Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Barricada |
Well, not exactly "taking the blame" for it, because that would imply that he thinks that it's a bad thing or that they are in the wrong. But when you read the book (which I know you have, and David has too), there are a few scenes in which Enjolras - for all his marble-like Godliness - definitely shows that he takes *responsibility* for his actions, and that he feels the full weight of the consequences. When he executes Le Cabuc, for example, I don't remember the exact phrase but he says something along the lines of "he killed, so *I* killed him, and *I* will pay for it on the barricade". He isn't sending some other sod to do the job. He feels the weight of the decision to execute another man, and he takes that upon himself. Or in the other bit where they are shooting at some officer, and there's the whole "this man could be your brother!" "He is, and I'm gonna kill him anyway because I must" - same thing. You get the sense that he is very much aware of the weightiness of his decisions, that he *knows* he is leading men to their deaths and even more importantly - he knows he is leading them to kill their fellow men - and that this is not "just a game for rich young boys to play". And I felt in that moment last night when DT stopped looking out over the barricade, turned around, sighed, put his hands together near his face, and sat like that for the rest of BHH - that this was (as I understood it. It is, of course, a matter for interpretation) a moment when Enjolras allows himself to actually feel the gravity of the moment, allows himself to feel the weight of the responsibility he has taken on. Which is a good thing, IMHO, because it gives more complexity to the character. Of course, 90% of the audience probably never even noticed this moment because they had their eyes locked on Marius and Valjean - but, you know, it's nice that it's there for those who do notice. And yes, I too noticed the hug with Courfeyrac and thought it was great. |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Thank you. Yes. Oooh, I think I really like you. (Not just because you mentioned my favourite two passages, Le Cabuc and shooting the cannoneer...)
So, we're not talking about blame, good! Because I definitely agree on the "taking responsibility and understanding the gravity" part! There are many, many scenes I could point out here, although I can already see people going: "You're watching and analysing way too much" ... bear with me. I've already commented on how much I hate the "do what you have to do, this man belongs to you!" moment, in general, because it doesn't work like this, Enjolras doesn't just go and decide some guy that just saved his life will get to execute Javert. There should be a moment of seeking the others' consent, but of course THAT does not work with the blocking of everyone protesting. That said, right now, you've got a scene where Enjolras does not just willingly hand over Javert just because he wants to; it becomes clear that no, he doesn't want to. At all. But, I also get the "We are judges, not assassins" (This is not our job and I will not send any of the others to do this.) notion there, which I love. And, in the brick, I love that one line so much, because right afterwards Enjolras DOES execute a man - Le Cabuc - and goes on to actually judge himself over it. It's such a poignant moment. Of course, the musical doesn't offer this much room or depth, and just due to the complexity that has to be compressed into not even three hours, there have to be certain adjustments, and you could argue that, relying on his strong, archetypical characters, Hugo could have done even more with the characters in the book itself. But I'm going to be honest and say that this is one of the main reasons - maybe the main reason - why I am incredibly grateful to have David as Enjolras, because I know he gets it. He understands the position Enjolras is in, he knows the context, he knows how far he can go with the character, he can go and just randomly change bits about the blocking because it will still be right, and he puts the character before himself at any moment, and it means a lot to him. And this is also why I feel that I'm not actually over-analysing, really, because if you've got someone who has read the book a few times and obviously concentrated on these points and who cares about the character and gets into it, then you can make the connection between what's in the book and what you see on stage weekly very easily. And the beautiful thing is that you don't even have to have read the book to see what it is about Enjolras and, even, to understand him. And he probably demands this exact thing of himself, too, even though, as you said, most of the audience will not even pay enough attention. ... heh.  sorry.
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| Barricada |
Well, I personally think it's an interesting discussion that requires no apology, but it *may* constitute hijacking the thread, so sorry about that. 
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| Eppie-Sue |
Back from tonight's show. I'm not feeling too well, so I'll just post random thoughts...
Mark was off  and Greg was covering his track, which means there was... nothing to write home about. I'm so sorry for saying that, but why is it just Killian that interacts with Davidjolras when he's on for Gavin or Mark?! It's Combeferre and Courfeyrac!  So the holy trinity was reduced to Enjolras and Combeferre, which made my little slashy fangirl heart quite happy, but that was about it. Bwuh.
Killian was covering for Dylan. He was hilarious wandering up, going "dumdeedum" in the Runaway Cart scene and then hysterically shouting his line and running for his life. I like Killian a lot. His Joly wasn't Jolyish at all, but very lovable, especially when he went "SHHHHHT!" as in "Will you shut up, he's alreay pissed off!" when Alistair!Marius was going "Had you been there tonight" in the caf� scene xDD Brenda was also on, covering Helen's track. She and Antony seemed to be having fun in MotH, I could hear her laughing as they were running/dancing up to the "inn" before the beginning of the song. All the principals were on, and, uh, I'm going to be honest and - without any bias - say that I'm incredibly grateful for David as Enjolras, just for the ... secureness with the character and for his reliableness. And his voice, obviously. Final Battle epicness keeps getting longer and louder and smoother and ooooh. Um. There was the "jubilant SHOUT" and the "STRIVE" and whatnot. Red and Black was bloody brilliant. Oh, everything was. And random blocking. I was slightly distracted during the whole "How long before the judgement day?" bit because the woman next to me in BB20 randomly fell out of her seat which had me in hysterics. She deserved it. She played around with her Blackberry the whole time and was late. OOOH AND BREAKING NEWS. Well, Elbow and I already witnessed it on Monday, but we thought it was an exception - there is no THUD anymore of him jumping down from the Deadjolras position after the barricade has turned! ... he's SO reading the forums. Hello, David. 'Twas a good show. There is still an incredible, extraordinary amount of blinking in ECAET, though, but that can't be helped, I do suppose it really is from the fake blood earlier!? Alistair was absolutely adorable. I used to be quite bored during AHFOL, just in general, but now I just love it so much, I don't want it to end. They're such dolls. And I do think that once you get used to his portrayal, Alistair's Marius works quite well with the other characters. Much love for his annoyance with Eponine after Look Down/before the Robbery. Bowman was a parody. And what's with not holding the "BEGIIIIN" at the end of "What have I done?" Also - no applause for "Who Am I?" Good audience. HPJ was... HPJ. Dunno. He was alright... good "reprieeeeeeved", as usual. Nancy was great in The Robbery and ALFOR, as usual. Oh, speaking of Nancy - WTF BOWMAN he changes what he does in the Letter scene every single time and it doesn't ever work!? If you're changing the blocking, which I do, generally, don't mind (see above) please make sure you're in-character and not doing it for Teh Lulz. He grabbed her and carried her to the gate. Nancy seemed to be genuinely going WTF there too. Emily was wonderful in "Every Day/AHFOL Reprise", the last note was just gorgeous. She's growing on me. Nothing new about Rebecca, Lorraine or Martin Ball... I think. Joe Evans's Prouvaire is a f'ing attention whore xD I love it. There was "Bravo, Monsieur, BRAVO! Encore! ENCORE!" after Grantaire's "better than an opera" solo. Oh, Grantaire. I can't ever say anything bad about Martin Neely's Grantaire again. He's amazing. Just watch him. He's smitten. Also, his Pimp in Lovely Ladies is brilliant. Black lipstick shouldn't suit him as much as it does. |
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| Elbow |
A really good show tonight, all leads were on. Only people off were Helen Owen, Dylan Williams and Mark Dugdale ( )
There isn't an awful lot to write. Oh actually, my favourite Cosette and Gavroche were on tonight. I'm not sure what their names are though, I should really bother to check that out sometime. Greg was covering Mark and it wasn't the same! I've seen Killian Courfeyrac before and I think that works better. I really like Greg's voice, especially in ensemble pieces, but I just don't see him as Courfeyrac. Oh and as of tonight I love Alistair  He's excellent. And so nice at the stage door. Nyaw.
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| Eppie-Sue |
Hahaha, what a night. xD Well, the show was all right, I suppose, it felt absolutely amazing, even though, come to think of it, while there was a lot of light, there also was quite a bit of shadow, but ... no, it was just really awesome.
