Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Disney-Bway27 |
Favorite Fantine?Personally, my favorite is Ruthie Henshall. Randy Graff is a close second though. |
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| Paula74 |
Acting-wise, I really liked Jessica Bogart in the Walnut Street production last summer, but her voice was weak and somewhat shrill.
My favorite overall is Nikki Renee Daniels - I love both her voice and acting. And I do like Ruthie Henshall. |
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| Vanessa20 |
Of the ones I've seen onstage, probably Lea Salonga. I liked Joanna Ampil too, though, and I remember being impressed by Tonya Dixon, though unfortunately I only saw her once, long ago, so I don't remember much about her.
On the recordings, Ruthie is by far my favorite English-language Fantine, but if we're also counting foreign ones, she's tied with Cornelia Drese. |
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| Quique |
LIVE:
-Elinore O'Connel (2nd NT, 1989) -Susan Gilmour (1st NT, 1991) -Jill Geddes (3rd NT, 1992) -Lea Salonga (Broadway Revival) RECORDINGS: -Randy Graff ( a most underrated Fantine, imo) -Ruthie Henshall -Sona MacDonald (Vienna, Austria) -Cornelia Drese (Duisburg, Germany) -Louise Pitre (Paris, France) |
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| seraphim |
Ruthie Henshall as I find her voice startling. 
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| bigR |
-Gema Casta�o, from the Madrid cast.
-Second place, between Louise Pitre and a couple of german speaking ones. But since the french lyrics for IDAD are so beautiful, I'll pick Louise. -None of the "famous" english speaking Fantines does anything special to me. |
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| Quique |
How could I forget Gema? She is definitely one of my favorites. The best Spanish-language Fantine. Such a passionate, beautiful voice. | ||||
| jackissensational |
Ruthiiiiiiiiiie. Don't hate. | ||||
| curlyhairedsoprano91 |
Of the ones I've heard/seen on bootleg, Ruthie and Lea. | ||||
| The Very Angry Woman |
Of the Fantines I've seen live: Tonya Dixon, Lea Salonga, and Linda Pierson-Huff. Not in any order. | ||||
| EponineMNFF |
When I say Lea, you say Salonga! Lea Salonga!
[Sorry. I felt sort of unoriginal, so I decided to spice it up.] |
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| CabaretGirl |
Well, I'm gonna keep going the non-original way and say Ruthie Henshall.
I also saw Genevieve Charest in Quebec City last summer and she was amazing... can't wait for the cd to come out so I can listen to her rendition of IDAD again and again... |
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| SmallTownIngenue |
Lea Salonga is my favorite, but I like Ruthie Henshall as well. | ||||
| Fantine |
My favorite is Ruthie Henshall, but out of those whom I have seen (Joanna Ampil, Kerry Ellis and Nurlaila Karim) I liked Joanna Ampil best. | ||||
| ilovebway |
Ruthie Henshall. Closely followed by Lea Salonga. Very, very closely. | ||||
| music is my life!!! |
^ Same, but i saw Sophia Ragavelas in 2007 and adored her (She's now playing Chloe in "Never Forget") | ||||
| actor |
Ruthie Henshall. But I liked Lea Salonga aswell. | ||||
| SomeoneLikeYou |
Lea Salonga's Fantine is terrific, but I can't stand her Eponine. I wish she were more well-known for Fantine than the Epster. | ||||
| Disney-Bway27 |
Really? I liked Lea's Eponine. She was so much better than the nasal laser voice of doom that belongs to Frances Ruffelle. | ||||
| mastachen |
Lea Salonga | ||||
| nabla |
RUTHIE!!!! lol | ||||
| eponine5 |
I'm fairly sure that Joanna Ampil had taken over as Fantine by 2007... Out of all the Fantines I've seen live, my favourite is Kerry Ellis, closely followed by Joanna Ampil. |
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| bigR |
Funny how Joanna Ampil has so many followers. I saw her live and I found her Fantine very weak. | ||||
| MunkustrapQC |
Genevi�ve Charest was really good. Not my favorite Fantine of all-time, but she has a great voice. When is the cd suppose to come out? |
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| mezzogeek |
I'm going to be very unoriginal here, and say Ruthie Henshall, but she is excellent.
Also, I went to see the show in London back in October, and I thought Allyson Brown was a great Fantine. =) |
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| Ulla Dance Again! |
It may just be out of bias, but I like Andrea McArdle as Fantine.
... and the lady I saw on the third national tour in Boston whose name escapes me at the moment. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
The Broadway revival had a trio of wonderful Fantines: plenty of people have mentioned Lea Salonga, but if anything her understudies were even better. Nikki Ren�e Daniels is by far the best-sung Fantine I've ever seen, and Haviland Stillwell probably the best-acted. | ||||
| CabaretGirl |
Le 3 f�vrier, cher Munkustrap du Qu�bec 
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| Yakko |
WONDERFUL?! You do realise that Daphnie Vega- Rubin was in the show? |
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| mastachen |
Well, she didn't mention Daphne in the "trio of wonderfulness", did she? | ||||
| Orestes Fasting |
I don't remember Genevi�ve Charest's performance except that she went rather off-pitch at the end of IDAD. Perhaps she was getting emotional because it was the final performance; I seem to recall she was otherwise pretty good.
...also, I said the Broadway revival had a trio of wonderful Fantines, not that all their Fantines were wonderful. Daphne was awful, Judy Kuhn had redeeming qualities but I hate her voice, and Rona Figueroa was good but not as standout as Nikki and Havi. Mostly what I remember about Rona is that she's tiny. She looked about fourteen years old, which was heartbreaking in Lovely Ladies but it made me wonder how exactly she had an eight-year-old kid. |
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| SmallTownIngenue |
I can't imagine Judy Kuhn as Fantine at all. I don't like her voice very much as Cosette either. | ||||
| Disney-Bway27 |
Wow. I've always loved Judy Kuhn's voice. I never knew she was Fantine once though. Hmm. | ||||
| Quique |
Judy Kuhn's Cosette is my favorite vocally. Never saw her Fantine but reeeally wanted to see her do it. | ||||
| mastachen |
I saw Judy Kuhn live and I thought she was... boring. | ||||
| lesmisloony |
Yeah. Judy wasn't the worst Fantine ever, but I have to second "boring." I seem to remember that during IDAD she just kind of ...sat there. | ||||
| curlyhairedsoprano91 |
I love Judy lots, and I think she sounded good as Cosette, but she sort of has the wrong voice for Fantine. | ||||
| Colle |
Lisa Capps was probably my favorite Fantine, that I saw on stage, she had such a pretty voice. Tonya Dixon was good too. I thought Joan Almedilla was inconsistant vocally, but I liked her acting for the most part.
Orestes Fasting, I saw Rona Figueroa as Eponine, on tour, yes she did seem tiny. I thought she was a great Eponine, a good combination of troughness, and saddness. It would have been interesting to see her as Fantine. |
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| The Very Angry Woman |
http://broadwayworld.com/article/Original_Cosette_Judy_Kuhn_Joins_Les_Mis_as_Fantine_1023_20070918 |
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| javertim |
The three best I've ever seen are Jayne Paterson, Tonya Dixon, and Susan Spencer, in that order. | ||||
| greenelphiexoxo |
Kerry Ellis and Ruthie Henshall | ||||
| LesMisForever |
Agreed, although the ones i have seen might not be 100% identical. |
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| dcrowley |
Lea Salonga and Nikki Renee Daniels were fabulous! I think they win it for me. |