm going to miss Celia and her creepy!Eponine. ...I have no further comment to offer about Aaron leaving. Except that I'm going to miss his Enjolras a lot. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
FWIW, the original revival cast -- in its entirety -- hasn't really existed since last November/December. |
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| Quique |
I've seen Celia's "On My Own" on YouTube and wasn't impressed but I should probably hush about that as the character is far mnore than that song, lol. It's just me being pessimistic again, lol.
I really, really, really wanted to see Lazar and Lewis though.
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| Quique |
Oh, I know. Pay no attention to what I say within the next hour or so, I'm very bitter/upset and have lost complete sense, lol. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Celia's OMO isn't that impressive, but I loved her interaction with Adam. Loved, loved, loved. |
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| Quique |
Really? Guess I'll never know now as I'll never get a chance to see her. Grrr.
I'm especially upset cause I actually made the decision to wait until summer to see it. I would've seen them had I chosen to go sooner. It's just that funds had been really tight. I should've just charged the whole thing on my credit card like I had originally planned, lol. |
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| Trevor |
I'm seeing it this Saturday.
A bit O/T, but... would I be seeing any understudies on a Saturday night performance, by any chance? I really don't want to miss Celia, Lea or Aaron. Anyone else, I don't really care. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Lea hasn't been out yet, to my knowledge. Celia was out last week, apparently with the flu, but she was back this weekend so you'll probably see her. Aaron is still occasionally rotating with Drew as Enjolras--I don't know if it's his injury or if he was just sick, but he was out recently--but when he's out it's usually for the Sunday matinee. Saturday evening should be fine. (I'm seeing it on the same day, at the matinee performance. Haha. Six hours' difference and we might've run into each other at the stage door.) |
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| Trevor |
Haha Bummer! That would have been pretty cool.
Thanks for the info though. I REALLY want to see Aaron, so I hope I won't be missing him. |
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| Eponine93 |
Email Aaron and ask him. You can get his email off his awesome site, www.aaronlazar.com. That's what I did to make sure he was going to be at the performance I saw (of course, I couldn't have done anything if he wasn't thanks to getting my tickets in advance, but at least I could have prepared mentally for it). | ||||
| broadwaybelle22 |
I was excited to see Norm Lewis as well, and Adam, but I think Norm is leaving to start working on Little Mermaid. I love Disney, but they took away my chance! | ||||
| The Very Angry Woman |
Little Mermaid principals announced: http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=c1247309-87d8-4ba8-8fe3-20df10e037a1&k=46321 |
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| Lazarus (Adam G) |
We're loosing Javert? He was one of the best cast members. 
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| Orestes Fasting |
You've got to be kidding. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
What. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Who all's going to the current cast's last show on April 22? I have my ticket already. I'll see you guys at the stage door. | ||||
| The Pirate King |
Huh? Cutting Javert out of the show? That would be quite different... 
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| EponineBarker |
Well, I'm bummed...
I found out about this on another board not to long ago. *Sigh* I still can't believe that they're going to do The Little Mermaid on B'way.
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| Orestes Fasting |
...okay, I am still extremely dubious about Max von Essen, but at least Drew isn't being bumped up to principal Enjolras. Max might suck, but after seeing Drewjolras yesterday afternoon, I can safely say that it would be really hard to suck more than that. Wonderful Grantaire. Horrible Enjolras.
My friend and I stuck around for the evening show, though, because we heard Aaron would be back on in the evening. And Drew, who was back to playing Grantaire, totally redeemed himself by almost making me piss myself laughing at several points during the show. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
Why do you suppose then -- this is hypothetical and I'm not defending Drew at all; I haven't seen the revival at all yet -- Drew seemed to be so favored for so long, even going to far as being the unofficial alternate? |
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| Orestes Fasting |
I have no idea and have wondered the same thing myself multiple times. It's completely the wrong role for him, as is Javert, which he also understudies even if I don't think he's ever gone on. IMO he'd be much better suited understudying Marius or Th�nardier. | ||||
| The Very Angry Woman |
I wonder if they feel he just has more vocal stamina than Nehal Joshi (who I know very little about, too). He was rarely out in Lestat. Actually, I don't think he ever missed a show until he had to go on for Hugh Panaro.
I guess he's very reliable as far as being an employee goes... |
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| Eponine93 |
Speaking of vocal stamina, has Norm ever taken a day off yet? I understand he's dedicated to his work, but from when I saw the revival, I thought he could definitely use a day off. His voice seemed at the verge of cracking, especially during the prologue.
And TVAW, why do you think the cast DRV? Some of the casting choices in this revival are REALLY confusing. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
I believe he has (at least once) because sometime around December/January I came across a blog where someone had seen Robert Hunt go on as Javert.
I don't find any of them any crazier than DRV. From what I understand, John Caird's opinion trumped everyone else's. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Does anyone know if Adam or Ali have been out yet? I don't know of anyone who's seen their understudies. | ||||
| Eponine93 |
Does anyone besides me think that maybe Daphne was cast on purpose. I mean, think about it. You get a Fantine who has an infamously unpleasant singing voice. Daphne is notorious, especially among the Rent-aged crowd, for being a good actress but not having a sweet voice. Then she leaves the show for another show, and you cast a Tony-award winner who is widely known to have a very nice voice. Even though Lea's arrival would be big anyhow, the fact she was replacing someone so terrible at the role made it a much bigger deal. You earn some nice publicity and probably manage to convince some of the people who went to see the revival with Daphne to see it again, with a very able Fantine.
Personally, I think they may have wanted Lea from the beggining but couldn't get her to start the run. Maybe I'm just cynical, though... |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
Actually, that is the case. |
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| BwayJuvinile |
I am excited for the change...I love Ben Davis...he is my favorite enjolras, can't wait to see what he does as Javert. Plus the magic flute looks great too. | ||||
| Orestes Fasting |
sdjlk;jasldf dammit. Apparently I missed Dan as Marius by one day. Adam took his day off on Friday and I was there on Saturday. |
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| Crapgame13 |
do you have a timeline or article that reflects that, not that I doubt it with the amount of time for motherhood and relaxing with the baby (as much as one can with a newborn) It always appeared to me that the calls to Lea coincided with the first reviews of DRV. Somehow I don't think if she had gotten rave reviews, the producers would have worried whether they could book Lea into this run. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
I don't. It's not really something that's been publicized. |
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| Eponine93 |
What's going on at the Drew front? I saw an article saying he was playing Victor Frankenstien in the world premiere at Paper Mill in the fall. Is he going to stay with the show till Labor Day (or did they extend the run even longer... I'm beginning to loose track) or is he planning on leaving sometime during the summer? |