Revival Review- 10/23/07

Electricity24601 · Revival Review- 10/23/07

I wasn't really sure where to put this, so I started a new thread. Here's my humungous review from Tuesday:

(I apologize in advance that my writing isn�t very grammatical or anything- the history essay I had to write last period killed my brain.)

JOJ- Well we might as well start with the man himself. Of course he was absolutely incredible. His strong soaring voice was such a relief after two doses of Alexander (the last two shows I saw). His acting is still the most human and real I have seen. My mom and I agreed, that overall it wasn�t his absolute best performance- but that is totally understandable just because it was his first night and he was bit sick. No one other than us obsessive fans would have noticed at all. Hmmm, interesting points:
- After �fliiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggghhhhhhhhtttttt� my mom and I looked at each other and smiled and winked. That note is how you know it�s going to be a good show.
- Soliloquy was WOW. There are no other words. After this I looked at Carly and whispered �I told you he was good!�
- He did the smile again!!!! When I saw it in London he did this really amusing smile right before Who Am I. I guess its supposed to be like �Hey Javert, it�s not me you�re after� but I still find it very funny.
- Fantine�s arrest was great. There was a really nice touch: When Fantine sings �if there�s a god above�, a little light shone on John and he looked up to the heavens and sang the next few lines to God.
- Speaking of Who Am I, very nice. A lot of neat little acting touches especially with �If I speak I am condemned�. He really showed Valjean�s uncertainty of mind well through physical movements (i.e. walking as if to go, then turning back suddenly)
- His acting in Fantine�s death is just superb. You can really see all the different phases JVJ goes through- wanting to do a good deed, but being a little disgusted by a dying woman and wanting to get away before Javert comes to really wanting to comfort her and take her child to actually finding room in his heart to love her.
- I LOVE the bargain/well scene. My favorite bit in the entire show. John was absolutely adorable with little Cosette. When he was singing the bit �The is a promise I have made, for I could not see what stood before me�, he sang directly to Cosette, trying to find the exact right words to explain the situation to her. He even squeezed her and gave her a little hug and winked at her at one point. Awwww!
- BHH- well, what can I say? He must have held the note out 7 secs after the orchestra stopped playing. Pretty darn impressive.
- Ohh, the finale. I love how well he ages (wow, that sounded weird). He actually started looking older earlier in the show than I remember. I really liked that- its just so real looking. It also makes it so wonderful to see him get up full of life and young again after he dies. As usual, you could hear his voice above everyone else�s on the last chords. <3
Robert Hunt (Javert) Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. The first impressive Javert I have seen on both the acting and singing score. What an incredible voice- pure power. His acting was great too. His Javert was very determined, very set in his ways, very sure that the �law was not mocked� but also a bit deranged. Almost like that obsessiveness over order was already destroying part of him even pre-suicide. I like it a lot.
-Confrontation was HOT. Two incredible voices, two strong actors- it was like ka-POAH! The stage fighting seemed really, really real and the whole thing was totally intense.
-Stars was great. I wasn�t paying a whole lot of attention (my friend and I have a lot of inside jokes that have to do with the song so I was getting distracted) but still, what an amazing voice.
- Suicide was great. You could see him totally unravel, go absolutely crazy before your eyes. And �reprieved� was like the coolest note ever.

Adam Jacobs (Marius)- I have always loved Adam, and I continue to do so. I like his relation with Eponine ( friendly but not more than that) and his goofyness in the beginning of AHFoL. Not a whole lot new to say, but:
-I love watching him during the robbery. He is so funny, this little schoolboy who suddenly decides to be daring. I love how just dives right in and grabs Cosette away from �Parnasse. And then he turns around- and poof! She�s gone. The look of surprise and anguish on his face is great.
-He�s always great in ALFoR. Kind of similar to John in Come to Me, just because you can really see all the emotions his character goes through. Shocked at the fact that Eponine has been shot, disgusted at the gore, scared and heartbroken that she is dying, shocked that she has loved him all this time, and in the end just wanting her to be happy for her last moments.