Um, quick review. I didn't even really watch Simon Bowman today, and that definitely helped. His "Bring Him Home" was reasonably good until it got to "But summer's die" because then his voice does these odd skips and that just destroys the whole power of those lines. And why does he have to groan when he's climbing down into the sewers? It's all these small things that make me want to scream. I thought, HPJ was really not that good tonight, I don't know, his voice seemed a bit strained and hoarse. Hm. I can't really single out one thing I like or dislike about him (except for the "TAKE HERRRRRRR!" in Fantine's Arrest. That has to go.), so I'll just leave it at that. Rebecca was amazing tonight. I really liked her, and I think there were certain bits in IDAD that sounded a lot fuller than usual. I was actually impressed, and she doesn't usually blow me away, as much as I love her from "Come on, Captain" on... Alistair was his usual adorable self. I can deal with a cute Marius very, very well. And aw, he's so helpless in ALFOR... Also, I have now paid attention to him in the Wedding, and he has this honest-to-God heartfelt smile on his face at the "Then it's true, then I'm right, Jean Valjean was my saviour that night!". Emily was great. I get used to her modern, slightly emancipated Cosette, I think, but what still bugs me is her reaction to "tomorrow to Calais and then a ship across the sea!" - it doesn't seem to break her heart... Hm. Vocally, she nailed the end of the AHFOL Reprise. Nailed. Nancy was crying her heart out during ALFOR today, bless her! I hadn't seen her like that since the small cast change in October, I think, it was heartbreaking. I'm not really sure about her OMO tonight, but there was nothing wrong with it. Oh, another thing I like - in The Robbery, she's motioning Marius to get away from Montparnasse from the bridge. Also, she puts so much into her performance, I can't possibly NOT like her, simply because she makes me care for Eponine so much. David. Oh, I had much fun tonight watching about a dozen girls and young women in the Stalls (I was sitting in the D/C Slips) just... fangirl as much as you possibly can from "Look Down" on. The looks on their faces were hilarious. And it was, obviously, justified. I'm pretty much speechless by now, and I don't know where to start. I think it was the loudest and fullest and longest "ARIIIIIIISE" I've ever heared, though. And ooooh, "Lamarque is dead"! It was different from all the others I've seen so far, and it was a thing of beauty. He just lost it, but... xD in a very controlled way. Which I love. And, ah, just everything, again. Flag-whipping and all that. <3 Ridiculously loud cheers at Curtain Call. xD Martin Ball didn't really sound like he was on top of his game, but his acting was absolutely spot-on. Haha, I paid attention to him, too, in the Wedding, and I love his evil, nasty laugh at "I was there - harharhar - never fear! - even found me this fine souvenir!" for some reason. He's so violent in the Rue Plumet Attack, love it. Lorraine Bruce did... not really change anything about her performance, and I do wonder how she can torture her own voice like she does... surely it can't be that hard to sing?! I like how intimidating she is, but Jackie Marks was, too, and she was so different. And it was way more effective. Ensemble... Mark was off, hopefully curing his voice, and we got Grefeyrac again. Hm. And Killian was covering Dylan's track, and he was just the best thing about MotH, looking like he was just telling dirty jokes as the old guy with the ear trumpet the whole way through. Brenda was in AJ's track and Katy in Helen's. Which makes me think... If Emily had been off sick, who would have gone on as Cosette?! But then D: at ODM, Gavin was suddenly missing, apparently he went off sick. And now... they had Greg covering both Courfeyrac and Combeferre! He even sang both of their lines in the Final Battle. How hard can it be just to let Killian go on as one of them... I would think that either of them is more important than Joly (I'm sorry, Joly!). Greg's got a lovely voice, though, it was just that there wasn't any interaction at all between Enjolras and Combeferre OR Courfeyrac from ODM on. And once it's gone you notice how much there actually is. Um... Okay. So, I met Elbow + friend at the stage door, which was lovely and then we stood around being silly. And we talked to Jeff and on Monday they're shooting the Susan Boyle thing in a studio and ... whooo very exciting. And then we waited... and waited. And we said hello to Alistair, who is very sweet indeed, and then we talked to David and Nancy for the... longest time I've ever spoken to anyone at the stage door. It must have been something around ten minutes, and it was basically just us and them gushing about Les Mis together and being absolutely into it and chatty and lovely and, um, then we kind of mentioned the lack of the "BLEEEEED!!!!!" to David (heeeh) and he was a bit clueless but Nancy totally knew what we were talking about, so we got her going "make them BLEEEEEEEED! while we can", and apparently it's due to the "less is more" policy (... that, apparently, doesn't apply to Bowman and Sobbing Woman). But we told him we missed it and we really didn't get any strange looks. I swear, it was quite the opposite. We also told him we could hear him jumping down from the Deadjolras position xD and he justified it with "the bloody thing will pull apart any time and I'm in the middle!"... (Nancy, scolding: "Be quiet, David! The regulars can hear you!") ... Hmmmm. in retrospect xD it actually sounds like we were just criticising him the entire time! HEH. We really weren't. Then we mentioned Killian and they fangirled/-boyed for quite some time and we might have mentioned the term "Superswing" again, and then... uh, we also talked about changing the blocking and we praised David for just ... doing exactly that, changing things, all the time (but not for the sake of doing it). And, yeah, there was a lot more, but that's the general... gist. It was really random and just absolutely lovely. Well, that's it for tonight, dearies. |
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| riverdawn |
Wow, I can't believe you actually mentioned the Deadjorlas thing!
I like his response though. Figures.
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| lovesinging |
Ah. How I wish I could hop on a plane and see a performance right now! Only thing that's been keeping me sane (well..that might be an exaggeration) is the existance of bootlegs that people are kind enough to send me and those on youtube
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| Eponines_Hat |
lol nice work mentioning the "defying gravity" moment - or lack thereof! 
I can't believe he didn't know what the BLEEEEED was! I miss it too. It was just so intense! |
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| Eppie-Sue |
xD It was worth it. We got to hear Nancy growling "Make them BLEEED". She was terrifying! See, I kind of understand why it's gone. But I still miss it, every single time, because it was awesome. I think the current version suits the character a bit more. It goes well with everything else, from "Look Down" on. It's still all very effective, but all a bit more subtle. He talked about the same, although he seemed a lot more critical of last year. Ah well. There's another thing I noticed recently... you know how we were joking about him looking very pissed off at the sound of Sobbing Woman after the barricade turned right before the Final Battle. I was sure that it wasn't because of that, because that would be... out of character, to say the least. Also, Elbow and I mentioned it to him and he seemed surprised at how appalled we were by the existence of a "Sobbing Woman". However, I knew there was a bit of an Evil Stare there, and so yesterday I checked and he is actually looking at Martintaire, who sits down and, you guessed it, drinks. And there you go. |
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| Barricada |
Hmm.... I think I'm going to have to be a heretic here :
If I'm being honest, I'm pretty happy to see the BLEEEED go... And, actually, if I'm being really really honest, I could also live without the "...is FRREEEEE!" I know they are extensively fangirled here, but these are the (only) two parts in David Thaxton's spectacular (amazing, wonderful) performance that always make me cringe just a tiny tiny bit. With the "BLLEEEED" I think it's kind of a case of "more is less", and I sort of agree with Eppie-Sue that it's a bit out of character. With the "is FREEEE!" - I do understand why yelling it makes sense (it is that kind of moment), but it always sounds a little bit angry and frustrated to me. I think, I'd like it to be exultant (as in "whatever happens to us here, the world must eventually be FREE!"). It seems to me that even (especially) in the face of certain death - Enjolras would be full of glorious intoxication (to use the word from the book), and I don't quite get that from the "is FREEE" as it stands. There. I've said it. Don't shoot, please. 
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| Barricada |
Sorry for the double post, but I've just figured out a better way to explain what I meant about the "is FREEE!" -
I suddenly got to thinking of Martin Luther King Jr., and in the "I have a dream" speech, he uses, repeatedly, the quotation: "Let Freedom Ring". I think that's what I mean: that there's a part of me that wants to cry for freedom to ring out. I'm not sure that quite works for me with the current "is FREEE!" |
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| Eppie-Sue |
I'm just not quite sure I can follow here... you want the "cry of freedom to ring", and yet you don't think the sung B flat "IIIS FREEEEE" is right?! But... the alternative would be shouting it. Or speak-singing it. Or... doing some funny stuff that can surely be found in the Comparison video on YouTube. I don't hear "angry and frustrated" when I listen to this. At all. If anything, that is a cry of freedom. Ringing and all. Isn't it?! I'm confused. Because ... you're criticising it for not being "full of glorious intoxication", and yet it's the only version I've ever heard that makes me think of more than just "Oh, let's kill people", like the shouted and failed ones. |
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| Barricada |
Ok, yeah, I take your point when I listen to the recording you linked. There it is, indeed, full of the glorious intoxication I was talking about.
I think maybe two things: 1. I think possibly a few of the times when I saw, it had more of a gravelly quality to it, less of an open "FREEEEEE" like it sounds in the link you gave, and more of a "grrrrrr" like quality. I think I couldn't even quite tell that the word was, in fact, "free". However, this could just be my imagination and I could be unjust about that. 2. Now that I've listened to the recording without seeing the visual, I think it's possible that I was bothered not by the way the "FREEE" sounded but maybe by the physicality of the moment, that DT sort of bends his knees and tenses his arm muscles and maybe there was something about that which didn't give it quite the visual I was expecting in that moment. All this being said, however, upon second thought (and re-listening to the recording), I'm willing to take back my critique of the "FREEEE".
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| Eppie-Sue |
Heh, I think we all know what you're talking about.  Bless him. But it kind of belongs there now, it's already... legendary. This is pure bias speaking, of course. I love it a lot now, though. Just like I like the short, manic laugh in "Lamarque is dead" in the video. xD I know I shouldn't.
But, yes, if you listen to the other versions in the Final Battle Comparison video... I'm sorry, but there really is no intoxication, and ... no glory. There are, I think, 9 of this year's and last year's Final Battles out there on YT, and the "IS FREE" is getting louder and longer and clearer every time now. ... so, yeah, hence my confusion. Because it's epic.
And now I will wait for people to direct me to the fangirling thread. Which I opened myself for no other purpose than this.
ETA: quick, someone post a review or write something about someone else! xD surely there is other stuff to discuss! |
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| Eponines_Hat |
yeah, the BLEEEED is not very BrickEnjolraic..... but I think what people liked (well, me, anyway!) was just how into it DT got during that scene. Kinda like when he totally loses it with enthusiasm during the LiD.
<3 Speaking of Enjolras - I am still so curious/weirded out my the idea of Jon Robyns in the role. Guess we won't have to wait long now til the reviews start rolling in from the tour! |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Okay, I am ridiculously excited.
I just walked past the Queen's to get my ticket for tonight (yeeeeah D/C Slips!) and they've got a scaffolding right in front of half of the entrance. As in, it's leading up to Baruwa's flagwaving picture. Now, of course this is pure speculation and I might be excited over nothing, but omgaretheyfinallygoingtoreplaceit (preferably with something shiny)?!
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| Eponines_Hat |
Just got back from tonights show... OMG. Totally random blocking for R+B I haven't seen before - DT sits next to Marius on that stool, faces the audience and sings the FIRST verse! I died. It was amazing. Just so powerful <3
Meanwhile, I know this is bitchy, but.... Does anyone think Bowman's acting is getting worse? I caught myself audibly cringing at some of the cheesy OTT gestures and acting. It's a shame because I thought some of his vocal preformances were rather strong- esp BHH. Solution: I watch Enjolras and listen to the song. Then it's rather enjoyable. Lol funny you should mention the signage eppie-sue, I was just thinking it was time for a change as I was leaving Queens tonight
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| Eppie-Sue |
HAHAHAHA TONIGHT'S SHOW. Blooperheaven.
