Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| TonyB |
Drew Sarich as JavertSaw the B'way revival for the 3rd time last night - another standing ovation. Many new faces in the cast... First time I've ever seen Lea Salonga - her performance was wonderful. Mandy Bruno as Eponine, Max von Essen as Enjolras and Ann Harada as Madame Thenardier all played well. Although the Playbill lists Ben Davis as Javert, Drew Sarich played the role last night. I was not fond of his portrayal of Grantaire, so I was concerned about how he would play Javert. But after the first scene my concerns were allayed as he played the part very well. The only thing I could pick on was that he seemed to have a little trouble with the really low notes - like the second note of chain in "you'll wear a different cha-ain". Alexander Genignani was terrific as was Adam Jacbos. Ali Ewoldt was a little unsteady. I don't enjoy Gary Beach's performance anymore. He's taking too many liberties with the role, like making up his own tune and timing in "Master of the House" and that finger roll in "Dog Eats Dog". Mandy Bruno's "Little Fall of Rain" was very emotional, as was Lea Salonga's "Come to Me". One of the gauges I use to determine how well the show was performed is how soon and how much my eyes well up during the last scene. I was in tears as soon as Fantine appeared. Enjoy! |
||
| The Very Angry Woman |
Drew went on as Javert for both shows Saturday. (It wasn't planned.) | ||
| Orestes Fasting |
He was on for Sunday matinee as well. I was leery of him because I dislike his Enjolras; I don't get any sense of dignity or command from his interpretation of the role, so I was expecting to roll my eyes at his Javert since it requries similar qualities. Turns out Drew is very good at that sort of thing, he just wasn't doing it for Enjolras. Go figure.
Drew looks way too young in the role and can't force himself to be a baritone no matter how hard he tries, but his acting was superb. Norm, though he wasn't a bad Javert, was a little soft around the edges; Drew was very sharp, very fierce, and just the tiniest bit snarky. I liked him best in Fantine's Arrest and the scene where Gavroche exposes Javert as a spy. His contempt for Fantine, the look on his face when she tried to grab his hand and he yanked it away, was brilliant. And he gave this sardonic little laugh when Gavroche said "Good evening, dear Inspector," then when the students are threatening to shoot him he pushed one of their guns aside as if to say "Put that thing down, kid." My suspension of disbelief was wearing a little thin by the Suicide, just because he's Drew and he has a very distinctive voice and certain mannerisms that reappear once the haughty police inspector falls apart. But otherwise the scene was quite well done, and he deserved the round of applause he got afterwards. Sad to say I don't have similar praise for the new cast members I saw, but that might be for a different thread. |
||
| EponinesRain |
Yeah, sounds like it from your post in the blooper thread! Nevertheless-- and this is a bit OT and just me plugging for my joy-- Megan is great in this clip with Sutton Foster. Hehe, I just had to share it, for those of you who haven't seen it already. Enjoy! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xybXlUVSYk |
||
| Moci |
Thanks for that, hadn't seen it before and it's fun. |
||
| Orestes Fasting |
Haha, all the bloopers I posted were by people who've been in the cast for a while. (Celia, Zach Rand, Lea, and Alex.) I didn't see any bloopers with the new cast, I was just disappointed. | ||
| Eponine93 |
Orestes, did you post a review with the new cast yet?
I'm anxious to hear how Ann Harada is doing, because I love her from Avenue Q. The rest I'm very wary of, especially of Mandy Bruno, who seems to have the least experience... |
||
| Orestes Fasting |
Not yet. I'm farting around procrastinating on getting my, er, souvenirs in order, and I'll probably write a full review after that.
Ann Harada is possibly the weakest of the new people, actually. She's just not mean enough to be a good Mme T; I think she was going for sickly-sweet with a nasty edge, but since she isn't nasty enough it doesn't really work. And "sickly-sweet" apparently = this weird cutesy voice that's close enough to her Christmas Eve voice to make me go  .
Mandy Bruno must have been infected with Diana Kaarina's smiling disease, because she seriously grins through most of OMO. At first she seemed to be going for a watered-down version of Celia's creepy Eponine, but she was pretty halfhearted with it and ditched it after Eponine's Errand anyway. After that... well, I have no doubt that the Eppie-boppers will like her. Props to her for actually acting during OMO--Celia and Megan just sort of stood there--but the acting itself I can't stand. Max von Essen is okay. He has a pretty nice voice and doesn't do anything wrong, really, he's just boring and has about as much charisma as Aaron Lazar's left sock. I've heard secondhand that Adam upstages him just by existing; I saw Doug Kreeger as Marius so I can't really judge, but Max didn't seem like a very strong leader. And his wig is the most hideous thing ever; I hope it's temporary. Yeesh, costume department. |
||
| Eponine93 |
Now, did we really expect anyone to compare to Aaron Lazar? Aaron upstages the entire cast by existing.
Hopefully everyone will warm up to their roles. I'm trying to hope that you saw them too early to make a judgement. Then again, I saw Lea in her first week and she was flabbergastingly good... Souvenirs... does that mean what I think that does? God, I'd love to see a Lea souvenir... |
||
| Orestes Fasting |
I probably wouldn't be as disappointed by how boring Max is if he weren't replacing Aaron, but even if Aaron had never existed Max wouldn't be anything to write home about. When he gets going vocally, his voice has a nice ringing tone, but he only does that once or twice in the show. I wish he'd gone up to the high note in the final battle; he sounded like he wanted to but thought better of it at the last moment.
The scary thing is that I think they must have improved since the beginning of the week. People were complaining about Mandy not being vocally fit for Eponine, but if she had vocal problems, I was too busy being irritated over her acting to notice them. She's cute, spunky, and easy for lovelorn teenage girls to relate to. Ew. I keep many souvenirs of the shows I see, from memorabilia to good memories.  Nothing that could be put up on YouTube, though.
|
||
| dcrowley |
I like Drew as Javert, at least, he's good in the audio I have of him... I agree that the new Mme Thenardier is horrible and Mandy Bruno is a pretty weak, Diana Kaarina rip off Eponine. I will be seeing this cast on May 19th; I am so disappointed that I missed Celia and Jenny 
|