Leah Horowitz (Cosette)- Eh. Leah was a nice Cosette I suppose. Very nice voice and I think she definitely has a nice �look�. But I really miss Ali. Ali and Adam fed off each other so nicely, really fueling the �silly couple in love who are making fools of themselves� thing. Ali�s cuteness and silly antics made the part come alive, whereas Leah is just kind of�blah. Like most Cosettes. Oh well. She was very nice at the stage door though, which does at least partially make up for it in my mind Very Happy

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Megan McGinnis (Eponine)- I have some mixed feelings about Megan. Mainly, because I know that her interpretation is not what Eponine should be. But at the same time I can�t help but love her. In trying to explain her interpretation to a friend, the best word I can come up with is sad. She gives the impression of a small street waif who has been beaten by the world and has shrunk into herself. She is incredibly sweet and loveable (without really stuffing it in your face). She could perhaps have a bit more spunk at times, but I�m really not complaining. Since the Ali cute factor is gone, I have to get my cuteness somewhere! Others have said that her voice has too light a tone for the part, but I really like it.
- She does that really pretty riff in OMO on �I�ve always been pretending�, which makes me quite happy. The rest of the song is good too, although I wish she would move around a bit more.

Judy Kuhn (Fantine)- I have to admit that I was a tad bit underwhelmed. Not in the acting department really- her interpretation was very real and valid. But I just didn�t like her voice. My favorite part of IDAD are those lovely, long, held-out straight notes on words like �there are dreams that cannot beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee�. But Judy doesn�t straight-note at all- she has this really strong and slightly annoying vibrato that she can�t seem to sing without. I was expecting a bit better with such a big name.
- She did the whole downward spiral thing quite well, especially �Come on captain��
- I liked her arrest a lot. She got pretty angry and did a really nice spit into JVJ�s face Very Happy

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- She seems a bit too old for the role. I really think Fantine needs to be a young mother for the tragedy of her fall to be really recognized. From where I was sitting you could see that Judy was one of the older factory members, and that just didn�t seem right.

Max von Essen (Enjolras)- I had heard some kind of icky things about Max, but was pleasantly surprised. Granted, he�s no Aaron. (But come on, who is?) It�s funny because I kind of feel that their interpretations are a bit similar. Let me see if I can explain it well. Aaron is very determined, absolutely sure of himself, and exudes charisma. Max�s Enjolras is a little more unsure of himself, a little bit lower on the self-confidence scale. But at the same time he always wants to appear as confident as Aaron�s Enjy to the other barricade boys. So I pretty much liked his acting and his voice was nice too.
- Gah, he didn�t sing out �Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee�. Nobody does that the way I would like them to. (As in really hold the note out) ala JOJ in a certain old recording.
- I wasn�t sure I was really happy with his relationship with Grantaire. I like my Enjys to do a certain amount of melting towards R during Drink With Me. Max did go over and talk to him, but not in a really friendly way. He whispered something into his ear and shook him as if to say �get yourself together man!�.
- He has a new vest in Look Down; it�s very pretty. (The costume freak that I am notices this kind of thing).

Gary Beach (Thenardier)- I love Gary during Master of the House, because he has such a great sense of comedy. I do wish he would drop a little of that comedy and add a bit of sinisterness (I just made up a word J ) for Dog Eat Dog. I officially dislike his little finger dance during Dog Eat Dog. Little random point: Gary was out for back surgery for a while. Now during Dog Eat Dog, he�s not the only one on stage. Another one of his gang comes on to pull the body he robs on and off stage. I�m sure this is so Gary doesn�t hurt his back again, but it really ruins the intimacy of the scene. Oh well. That�ll be fixed in time I guess.