The Bargain: Bowman: "I will pay what I must pay to take Cosette away. ... [silence, orchestra plays on] .... ... [more silence, orchestra plays on] For I was blind to one in need..." ahem. then: Look Down. Enjolras and Marius appear on the bridge. Antony, four beats too early: "Where are the leaders of the land... [notices the mistake, waits one beat, SHIT written all over his face] Where are the swells who run this show?" [The whole ensemble went a bit O.O Oh, Antony! there] David, waiting three beats, so it was all right again: "Only one man and that's Lamarque..." then, in DYHTPS the flag went right past David on the cart and landed on the ground. How symbolic. Killian, I think, tried to pick it up and failed because either he or the cart was standing on it. Thus, no flag-whipping. And then, Empty Chairs: Antony: "Where my friends will sing..." Mobile phone going off LOUDLY. "... no..." Mobile phone is switched off. "more..." xD Lovely show. Gavin was off , his track was covered by Greg, Killian was in Antony's track and seemed to be having a lot of fun as Feuilly, Brenda was on for Natalie and Katy for Daniella.
MARK WAS BACK! I've missed him so much! Lots of Enjolras/Courfeyrac interaction and hugs in the caf� scene and later in DWM. And I love the MANIC look on Mark's face as Javert is revealed as a spy.
A giant YES to what Eponines_Hat has said, the Red & Black blocking (which I have seen before, but it's my favourite from all the... dozens of versions xD) was wonderful and so, so very effective. Overall, we got Epicjolras again, especially in "Lamarque is dead". Not catching the flag wasn't THAT epic, bless him, but I've been waiting for that to happen for three months now. Ah, he's just bloody amazing. The Fight was INTENSE. And there was a loud "FOR GOD'S SAKE!" again xD... oh and The Final Battle was just <3 so loud and strong and all. You know what I mean. *points to earlier posts* And yes to the bit about Bowman. BHH was vocally actually really good, but oh, oh God, his acting. I just don't look at him anymore. I hate this Valjean so much, it makes me want to cry. HPJ was not good tonight. I don't know what it was, but he sounded hoarse, half of "Stars" was just strained and he cut the lines short or ... began too early, was off-beat, I don't know. Odd. Antonyyyy! Antony was on as Marius (and will be all week) and he was wonderful. I think I preferred the first half, he was just really, really strong. xD A bit unfortunate tonight, what with messing up his first lines and a phone going off loudly at the most emotional part of his entire performance. But he was great. I love the Enjolras-Marius-bit in ODM so much, and it's so powerful when they're just... up to par, vocally. And, um, when they're marching up as policemen in Fantine's Arrest? Yeah, Antony needs a bigger uniform, he can hardly move his shoulders it seems. Also, he and David had to struggle quite a bit with Katy (in Daniella's track) there, because she was actually fighting them with tooth and nail. Wonderful! Emily looked beautiful tonight! That sounds so shallow, but it really stood out for me. And she was strong, I thought. There was one slightly iffy note in In My Life, but it isn't her strongest song anyway. I really like her AHFOL. Nancy was good, not as emotional as on Saturday, bless her. Thankfully. I always tear up when I see cast members crying (coughSmallCastChangecough). OMO was lovely, I'm afraid I can't say much about ALFOR today because I was biting my lip due to Antony's shirt just randomly being ripped half-open. Oh, The Robbery wasn't quite as fierce as usual in the beginning, but the end was just a riot. Love it. I love Martin Ball, but I... suppose I don't have that much to comment on. Oh, I do like DED, though. Haha, Bowman was just lying there on his back with legs and arms outstretched, it looked ridiculous. Lorraine was... Lorraine. There was one bit I liked more than usual, I think it was during The Bargain/Waltz of Treachery. But I really can't stand how she acts in the Wedding. Ensemble was great. There has been a lot of praise for Simon Shorten as JVJ, obviously and rightfully, but OH HIS BABET! No one could be a better Babet, he's so... badass. Love it. And oh, so happy to have Mark back, I have to say it again. Stagedooring was a lot of fun. There was a girl called Cosette which, by the looks of it, made David's week ("Nancy, that girl's called Cosette!", "MARTIN, MARTIN, BEFORE I GO, THIS GIRL'S CALLED COSETTE!") and... mince pies. Lots of mince pies, resulting in ... very, very muffled speaking. xD And a bit of talking and gushing and fangirling and saying thanks and all that. It was lovely. riverdawn got to tell David she read the book because of him which made his week. Well, it would have, if there hadn't been a girl called Cosette at the stage door. We also got to tell Antony, the poor guy, that we would leave our phones on tomorrow night and call each other just to spite him. He thought we were joking. 
Oh and LOL, Killian told us the ITV thing had been "Lovely. We were standing around for a bit." |
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| riverdawn |
Wow, the show tonight was so totally freaking crazy!
It was lots and lots of fun! There was blooper after blooper in the most hilarious ways: -Simon Bowman missed two lines in the Waltz of Treachery, then lost his voice in the the Valjean death scene -Antony Hansen (who was an excellent Marius as always) entered "look down" early, leaving DT to stand there for two bars in order to get them back on the music -In DYHTPS DT didn't catch the flag, which resulted in much mayhem. -Poor Antony sang a really beautiful ECAET, only to be interrupted, just before the final line, by a phone ringing. and ringing. and ringing. He stood there for a moment, waiting to see if the ringing would stop, before finishing the song over the cellphone. Those are the ones I remember. There may have been more, for which you will no doubt get updates from the lovely girls who were there with me (and who managed to get me to the stage door). Overall, however, it was a good show. Possibly not the best ever, but very very good. Antony Hansan was excellent as Marius, as I said. There was an epic Robyns-style fight over the "don't go out there to get bullets", and there was also a lovely moment with "Her name was Eponine". He sang it in a "Listen, she's actually got a name you know, she's called Eponine" sort of way. It was awesome! Simon Bowman was his usual over the top self, but oh well. HPJ was ok, but was slightly fast for the music in several places. The blocking in Red/Black was just stunning. I was sitting in the front and center of the stall, and DT grabbed a chair, sat down, and sang "it is time for us all to decide who we are...." into the audience, eyes facing the future - which also meant right *at* my direction, which was just so powerful and wonderful and great! And there were some lovely Enjolras/Courfeyrac moments and E/R moments. And.... lots of other things were good, but I have no idea now cause my brain is slightly addled from the whole experience, especially the stage dooring part, so I'll let others report.
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| Fantine |
Haha, double post... Sort of
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| Eppie-Sue |
Okay, so, last night.
It was an ... okay show. Nothing overly sensational. Oh, but GAVIN WAS BACK! I've missed him so much. Um, Killian covered Antony's track and was very much part of the Core Four in the student scenes (Enjolras, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Feuilly), which was just wonderful. Katy was on for Daniella again (and was AWESOME in Fantine's Arrest, struggling like mad against Antony!policeman and David!policeman, really! Hilarious.), and Brenda was in Natalie's track. I wish she would remember to snap the scissors shut after the "10 Francs might save my poor Cosette" in Lovely Ladies, because I fangirl that moment for some reason. But no criticism. Great swings. Oh, and Greg did the warnings.
So, uh, Bowman. See, I'm really all for changing the blocking. Not big bits, just ... movements, the stressing of certain words and lines, standing differently, etc. If you KNOW the character. I have no idea who Bowman thinks Valjean is, but what I see there on stage is the... anti-Valjean. It's not just that he overacts and all that, no, it's mainly how patronising and narcissistic his Valjean is. Not one moment of humbleness or insecurity. He literally goes "I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG. NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO JUDGE ME." - and no, that's not it. He is a criminal, by law, and he knows that. I don't recall Valjean ever not accepting that what he did was, technically, wrong. As desperate as the situation was. Also, wtf is up with the open shirt in Come to me!? and with half-kissing Fantine's neck after she has died? I do enjoy a good moment of WTF every now and then, in a very masochistic way xD, but constantly?! No. HPJ... he seemed stronger than on Monday, which was good, but honestly, he kind of... milks two, three notes in "Stars" and the "Suicide", and that's it. The rest is mediocre, his voice doesn't carry what he's singing... If I don't pay attention to him, it's alright, he doesn't actually irritate me, but I really don't see why they would cast him (and Bowman), as Les Mis veterans, when they had wonderful, amazing understudies right there. It's not like they HAD to go and find new OLD ones. I really, really liked Rebecca. As much as I love Natalie and liked Sophie, I haven't heard many "you let your foreman SEEEEEEND MEEEE AWAAAAY"s as strong and soaring as Rebecca's. She has improved a lot, I think. I actually liked her IDAD last night, bless her, she's being spat at by Antony as a factory worker every night. But they really could have gone for a lighter, prettier gown in the Epilogue... or is that just me? It's so heavy! Antony was good! He wasn't quite as strong as on Monday, I thought, but at least he got all his entrances right and there was no phone ringing in ECAET. He also went completely crazy in The Fight and looked like he would just murder Davidjolras in order to get those f'ing bullets. Bless him.
I just love AHFOL now, with Alistair, too. "In my life" doesn't do much for me (but Antony is very adorable when he just dances around), but AHFOL is wonderful. Oh AND - favourite part of Antony's entire performance... The Robbery. His interaction with Thomasparnasse is pure brilliance. Watch him. Hilarious and so well done. The way Antony!Marius punches Thomasparnasse and is all macho and then shrinks back at Thomasparnasse totally losing it and holding the knife against his chest and aaaah! Love it. Emily didn't seem too well, quite strained and hoarse at points. I wasn't expecting her to hit that last note in AHFOL Reprise, but she nailed it, again. But yeah, not her best performance, although I do like her acting. It's less static now. She's still a bit too much of a modern Cosette for my taste and I miss Katie a lot, but she and Antony worked wonderfully together. It's mostly down to personal taste, I suppose. Nancy was okay. She, too, seemed to struggle a bit at some points, but nothing too bad. I still love Rue Plumet Attack and I still can't stand - with any Eponine - the "Every word that he says is a dagger in me!" moment, because it's an awful line. ALFOR was heartbreaking. I would lose it, if I was in-character, totally into the scene and on stage. And I'm already dreading this moment at cast change in June. Six months, I know. I know. Oh, and she's so small! It's so obvious in the Rue Plumet Attack, which makes it even more impressive. And there was a funny gasp following by an even funnier growl when Bowman!Valjean grabbed her in the Letter scene... David! Oh, this is getting repetitive. Um, he was amazing and I'm, again, so grateful to have him on stage. I don't know what the show would feel like with a weaker Enjolras. I don't want to imagine it, to be honest. He saves a lot. (He caught the flag .) At least for "It is time for us all..." part, we got the same blocking as on Monday, what with sitting down and staring into... space. Which is lovely. If he has to repeat anything of his performance, then please this. Oh, and also, he changed "Lamarque is dead". Listen, this is the new version... the "On his funeral name they will honour his name!" is really quiet which makes it all the more manic. See, I'm not against actors losing it every now and then, but it has to follow a certain direction, it still has to be controlled. If it's epic, that's even better.
Also, there was an incredible amount of heartbreaking interaction with Grantaire before he climbed up the barricade and waved the flag. (does this sound like a giant innuendo or what!? Heavens.) Killed me. I might have teared up there. Oh, and as for the blinking in ECAET... yes. it's not even blinking, his eyes look more closed than open. I really think it's because of the blood; it has to be. It looks how my eyes react when I get shampoo or soap in them. so the line of students, eventually, looks like this: o.o o.o o.o o.o o.o -.- o.o o.o o.o o.o o.o o.o Martin Ball and Lorraine Bruce, as well as they work together (thankfully), are just on complete opposites when it comes to how I enjoy their performance. See, if an actor doesn't want to change his or her blocking a bit every time to keep it fresh (like most principals. Basically... all but two. And one can do it (David) and one can't (Bowman).) that's all right, as long as it feel fresh. like with Martin Ball! He does an amazing job every night, wonderful timing, it doesn't feel old, nothing of the sort. Lorraine, I really can't enjoy her performance. Yes, she's scary with little Cosette, but that's all I can say without whining again. So I'll just stop there. The ensemble was great. Loved the core four, obviously *Les Amis fangirl*, Simon Shorten walks around like he owns the place as Babet <3, Dylan Williams has taken up headbanging with his hair ALL OVER THE PLACE in The Wedding as they dance off and it's the funniest thing you'll ever see, GAVIN WAS BACK! SO MUCH JOY! So camp and wonderful!, um, Katy Hanna's got a beaaautifuuul voice, Joe Evans is even hilarious in The Trial and Look Down, Antony was just slightly out of synch with the other convicts (speaking of which, David is the hardest working convict and doesn't deserve the evil stares Killian!guard gives him! Pfffh), Jeff kills me at the end of MotH, Markfeyrac is absolutely wonderful and can't ever leave. Ever. |
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| kemathenga |
Excuse me, Eppie-Sue, do you actually live at Queen's? We're green with envie. Following your postings is the best preparation for our London trip we can get.
But DO tell me more about the scene with Enjolras and Grantaire at the Barricade, pur-lease. 
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| Eppie-Sue |
I'm a 25 minutes walk from the Queen's. And it's directly on my way home from uni. It's... tempting, so say the least. I feel very spoiled and am grateful, really. It's... it's nice. And there are lovely people who go with me and go just as often *cough*, they just don't review as often... *cough* But I do. because I'm nice and public spirited. Indeed.
And I'm sorry, but I won't describe - can't describe - the moment David, as Enjolras, leaves Martin (or whoever else is on) as Grantaire in the Final Battle. It's just a few seconds and it's subtle and nobody really pays attention, but it's just... the whole moment. You'll see, hopefully. |
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
Yes, she does! And it's what keeps me going But I'm seeing it again on Saturday - I just had to come see Antony!!!!
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| Eponines_Hat |
oh... 
I so wanted to go again last night, but couldn't. Sounds like another top show - and I have become obsessed with seeing that blocking again.... .... instead I settled for bugging a poor guy from work who went last night. (I had to explain what blocking was first and then to try to explain why it was so important.... I think I looked like a complete saddo) Anyway, what was really interesting was that he **really** didn't like Bowman's JVJ at all and or HPJ very much either (and commented on the accent too. This doesn't bother me much - more the way he seems to miss the low notes - like in The Confrontation.) It was interesting to hear the opinion of a non-Mizzy who has only seen the show a couple of times before. Sometimes I wonder if we get a bit too hung-up on certain actors playing a role the way we like - I am glad it's not just me being picky about a show I love! |
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| kemathenga |
@ Eppie-Sue: aaah, to be a student again for one day more ...
But what I am doing now is, in fact, much more like living on a Barricade so I'm having my moments, too. Speaking of moments - I'm good at catching those and you feed my curiosity. You know that scene in TAC in DWM? It took me some re-viewings to notice that when Michael/Enjolras is putting his hand on Anthony's/Grantaires shoulder he shakes him ever so softly. It's just when the picture fades and I probably wouldn't have noticed if my daughter hadn't taught me to go through some scenes frame by frame. But as it is it adds to the scene hard to describe - to normal people at least. can't wait to go to London. My daughter just said as far as she is concerned Christmas could be skipped this year.
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| riverdawn |
Matinee today was SPECTACULAR!
I was poorly last night, so didn't get any sleep, which I thought was a perfect excuse to get a student ticket for the matinee. I was in L18, which was further away than I'd been the last few times, and I have to say something for that, actually. There's lots of fun to be had in the BB seats etc., because you can catch all kinds of tiny details and adlibs. However, I don't know if it was just an extra good show and audience or if it was the seat - I actually got *more* carried away and more impressed when I was sitting further away. I left with a total "high" feeling, it was really really nice. The audience really appreciated bits, laughed in the right places etc. (And, promptly upon leaving, went to see "Inherit the Wind" at the Old Vic, which I highly recommend for those of you who like the non-musical drama as well). So, on to the review: Bowman - I liked him better today. His singing was superb. Also, I have to say that I really like his interaction with Cosette - little Cosette and transferring that to grown Cosette. He has a very fatherly attitude with her. I can really buy him as someone who loves the child. But, of course, the over the top gesturing was just awful. I really wish someone would take a picture of him during "If I die, let me die" , with the hands, and showed it to him. I'm pretty sure if he SAW that he looked like a demented lemur at that moment, he would stop doing that. HPJ - Ok, I'm gonna make a stance for him. I actually very very much enjoyed his performance today. The singing was excellent (unlike monday). I saw a lot of character in his facial expressions. He's quite growing on me as Javert. Nancy was excellent today. On My Own was absolutely the best I'd ever heard it. So so good! Antony was OUTSTANDING! Definitely my Marius of choice. His interactions with Montparnasse are very good, as Eppie mentioned, and he had a pretty epic fight with David in the bullet scene. He also still did the "her name was Eponine" in the slightly pissed off way which I loved. But most importantly, his ECAET was heartbreaking. I was almost in tears. It was so so amazingly beautiful. I was rushing off, or I would have gone to the stage door just to try and tell him how amazingly beautiful it was. Really, just WOW. Emily was lovely. Actually, I think I'm finally beginning to "get" Cosette because of her performance. I really like her characterization of her and her singing is beautiful. The Thenardiers were on fire tonight. I can't pinpoint what it was, but it was somehow so much funnier than any other time I'd seen them, and the audience absolutely responded to it. Finally, David. Well, I mean, obviously, just spectacular! "the barricades ARISE!" just seemed to go on forever. He still did the blocking with the chair which was beautiful. He also did the annoyed "Marius, you're late" which I like. There were many many other great things but in particular there were just massive amounts of Enjolras-Courfeyrac and Enjolras-Grantaire going on (I leave it to your discretion whether to put the slashes in there or not ). In fact, in DWM, he first went up to Courfeyrac, talked, shook hands, big long hug, then he went down and did the whole talking and hugging thing with Grantaire, then went back up and Enjy and Courfeyrac sort of walked towards each other and basically... held hands through the flag. I mean, they literally both grabbed each other's hands with the flag in the middle, and flung the flag into the air.
Basically, I'm pretty sure if this were a fanfiction story, Courfeyrac and Grantaire would be at each others throats with jealousy because Enjy was playing them both.
Also, the Gavroche was once again the one I like (the dark haired one), and little Cosette was perfectly reasonable. So, all in all, it was an amazing matinee! Which is good, because as I'm leaving London next week, this was probably my last time (at least for a few months, and possibly at all with this cast). |
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| riverdawn |
Sorry for the double post. Forgot to report a tiny bit of "bad" news:
People were working on the scaffolding today when I went into the theatre. By the time I went out, the scaffolding was gone, but Old!Enjolras was still up there, so apparently the intention was not to replace the signage. |
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| kemathenga |
Riverdawn and Eppie-Sue, thanks a lot for making the London performance come alive to us poor foreigners barred from Paradise for three more weeks (no more? Ah,. but there's christmas and new year between, that makes it feel a lot more).
As far slashes - well, there's one thing I'll be forever thankful for: that Victor Hugo wrote his novel before Sigmund Freud was allowed to ruin most of our ideals. I'll leave it. Slashes, I mean. I've written some 1000 pages of fanfic (not Les Mis!) and always did very well without slash. There is so much more to love than the usual suspects.
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| riverdawn |
Yes, because of course homosexuality didn't exist and was not widely recognized and even written about before Sigmund Freud. Wow. I'm sort of stunned by that comment.
(and I'm not going to say anything more about it, even though I have a great deal to say, in order to avoid a total hijacking of this thread). |
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| Lauraa |
Ok, this probably isn�t the right place to post this but seeing as this thread is always going off topic
I�m taking my friend to see Les Mis and she has literally never heard of anything about the show before. I really want her to enjoy it and understand what is going on so do you think that I should maybe give her a synopsis to read before? Cos I know some people who have been, didn�t know the story and they didn�t enjoy it that much cos they got really confused. Please help! |
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| MlleTholomy�s |
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "ruin". | ||||||
| Eppie-Sue |
How about you give her a synopsis of the first act? Then you can make sure she knows that the Mayor is really Valjean, that Cosette is Fantine's daughter and that General Lamarque is not an actual character in the musical, and you still don't spoil the entire plot for her! : ) At least that's what I'd do. |
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| Lauraa |
Good idea! Thanks
I think the second act is pretty easy to follow- it�s the stuff in the first act which seems to confuse people. Like the fact that prisoner!Valjean and Mayor!Valjean are the same person. And who Cosette is. |
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| riverdawn |
Laura -
I think I've seen somewhere that it is recommended to read a brief synopsis of the show before seeing it (there's one on the Les Mis website). That being said, I think overall the plot can be pretty well understood even without reading the synopsis, and it might be more fun that way. I've taken a few people for the first time and they didn't have too much trouble, though I've noticed a couple of tricky moments. The first one is that sometimes people take some time to figure out that the Valjean we see in the beginning is the respectable factory owner in Montreuil-sur-mer. Especially because the convict-Valjean wig and the wig of the Foreman are sufficiently similar to be a little confusing for first time watchers. So you might want to mention something about that. (There also appears to be quite a common misconception that two different actors play young Valjean and older Valjean. Not sure why that is). I did have one particularly clueless friend who, at the interval, said something like "So, I understand that someone died and they are now all very happy. What exactly is going on?" And I sort of had to explain that no, that was not Enjolras and the Gang throwing a party, but rather them going off to start a revolution. So you, might, you know, mention the fact that there is a revolution of sorts involved. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
I dunno, I think Hugo did pretty well at suggesting gay subtext even before Freud... |
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| Eppie-Sue |
WHOOO LOOK AT THIS
Video! Tiny little shadowy frenchboys jumping around! Darkness! xD |
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| riverdawn |
That's kind of.... odd...