Becca Ayers (M. Thenardier)- Oh what a great understudy! I really loved her. She did a lot of things I found incredibly funny and unique (but am of course not able to remember now). The one thing I do remember is that at some point during the bargain and when she was talking to young Eponine she sang in this really high pitched voice that totally cracked me up. I also really like how she looks in the part. She�s very tall and skinny (much taller than Gary!) which I think is a lovely change from the usual short and stocky M. Thenardier.

Micheal ? (Grantaire) R is quickly becoming my favorite character short of JVJ. I always watch him during the caf� scene and the barricades. I think Micheal wins as my favorite Grantaire to date. He was a very tall, lumbering, drunk buffoon who tried to be silly in front of the barricade boys. When no one was looking at him though it was obvious how incredibly sad he was inside.
- Interaction with Gavroche was superb. During Do You Hear the People Sing, they sword fought with Gavroche�s little red flag, and when Enjy says �let all women and fathers of children go from here� Micheal picked Gavroche up over his shoulder (to which he screamed �no! no!�) and actually carried him off stage. Then when Gavroche went over to get the bullets, Micheal literally scrambled up the barricade after him trying to catch him. Awww.
- The only thing I didn�t like was that Micheal didn�t play the guitar during Drink with Me. (A different barricade boy did) I guess this is simply because he didn�t know how, but I really liked it when Grantaire played it.

The kids- Both kids were really great. Little Cosette had a really wonderful voice (very mature sounding) and really responded to JVJ during the bargain. (Usually they�re just like ragdolls which really bothers me.) Gavroche was very tough and spunky and sang everything in tune (hooray!). His death scene was well done even though I still like Little People better then 10 Little Bullets.

Ensemble: Pretty good. I couldn�t really see what was going on at the back tables during MotH, which is my favorite chorus bit. I don�t know why, but the chorus parts in ODM have never seemed as impressive to me on Broadway as the do in New York. It�s just not as loud or as impressive as it is in England.

Other random points:
- The costume changes (for Madame T. and Cosette) have been gotten rid of for the replacement actors. I wonder why they bothered changing them if they were just planning to go back to the original costume after the original actor left?
- The new orchestrations sounded much, much better tonight. Nothing really bothered me except for a few funky congo-drum notes and that strange chord at JVJ�s entrance during In My Life. There are several possible explanations for this:
o I�ve gotten used to them.
o They sound fuller and lusher when sitting up close (but we were about this close last time)
o JOJ�s voice makes everything sound better Very Happy

o They�ve changed them.
If anyone has an answer to that, I�d be most thankful.

Congrats if you got through all of that Very Happy

. Hope you enjoyed it.

lesmisloony

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this. I can live vicariously through you. *melodramatic sigh*
I swear to God, screw saving money and everything else ever, I will find a way to get back to NYC this summer to see LM again.

The one character I also saw was Gary Beach, and you're one thousand percent right about the stupid "finger dance." Who told him that was a good idea? Meh. I miss Nick Wyman. He was The Man when it came to Thenardier. ...One time I saw a Thenardier who kissed the queer in the wedding scene... I think it was Wyman. Or not. Argh, I left all my playbills at home when I moved into my dorm and now I'm just confused.

lckysvn777

From where I was sitting you could see that Judy was one of the older factory members, and that just didn�t seem right.
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How did Judy do as a barricade(bullet) boy?
I saw it 3 times with Lea and could always pick her out of the bunch cuz she's so small. LoL

The Very Angry Woman · Re: Revival Review- 10/23/07

Orestes Fasting

Isn't Rob incredible? Last night in the sewers he drowned out JOJ. I didn't even know that was possible, yo.

Max's interactions with Grantaire are different every night; whether it's a reconciliation or a pep talk or a telling-off depends on how much of a pain in the butt R is being.

Becca is great, isn't she? Her Mme T is so neurotic.

Which Little Cosette did you have?

Electricity24601

bwaymaniac · Re: Revival Review- 10/23/07

The Very Angry Woman

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