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| kemathenga |
I'd rather say it's kind of ... dark. Leaves me completely in that, at least. But what a voice? Is that David Thaxton as Enjolras?
As for subtextes - well, they're a problem since we rarely can ask the authors of textes from so long ago as the 19th century A.C. or the 5th B.C. and the temptation to underlay textes with subtextes of our own making is so very strong. When I was at university we called that "hiding an easter egg". People were always triumphantly finding new meanings in old textes they very badly wanted to find there. It often makes me laugh to learn that now, almost 20 years after my graduation what we learned as undisputable truth has been "proven" to never have taken place. Of course there were gay people before Freud and such subtextes may be there and waiting to be found. On the other hand the concepts of love and friendship vary from time-period to time-period and we not always notice and even less understand the original concepts. My contemporaries are very fond of thinking David and Jonathan in the Bible a gay couple because David says in his lament over Jonathan's death that he preferred his love to that of a woman. This MAY mean they were gay but it may also mean he preferred friendship to sexual relationship. Such a thing does exist. I remember another forum a german one on Lord of the Rings, where people seriously debated whether the actors in the Jackson-movie were all gay because they hugged and kissed at the release-party. I suggested a look at the average german soccer-player celebrating a goal. There's a lot of body-contact, too, with not a lot of gaiety around. But this is not supposed to be a thread about H(ugo)&H(omosexuality), excuse me for going OT. How is the cast doing tonight?
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| riverdawn |
The incredible Enjolras in that recording is, indeed, David Thaxton.
And the thought "what a voice" is definitely one that will go through your head constantly when you hear him perform, I promise.
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| Eppie-Sue |
back from the Queen's. I partly went because there was BB22 left 45 minutes before the show, and really, you can't leave BB empty. And mostly I went to "celebrate" my half-anniversary, seeing as I saw Les Mis in London for the first time on the 10th June. Aww, with the old cast. It was also the first time I stagedoored. Good times.
Anyway. Um, I can't be bothered to properly review much, actually. I'm totally knackered. Rachel Bingham was on as Mme Th�nardier, Antony as Marius. Joe Evans was off, so we got Killian!Prouvaire and Greg covered Antony's track. Also, as Chloe was off, Katy was in her and in Rachel's track, and Brenda covered for the still absent Daniella. I'm just going to note the things that really stood out for me tonight. Strongest principals were, easily, David, who was on fire and loud, and Nancy, whose OMO was simply wonderful. I really don't enjoy the song that much in general, but she was amazing. And David was just... I don't even know anymore. I'm so grateful. "Lamarque is dead" was mesmerising and mental. And there was flag-whipping way into the wings. And all that. The moment he went "REEED!" for the first time was epic. And he did a funny, very quick "Marius - rest!" It sounded like "MariusREST!" There were at least two people shouting "FREEDOOOOM!" after "The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France!". Bless them. I love Thomasparnasse. I've stopped whining about missing John Jo a long time ago, but I never actually pointed out how much I loved Thomas just lurking in the shadows and being generally dangerous. He even moves like a spidercat now. And I talked to him at the stage door - lovely guy. absolutely lovely - and he really cares a lot about the character. (And he's friends with John Jo.) Antony did the most random thing today. At "Eponine, you're the friend who has brought me here, thanks to you...", he got so excited, he grabbed Nancy, lifted her up in the air and swirled her around. I don't think anyone was expecting that, least of all Nancy who couldn't quite bite back a very surprised giggle. Oh, Antony xD. The Fight was brilliant. Antonymarius is SCARY. Speaking of scary, Rachel Bingham wasn't as frightening as Lorraine, really. But OH SHE CAN SING SO WELL. Loved the whole "Eponine, come my dear, Eponine let me see!" bit. Noticed kneepads for Valjean, Fantine and M Th�nardier. I'm not sure about Marius and Javert. Am very sure Eponine and Enjolras don't have them, Eponine at least not when wearing a skirt... Nancy is the funniest, crankiest whore, really. She's all: "Ugh, what's all this drama about the skank without hair? stfu." Gavin owns MotH by just going "Laaandlord." Oh, and something happened in the Epilogue. Bowman was just putting the candles on the table when something ... tumbled down or fell down behind the curtain dividing the front half of the stage from the back. It sounded like half the barricade broke down. Very loud THUD. ETA: The audience was wonderful at Curtain Call, I thought. They cheered and WHOOPed for everyone! They should. It's getting ridiculous when no one really cheers for Patron Minette, the girls and Les Amis... and then David and "Gavroche" come and bring down the house. I'm not even kidding. |
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| kemathenga |
Aaah, Eppie-Sue, we will feel almost at home when we actually get there . We'll be in upper B, btw, will there be need to bring a spy-glass?
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| riverdawn |
Actually, now that you mention it, Antony did the Eponine-Swirly thing on Wednesday's matinee as well. I'd forgotten all about it, but I now remember noticing it.
So Nancy must not have been too surprised, as it had happened before. She was probably giggling in character (there was also a giggle on Wed.) Sounds like you had a lovely night. Happy anniversary! Was David still doing the intense front of stage chair blocking in Red/Black? I just can't believe how effective that one is. On Wed. he did the "it is time for us all..." in a very subtle and subdued way that got everyone's attention, and then he just went into the most beautiful and epic REEED! The contrast was just staggering. I'm pretty sure if he had actually gotten up and asked the audience to join him on the barricade at that moment, half of us would have been there.
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| Eppie-Sue |
I think someone has noticed that, too. Because yes, yes, he did. I really wanted him to, but I wasn't quite sure because - the same blocking four days in a row? Unheard of... But it was in there. I think once Alistair is back it might change again, because I've never actually seen him sit down next to Antony!Marius and "talk sense" into him at the "Marius, you're no longer a child" bit (with the "STRIVE!") - and he obviously doesn't sit down there if he has already been sitting at "It is time for us all..." So, in order to have the "STRIVE"-moment, what with sitting down next to Alistair!Marius, there can't be a "It is time for us all" sitting down. Did this make sense?! Gosh, I'm tired. And yes, I completely agree about the contrast between the high, soft, quiet "It is time for us all" and the "Reeeed! The blood of angry men!" etc. That's what I was talking about. It's pretty stunning. Hah, you bet the audience would join. Oh, I'm not really sure what to make of Antony!Marius swirling Eponine around... he's very much like Jon's Marius, in some ways, isn't he!? |
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| riverdawn |
Hey, I just made an interesting discovery.
It turns out it is, in fact, perfectly possible to order BB seats online, but only through the official Delfont-Mackintosh website! They cost a bit more because there is a 1.75 pound booking fee per ticket (so 21.75 instead of 20), but they are perfectly order-able. Just thought I'd put that on the record. |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Really?! I'm too dumb to find it on that website, but if that's true... Noooo. No. ARGH. Oh that's just GRAND ISN'T IT? Now everyone's going to find and book them and we'll never get anything one hour before the performance. Bloody hell. It was perfectly fine the way it was, with them only being available at the box office.
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| riverdawn |
Actually, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You have to know what you are looking for on the website to figure out that it's those seats and not some awful horrible seats.
I won't explain how I found them so as not to inform the masses.
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
Well, I just found them, and then they disappeared - so maybe someone booked them. Thing is, I'm worried people will want to book them as being the cheapest option in the list. Maybe their being restricted will put people off?
EDIT: Now I can't find them anywhere ... strange. Maybe it was just a temporary error? 
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| riverdawn |
Hmmm.... Yes, inputting random dates in the future doesn't seem to give any access to those tickets. However, I doubt it was en error because somehow those tickets had to be put into the system. They had an official designation and everything (Just checked again that I didn't just imagine the thing in a moment of confusion. Yep, Order confirmation is in my inbox. ).
I think it's more likely it was a matter of timing. I was getting tickets for tonight (Not even my idea this time! My roommate wanted to see it again. Honest!  ), and I got them late last night .
So maybe they only put those tickets online if they haven't sold them by X hours before a show or something. |
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
This is very strange ... I've just booked BB20 online for Thursday evening. Yesterday I looked and it was there, then I went back about 5 mins later and it was gone ... so I assumed someone had beaten me to it. But now it's back, and I've just bought it...
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| Elbow |
I totally didn't just post this in the wrong thread. Nope. I would never do such a silly thing.
Slightly mad show toinght! Joe, Alistair and Jeff were off which left Killian covering 3 roles! He really lived up to his "super swing" name tonight. He sang "I've done no wrong sweet Jesus hear my prayer" and "I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true" which was really odd and made me laugh for a bit too long. Also with Daniella, Chloe and Lorriane off, Brenda and Katy had a lot to do too. Killian was hilarious in the ABC scenes, because while he was on as Feuilly he also seemed to be channeling Joe Evans and did lots of clapping at Martin Oh and MARTIN, I really enjoyed him in The Final Battle today, he really went for it.
Antony excelled himself. His Empty Chairs was fantastic and him and Emily work so well together. Emily was wonderful (as usual). Bowman was still Bowman. Janssens was still Janssens. Jonathan Williams was hilarious in the Wedding scene. When Emily threw the bouquet he leapt out from nowhere to get it and jumped around for a bit (he was actually on dancing today, as opposed to wandering around at the back being drunk, due to there being 2 men down) Oh and we have worked out that Janssens looks like a mixture between Alan Sugar and a Lego man. And that is my very intellectual review done. My friend came with me to see it tonight, and she hasn't seen it since Carpenter and Shannon left, so she will be writing up what she thought about it in a bit
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| riverdawn |
Lovely show tonight. Definitely my last for a long long time as I'm going back home.
Not much to add over Elbow's review, Caught up with Antony at the stage door to tell him how lovely ECAET was, because he was truly spectacular. He was, of course, very sweet and gracious. On My Own was also lovely. David was incredible as always. ARIIISE just gets more amazing with each passing day. Still with the chair in Red/Black, without a map today, and also while Marius gushed about love, he just sort of stood there, listening, with a "oh, really, Marius" look on his face. He did pretty weird blocking in DWM, though. At least, I've never seen it before. He talked with Courfeyrac for a moment, then he went down early and had a little natter with Gavroche, then stopped to give a few handshakes to Feuilly and whoever else was hanging around, refusing all offers of wine (of which there were several), and then walked up to the women in the tavern, asked for some water, got a bowl of water, drank it, returned it, said thank you and then went to Grantaire to talk to him and hug him. Very strange, though cute. Has anyone seen this blocking before? I half suspected it went something like "Ok, I'll go talk to Courfeyrac, oh wait, I need to be getting down there now. Ah, oops, I went down a little early. What do I do now? Well, I guess I'll talk to some people and then...ermm... drink some water... and... oh, good, there's Grantaire." But maybe it was an actual conscious blocking decision. At any rate, lovely lovely night. |
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| HobNob |
Well, yes, like Elbow said, first time since Carpenter and Shannon left. ARGH! D= It was rude to laugh when Janssens accent first hit me, but philistine that I am, I did. Clearly. Once over that triviality, I still can't say that I was all that impressed with him. It isn't as though he's a weak voice or anything like that, but I just didn't like his Javert. His face seemed practically immobile, and he just didn't move me as either Earl or Woody had done.
As for Bowman... Uhoh. I don't like the whispered lines, the breaking of the fourth wall time and time again [with the bishop 'I thanked him... *turns to audience*... like I should'], the 'flight' was awful, the '24601' revalation in the courtroom ends without the high note on the 1 - just so many 'small' things which when strung together make for one vastly inferior JVJ. Bring Him Home was probably my favourite of his numbers, but as Elbow is babbling into my ear, you can't really go too far wrong with it [though he still succeeded with his hand movements. I don't think this poor man can win]. But on the bright side, I thoroughly enjoyed Hansen as Marius. His Empty Chairs at Empty Tables was fabulous, and I thought that the chemistry between him and Cosette was great. First time of seeing Emily Bull in that role, and I much prefer her to Leanne. I think I only saw Katie Hall the once, but again I enjoyed Emily more. She got a laugh for chasing Marius in the garden and then turning away, which I haven't heard before, and she was overall just more likeable and had more of a personality than either of the other two. Like Elbow said, Killian was everywhere covering all of the various missing bits. It was strange to have the gap at the front left of the chain-gang. I was glad that Rachel Bingham was on instead of Lorraine Bruce, as I didn't like Bruce's Mme Thernardier after Jackie Marks at all. Small mercies and all that jazz. And of course Master of the House is always a highlight, whoever's vomiting/being vomited upon/etc. Yes, I still miss John Jo. A lot. Woe. Though Camilleri has either improved or grown on me. One of the two. The Montparnasse/Marius exchange during the robbery was hilarious. Marius dancing around with his hands saying 'do you want some of this', until Montparnasse produces his knife, at which point Marius' hands fly up into the air in a surrender. Very funny. Crying woman. Well, she's still crying, isn't she. So no change there. Do not like it. Et voila. NB. this was written at literal knife-point. I do have better things to be doing with my evening. Not that you'd believe it. (Elbow says I don't. So... I don't). |
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| Madeleine |
Yes, it was a brilliant show tonight. I always love it when they're down a lot of people and they're all covering for each other at random points.
Killian and Dylan both win at life. Killian for yelling "YOU'RE AN ANIMAL!" at David during all the noise at the end of 'Lamarque is Dead', and Dylan for his head banging as he danced off stage at the end of the wedding, which made his wig stand on end, and was totally hilarious.
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| Elbow |
Oh that's what he said, from the slips we heard "ANIMAL!" and we were confused and laughed for quite some time
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| riverdawn |
Ah, yes, I was also confused about the ANIMAL part. Thanks for clarifying that.
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| Eppie-Sue |
haha, ILU Killian. Speaking of whom... considering Alistair and Joe are off - what if, say, Antony lost his voice?! Or got stuck in traffic, for, I dunno, three hours!? WOULD WE ACTUALLY GET KILLIAN!MARIUS? And seeing as Jeff is or was off, the possibility of Killian!Javert is suddenly not that unlikely. That said - what would happen if Antony and HPJ suddenly BOTH got sick?! With no understudy left for Marius - swings being off as well, anyway - and Killian technically having to go as Javert?! Who would they send on as Marius? Would there, hypothetically, be one they could send on? Mark? David? Or would the show be cancelled? *sudden urge to kidnap Antony and/or HPJ just for one small show* |
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| flying_pigs |
I would think one of the other swings would go on as Marius, although I can't imagine Greg or Mark in that role!
I always thought Dylan would be a cute Marius! |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Yeah, but both Greg and Mark Hedges were off yesterday!
I just love to imagine this scenario! I can actually see Mark (Dudgale) as Marius! And, to make it even crazier, just imagine Markjolras telling Davidmarius off "Marius, you're no longer a child!" xDD It would be the funniest thing I've ever seen.
ETA: They would probably call Alistair back from his holiday - if he's not ACTUALLY on holiday, as in, in another country. |
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| riverdawn |
I don't think I can even imagine that particular scenario, Eppie-Sue.
David on as Marius would just be so.... world gone mad!
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| kemathenga |
The more I read your postings the more I realize we haven't seen ANYTHING with only having access to the TAC-dvd, so far. We're trying to go to Paris in June now, too.
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| Orestes Fasting |
There has been at least one instance of a show where so many cast members were out that they had nobody to cover a role. What they did was make frantic phone calls to people who'd been in the show before to find somebody who knew the part. I don't know the exact understudy lineup from 2003, but they ended up with Helen French--who normally played Cosette but was 2nd u/s Fantine--going on as Fantine and Sarah Lane as the emergency stand-in for Cosette. So don't kidnap Antony, you could end up with Jon Lee as Marius. |
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| KatyRoseLand |
I loved Jon Lee as Marius. |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Aww, maybe they'd get Metthew Gent who was first understudy last year... he's only a few minutes down the road at Phantom. I'd love to see him! : ) FYI, I resisted the urge and didn't kidnap Antony. But I went past the Queen's before the matinee just in case and it was the same understudy list as yesterday. ah well. |
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| riverdawn |
I'm pretty sure if you got them at the right moment and asked really nicely, Mark would agree to go "Marius, you're no longer a child!" at David even without anyone getting kidnapped.
(And before anyone gets upset, yes, I am joking). |
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| kemathenga |
Whew, I'm relieved. For a moment I really thought they might cancel a show.
BTW, my daughter is warming up to DT, we've been watching some youtube vids and, well, he's not Michael Maguire but ...but ... I quite like him already. 2nd BTW, is there a big difference between the Matinee and the later show? |
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| riverdawn |
There is no difference between the matinee and the evening show.
I mean, there may be a difference between a *particular* matinee and a *particular* evening show just because all shows are slightly different (or we wouldn't bother reviewing them all the time), but in terms of what they set out to do, the shows are identical. On matinee days, the actors may be a little more tired in the evening show (as they've already done a show that afternoon), but I've not noticed any significant differences even when seeing evening shows on matinee days. And, having heard a bit of Maguire, I personally think Thaxton out-sings him by a considerable margin, but that could just be me.
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| Eppie-Sue |
... and there is not one day I'm not thankful for that.
Definitely not a big difference! Really, no. I have seen matinees that seemed stronger than the evening show, some save their strength a bit for the evening... with others (David) you really don't notice a difference at all, even if you have the comparison. But no show should disappoint you anyway. |
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| kemathenga |
Aah, that's good to hear, since we have tickets for the Matinee on January 2nd.
As for the out-singing I guess it's hard to compare them since the TAC is in some aspects more of a concert than a play. We do listen with a sharp ear, my DD and I, though, since we both sing in a semi-professional choir. I can only speak for myself on THIS account (Franziska, move over and reply yourself!) but I have to repeat what I wrote up there: What a voice! (meaning DT). |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Ah, especially the Saturday matinee should be all right! The strongest shows I have seen have been Thursday evenings, I think, for some reason, but that really doesn't have to say anything. There is no rule. Especially if you don't have anything to compare them to.
And to provide you with a bit of help regarding YouTube clips... First post in the fangirling thread.
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| Lauraa |
Well, I went to the evening performance yesterday and I really have nothing to say that hasn�t already been said on here but I FINALLY understand what everyone is saying about Simon Bowman! I actually couldn�t watch him � he was over acting so much and does anyone else think that he comes across as a bit smug? He was sweet with the little Cosette but apart from that, I just watched other people when he was on stage... it just made the show so much more enjoyable. My friend absolutely loved him though 
Oh and Antony was on as Marius and he was AMAZING!! His ECAET was the best version of that song that I had ever heard! |
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| Lauraa |
EDIT: wrong topic
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| Eponines_Hat |
YES to the Bowman comments! and not just smug but kinda pervy too. Especially that thing he does when he rubs his nose against Fantine's neck. I swear he actually kissed her neck on Monday too. EW. It is just so creepy. It really bugs me that he is so awful. Glad you liked Antony, too. I think Alastair is lovely, but I do love Antony in that role. I think I like the way he reminds me of Jon Robyns (as so many people have mentioned)- especially the way he and Nancy play ALFOR which feels a lot more like it did with the 08/09 cast... And the Fight is so fierce! Good to see he has eased off on the eye-liner, too
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| Eppie-Sue |
ummm...
I actually think I've called him smug/cocky/arrogant/snarky/patronising in every single one of my reviews... heh And yes. Antony is much more like Jon, and you can see it in his interaction with Nancy... and in a few moments with David, too. Obviously. |
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| Lauraa |
Yep, he did that too - I couldn't really see but it looked like he was kissing her neck... Oh and I forgot to say that David almost jumped off the stage - he landed SO CLOSE to the edge
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| Eppie-Sue |
Oh bloody hell. Yes. I knew I wasn't just imagining it. WTF!? WHY? OH WHY? Jonathan! Right... there! D:
I swear, one of these days... |
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| Eponines_Hat |
Yep... right into the orchestra pit! I bet he would jump straight out again and get on with the show and everything - consummate professional that he is!
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| riverdawn |
Yeah, I bet it must be pretty scary to be the conductor at that particular moment.
(By the way, I noticed on Friday that the conductor actually mouthed the words to all the songs as the actors were singing them, occasionally with facial expressions and all. It was kind of cute. )
Anyway, if I were the orchestra I would totally worry about David falling on my head at one point.
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| riverdawn |
Oh, and re: Bowman, I like him more than most people here, I think.
However I do think that the most irritating thing in his performance for me (other than the crazy hands in BHH, which are truly truly awful) is the over-enunciation of words. "One word from him and I'd be bacKKKK, beneath the lash upon the racKKKKK" "He told me that I have a souLLLLLLLLLE" What is up with that? I know that when you learn singing you are told to make the words understandable to the audience, but this is taking it about 5 steps too far! |
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| kemathenga |
@Eppie-Sue, thank you ever so much for the help with youtube vids. Well, the night is long and we can sleep after the battle . We found one of them already (Night of Anguish) and are referring to it only by THE VID (we is always my daughter and me, not pluralis majestatis ), it covers our mobiles and our spare time.
And we're definitely warming towards DT. He's a lot less ... well, antiseptic than Michael Maguire. |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Okay, so, I'm sure I'm not the only one that saw the advertisement right there at the top... and I just clicked on the link and...
HAHAHA. this is like the ITV thing all over again. Only that there is no Jeffert. I died a little. But yay! xD Shannon is there, too. And, um... |
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
It's posted my thing three times, sorry! | ||||||
| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
Sorry about these repeated posts, it won't let me delete them
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
I don't understand the whole 'you can dream the dream' thing. I mean, have the marketing people actually seen the show??! I mean, I get that it's the Susan Boyle/IDAD reference, but what dream are you meant to be dreaming exactly??? That dream you've always had to die at a barricade, lose your pride and become a prostitute, suffer from massively unrequited love, be chased by an obsessed policeman? (And what's with all the stars???)
I wish I could!
I saw both shows on Saturday, btw, but haven't really had a chance to review them til now, when I've forgotten a load. This is a few things I can remember though: The matinee was good, but the evening show was phenomenal. Seriously, they were all so into it and emotional, I was half expecting a speech at the end announcing an unexpected mini cast change or something. Nancy was crying quite a bit after OMO, and Bowman was crying loads during the finale. He couldn't get some of his words out because of it, 'I will try' became an indistinct mutter. He was still wiping his eyes right at the end, after tomorrow comes. I still don't really like his acting though, although I did think it better than when I last saw him. I don't like his Valjean, however well he acts though. There was a bit of a strange moment when he came into the inn with little Cosette and looked Mme T up and down. I get what he was trying to do (I think) but it totally looked like he was trying to flirt
HPJ and Emily were the same as usual. Neither were bad, but I can't really get into their performances. I really want to like Emily, but somehow I just can't relate to her Cosette at all. I don't really know why. Antony was fantastic. He seemed really starry-eyed after he'd met Cosette. He kept grinning for no apparent reason, like he'd suddenly thought of her. I also liked how he came into the cafe slowly and dreamily - it's so much more Marius-like than him sprinting in, imo. ECAET and ALFOR were beautiful, and yeah the fight was fantastic. With some 'Marius! For GOD'S SAKE' going on as well
Rachel Bingham's Mme Thenardier - I don't really know what to say. I didn't dislike her, but again, she didn't really leave any impression on me, at least in terms of her acting. I'm glad she didn't do the superman thing with her hand in Beggars at the Feast. And I loved having someone who can sing. I would like to take this opportunity to say just how much I have come to love Martin Neely. Seriously, his Grantaire today was just so .... besotted with Enjolras. At the LiD, he was totally going "He's such an idiot, but I love him so much anyway!" It was beautiful. And all at the barricade, he never showed a moment's doubt, even though it was also quite clear that he wasn't there fighting for the cause, or that he held out any hope. And I love all the little looks and bits, like how he never accuses Enjolras like so many Rs do, and how he follows Enjolras in everything. And his pimp = much love. That look suits him scarily well, and the way he moves is wonderful. And he was also on for Jeff as the factory foreman - although he wasn't as scary (if nothing else, because he's not as tall ) he was wonderfully pervy. And I loved how he acted all respectable while the mayor was there, and then checked that he was gone and then immediately shot Fantine one of the dirtiest looks I've ever seen. (An aside: does anyone else love how much he and Killian are grinning on the SuBo thing at the end?)
David was amazing as always, particularly in the evening. His jump was scary, and he was never going to land particularly near me either, and I still thought he was going to come off the stage. Watching it on Saturday, I don't think he actually jumps from very high up. He just jumps UP, really high, to cover the distance. Which is just extra commitment  But we've come to expect no less from him I think
The evening performance was the first show I've seen for quite a while that made me cry, but I was actually tearing up through loads of the barricade scenes (and I think most of it was due to David and Martin, E/R fangirl that I am ). It was just breathtakingly poignant.
And I'm back in London on Thursday - hoping to get in loads of shows of Christmas
P.S. Has anyone seen the new brochure? It has more barricade pics in it! (although without Enjolras, mostly) And loads of lyrics, which I'm not sure if I like or not. And it's a special 25th anniversary one as well.
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| Eppie-Sue |
O.O omg they sold them on Saturday already? They said Monday! HMPF. So getting mine today. Did they re-shoot any of the old pictures (except for the Valjean, Javert and Cosette ones, obviously)? And oh I can't wait to see it. aaah. |
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
It has quite a few from the old brochure, but then there's some that are similar but not the same, like the one of Fantine is from a slightly different angle. They're being a bit more clever with superimposing some of the pictures as well I think. I will see if I can upload some pictures this afternoon when I come back from my tutorial
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| l'ivrogne transfigur� |
OK, here goes (sorry they're not the best pics, both my camera and scanner are broken so these are done on my phone). I'll go through the brochure page by page :
New ATEOTD pic! 
This one is identical: 
Prologue: 
And a nice one of the bishop: 
I prefer this photo of Rebecca - she looks prettier and you can see more of her face. You can also see the difference between Shannon's brown wig and Bowman's grey one. 
Same Lovely Ladies pic, so we've still got a little bit of Katie Hall in there :
I'm not sure, but I think I prefer this MOTH pic - there's less going on. (Well, actually, it's the same photo as the top one in the old brochure but without the other one superimposed on top): 
Now, they start changing the order of the photos. This is the familiar Look Down one, just with a caption: 
This page is similar, but obviously with lots of new cast: 
Alistair is pulling exactly the same face: 
A new ODM pic!! Very exciting, though the jazz hands look a bit odd! But it's nice to have one with a light background to make a change: 
And I couldn't resist zooming in on pretty frenchboys :
The pic is identical, but comes with the synopsis instead (still no mention of Enjolras of course): 
Another familiar but lovely page: 
This is quite cute, but now Nancy's the only one gazing into space: 
Then comes another well-known pic - the one of everyone cheering at the barricade, with the caption "Damn their warnings, damn their lies. They will see the people rise", which for some reason I have no picture of. Then we have a new page with a terrified Emily Bull: 
It also has sleepy/watchful barricade boys: 
Another new barricade piccy on this page: 
It also has a sleepy Marius, and a Simon Bowman who's hands are in a vaguely decent position - i.e. he's finally got to the end of BHH: 
The next page says "It's a world where the dogs eat the dogs" - that's not right is it? 
A new wedding picture of course. With the Thenardiers stuck on top: 
And guess who's there at the back!: 
Gavin can also be vaguely discerned in the shadows, and you can just imagine their faces
Then they've got rid of the fold out thing, which isn't necessarily a bad thing cos it was a bit annoying. It does mean, though, that they only have a small picture of the finale. They've cut down the number of little pics to 56, and it has now player in 42 instead of 41 countries apparently: 
The back page hasn't really changed much, but it's got a little message at the top: 
 [/img]
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| flying_pigs |
Wow! Thank you so much for uploading all of them! A few lovely new ones in there!
Two things that came to mind: -Still not liking Emily's wig but she makes a gorgeous Cosette. -Where the hell is Antony in the One Day More pictures? And why is Mark randomly in his place?! |
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| kemathenga |
Awesome! And thanks for the zooming. We'll have to study them very carefully to learn some names and faces
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| Eponines_Hat |
,.....and the cheesy hand gestures from the Prologue amd BHH have now been immortalised in print. Marvelous.
love the new shiny ODM pic and some really great new ones (love ALFOR!) thanks for sharing! |
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| Eppie-Sue |
I really like the new brochure. I wish they would have re-shot all the pics, you can't really tell from the photos (I will scan them asap) but the lighting - everything - is so much softer. It's beautiful.
I absolutely adore the new ODM picture, but neither Antony nor Gavin is in there! D: wtf. But yeah. new ATEOTD picture - gorgeous. And, actually they changed the picture of Gavroche below the red flag on the second page, so the only old!old pictures from before Cast Change that are still in there are Deadjolras and the flagwaving pic.
random observations: Bowman's wig looks so fake in the upper Bishop picture, it's ridiculous. And I LOVE the new Prologue one, so wonderful. I don't like the new picture of Rebecca, I think her hair looks like plastic, but hey, at least the didn't go and put "I DREAMED A DREAM" across an entire page. heh. Love that they only put one picture for MotH. It works so much better now. Hate - the lyrics. Awful WHY OH WHY!? OMG the new ODM picture. I prefer it so much over the old one, except that I wish Shannon, Earl, Katie - and Antony and Gavin - were in there. Heh. But yes. movement. red flag. It might have been more effective if not the entire cast had fists in the air, but hey. If you look closely, they all look extremely funny xD Poor Emily's got the staple in her face, David is on the crease as always... ahum. And there is a giant trunk on the floor. They really didn't need that for the photoshoot, did they? I'm not even going to comment on the slow mo picture. I hate it. And I hate that they don't manage to include Enjolras into the summary. You've only got, like, three full page solo picture of him in the brochure. That's all right. The new picture of Alistair and Emily is beautiful. She looks gorgeous. And it's all so soft. Argh. I love the added barricade pictures, especially as that one goes well with ALFOR. If I was Emily, I would be pissed off about the picture with Bowman, though, that's not very flattering. Then again, I would already be pissed off if I was David and saw the slow mo pic. No comment about Bowman's BHH... not sure about HPJ's solo pic on the DED page... But UM is it just or are the lyrics "It's a world where the dog eats the dog"...? AS IN - SINGULAR?! Much love for the new wedding picture, if only for Gavin and David. Heh. I hate the small Epilogue picture. WTF it's a London brochure, why have millions of tiny pictures from other productions on that page? Also, the stupid circle font... no. It looks like Lord of the Rings. The paper is different, too, your fingers don't leave stains on the cover and back immediately. Overall, much love, but they could have made it even better.
Oh AND I saw the show tonight and might review a bit later on. |
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| riverdawn |
Ok, so some plans got canceled on me tonight and a BB tickets was still available, so I ended up going just one last time (this time for real, seriously. I'm leaving London tomorrow and won't be back for many months). [ And yeah, I know David doesn't read the forum, but just in case - no, I was not lying when I said last week that I'm leaving. I just didn't realize I would go see the show again after Monday. Will stop jinxing the flag-catching, now. I promise.]
So, here's my brief review: Lovely show, as always. I thought Rebecca Seale was in particularly good form as Fantine tonight. (I know, I usually don't write about her, but I really enjoyed her performance tonight). Student interaction was quite nice tonight, despite the noticeable absence of MarkFeyrac: In Red/Black, we still had the lovely chair at front of stage blocking for "it is time for us all" (is it here to stay?), but after tapping Alistair briefly on the shoulder for "Marius, you're not longer a child", the rest of "but now we have a higher call..." was sung directly AT MartinTaire, which I thought was absolutely wonderful. Then, during DYHTPS, the flag ONCE AGAIN failed to meet its target (causing Eppie-Sue to suggest that yes, I am the cause of the jinx). This time there was not really even an attempt to salvage the situation, and David looked like he was trying very hard not to completely crack up as he was wheeled off the stage, flag-less. I was sitting at BB6, so got to see that after Eponine's death, DavidJolras turned to Javert, gave him the evil look, and then sighed and closed his eyes before beginning "She was the first to fall..." quite a nice touch, though I'm not sure it was visible from further away. There was a particularly angry "Courfeyrac, you take the watch", resulting in Courfeyrac (sorry, the name of the actor who replaced Mark Dugdale tonight escapes me) doing this "what the hell do you want from me?" gesture. There was an attempt to make up at the beginning of DWM, but this failed, resulting in DavidJolras heading down, talking to a whole bunch of people, doing the whole Grantaire thing (perhaps even more touching than usual), and then, at the very end, making all good with Courfeyrac at the top of the barricade. Lovely. I remember noticing all kinds of other nice things during the night, but honestly don't remember them right now. Oh, yeah, after curtain call, as they were heading off, David *stole* Nancy's Eponine cap, did the whole "I'm taller than you, you can't reach your cap now" thing, and then put it on too walk off into wings. Cute.
I think that's me all reviewed out for now. I'll have to live vicariously through other people's reports now. |
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| riverdawn |
Oh, just remembered a few more random things:
Wanted to mention that Gavin's bishop was exceptionally good today. The deep notes were beautiful. Also, On My Own was once again superb. I didn't use to love it, but it's been great at every one of the last performances. Finally, in red/black, I just remembered that David not only sang "but now there is a higher call" at Martin, but also tried to take his bottle away. Martin later got back at him by being singing "give me brandy on my breath..." holding the bottle, defiant. It was fabulous. Some of the best Enjolras/Grantaire interaction ever. You were all absolutely right about Martin Neely knowing how to portray Grantaire's Enjolraic obsession in the best way. |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Okay, random thoughts as I can't sleep... Yes. Rebecca, Nancy and Emily were exceptionally strong today. It was wonderful, really. Sadly, Bowman seemed to go even more over the top with his exaggerated acting. I can't even look at him anymore in certain scenes. Alistair had a LOT of vibrato today, he... yes. Just lots and lots of vibrato. Acting was still wonderful. HPJ didn't leave a big impression except that all the big notes were, as usual, very well sung. David was absolutely amazing and yes, l'ivrogne tranfigur� (I think you pointed it out) - the Jump isn't from the very top of the barricade, but he doesn't jump down, he jumps... up, up and away. I lovehate it, I'm always scared there will be a random gun left on the ground or something. Heh. Liked Rachel Bingham as Mme Th�nardier, although Lorraine is better with Little Cosette. I dunno. They're both not fabulous. I miss Jackie, but that can't be helped. Martin Ball was awesome in DED. I love how he shakes Marius' hand at "thank you, sir, I'm in your debt!"
I'm glad I went. It was so good to see ODM performed live and with the right tempo, the right length and the wonderful lighting and... just... everything. Mark was off, Greg was in his track, Mark Hedges was on for George, Brenda was in Helen's track and Katy in Rachel's. Killian did the warnings and was AWESOME. just saying. There are so many ensemble things I wanted to point out I always forget half of them. Oh xD Simon and Antony were bickering with each other in ATEOTD as factory workers, it was awesome. And Antony is just pure class in there, how he checks out every single girl that walks past until he puts his arm around Nancy.
And haha, Katy was AMAZING in Rachel's track in Look Down ... with the baby. Half of this could probably only be spotted from my side of the Dress Circle slips... but: As Davidjolras walked off stage, she ran up to him and showed him her child and he did the *cuteface* "Hullo" at the baby, totally unhelpful xD and then Simon xD... Simon walked up and slapped the child and she started crying and then Mark Hedges - as Claquesous - stole the child and... if you're watching the show with her in that track, just watch Katy. She's so amazing. I love seeing her on stage. Oh, and a few small things went wrong, posted them in the Bloopers thread. And, a small note... there is an EDIT button in the top right corner of each post you make that's better than making double posts sometimes.
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| kemathenga |
Eppie-Sue and riverdawn, reading your postings is like sitting in the Bagno with a - probably stolen - loaf of dry bread and seeing others feasting on pheasant and cream rolls. Makes my mouth - or rather my soul - water.
You know how lucky you are, don't you?
I've seen a lot of vids and pictures now of the current london cast but I still couldn't pick out GRantaire. Is it still Martin Neely, mostly? Is there a pic of him somewhere online? |
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| Eppie-Sue |
Grantaire is played by Martin Neely, yes. Jeff Nicholson is 1st understudy, George Miller 2nd. Um... I've got him in an ITV screencaps:
right there behind Martin Ball as Th�nardier. He's got the most heartbreaking expression on his face when Enjolras is almost shot and JVJ shoots the sniper during the First Attack. And yes, I do realise how lucky I am. The next two weeks are going to be tough, I'm back home. Got several "Cold turkey" and "How will you survive?" comments from the cast when I said Merry Christmas last night. Ah well xD |
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| riverdawn |
Woops. Sorry about not using the edit button last night. I am aware it exists. I was just very tired, didn't think of it.
Martin Neely has quite a few heartbreaking moments and quite a few amusing ones. I love that in the first Warning, when DavidJolras stands up to look over the barricade, he also stands up with a worried expression. I also like how, in many of the battle bits, he's just cowering somewhere, drinking. And I really really like his sarcastic "and so the war is won", which I don't even know if to write with an exclamation point or a question mark, as it has a bit of both. |
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| kemathenga |
You know, I shouldn't have registered here I can't for the life of me figure out how I shall manage to go there to Queen's and see it ONLY ONCE and return home the very next day.
How are chances to stay in the U.K. illegaly? Are they looking for dishwashers at Queen's?
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| Eponines_Hat |
So, it's rather late but....
I saw last night's show from BB20.It was a good show - some strong performances from most of the performers Bowman seemed a bit less OTT in the beginning of the Prologue and I got so excited, thinking "YES! He finally gets it!" Then, of course, the hand gestures returned and I had to try very hard not to roll my eyes or groan (was a bit paranoid that he would notice, since he was about three feet away!) I have decided that I really rather like HPJs Suicide - he captures the tortured nature of that scene rather well. I just wish that this would carry through to his other scenes. I was watching his face during the "24601" of "Who am I" and his expression doesn't change AT ALL when the Mayor admits he is JVJ. I know he is immovable, stone, etc etc. But surely the guy could bat an eyelid or something! The suicide was really rather good and quite moving - I still have hope for this one! Thaxton was amazing and did the seated-next-to-Marius blocking in R+B, followed by the drink-R! blocking that was mentioned above for the second verse. btw noticed that he did the blinking thing (as discussed on here at length) during the first verse of R+B. I am thinking it might be the lights as in both R+B and ECAET he is looking up , "into the distance". Oh, and the flag was caught (eppie-sue was right about you, riverdawn) and there was much loud whipping of the flag on the cart .
Oh, and the LiD was amazing - as was the final battle. As always Alastair was sweet - I have decided that I think my main point of frustration with him is that he and Nancy don't seem to work as well together - which is probably not that fair of me. He was rather good during ECAET and ALFOR was just the right amount of heartbreak without being too sappy.(Nancy really just kills that song! She also had a great night - and was beautifully tragic in every scene.That girl really does give 100% every show.) I think Emily is lovely and makes Cosette a really likable character (sweet, if not that interesting) She was so heartbreaking in the Finale. There was no Markfeyrac or George Miller as the Drunk and I missed them both a lot! (Especially SHOOT THE BASTARD!!!!) It did mean that Simon Shorten was on as Bamatabois - he was just the right amount of creepy. It was great
So sad that Jonathon Williams continues to be wasted in minor roles. I am so jealous of those of you who will see him on Thursday. I know I keep harping on about it, but that man needs his Monday's back! |