Les Miserables - 25th Anniversary
August 25, 2011 matinee

I've seen the Musical four times now.  That is nothing compared to the 14 (?) times my parents have attended it, Kim close behind and Kristin just behind that.  Reaching the age that dad would take you to see Les Mis was a big benchmark in our family.  I remember singing along to Castle in the Clouds and Little People before we moved to the new house.  I had to be 3 or 4.  I loved them both.  I thought they were my songs.  I didn't even know what they were from until a few years later when it clicked.  Junior high and for the first time, I wouldn't be left at the neighbors while the family dressed up and headed to the show.  I remember the months leading up to it.  I'd fallen in love with Eponine, her deep rough voice that broke your heart in two, just as my sisters had fallen years before.  We'd lie in the living room and listen to the album through.  I've always been terrified since of becoming Eponine.

We'd read through the book in High School, and I'd see the performance several more times over the years.  But it wasn't until the opening scene yesterday that I realized just how much this story has impacted my family.  I see my dad in many ways in Jean Val Jean, I don't even know how to connect it or describe it, but I loved the man on stage yesterday all the more for it.  I cried as he said his goodbyes, wanted to beg him not to go.  I wondered if my love (near obsession) with the French Revolution, the British Radical Culture it affected, and the work of the Romantics that were sparked out of it is perhaps the fruit from this seed that grew up with me since my toddler years.  Is this why I love it?  Kristin said two days ago "You love Red & Black too, it gets you all worked up." And it's true.  When the song changes to Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with us. Somewhere beyond the barricades is there a life you long to see?  I tear up, and can't even explain what exactly, but something deep inside of me is wrenched, something that comes alive at the thought of the student-soldier, of ideals and battles, of passion and dreams and blood. Of things being real, and hope rising from hopelessness and barricades. 

And as I wondered all that, I began to laugh too (not out loud), I'd never even considered the political commentary of the film on the justice system and it's not only unconcern, but blatant refusal of change and return to society and hope.  I thought of Kristin.  That has to be part of why she loves this story, this Musical.  Or perhaps this Musical is part of why she is so passionate about justice, about the Eponine being heard, about the Jean Val Jeans being given a chance and the system being fought. 

I thought of how my dad hates to see people judged.  I thought of how he loves Fontine's song, and if he found that woman on the street, dying and wronged, and ashamed, he'd probably have done the exact same thing.  I thought of how my dad has loved and encouraged many girls who probably felt like their life resembled Fontines in that moment, in one sense or another.

Amazing how art can shape us, transform us, define our passions and awaken us to our callings. Amazing how the same Musical can bring about so many different responses, even in one family. 

As I said, this performance was different from previous, or rather, more different.  The revolving stage was gone (which I was kind of partial to, if for nothing else than Turning.), and pretty much they just brought new tricks and gadgets, a huge screen as the backdrop which was pretty cool, a new device for Javert's suicide, new moving stages for balconies/ tunnels/ houses/buildings.  It was all quite cool. 

One Day More was no longer song as the gate rotated, but instead the lovers chimed from opposite balconies, Val Jean and Eponine below... the gate still central but less obstructive.  Empty Chairs at Empty Tables was not in the bar, but instead an empty stage.  The candles were a new touch, and the synchronized movements were overwhelming in all the best ways to me.  I liked this change, even while I missed the old.  (My mom wanted the old back.)  Turning, I thought I'd miss the stage for (and did), but the simple action of the little girl doing a "Ring Around the Rosie" with the woman, in so turning, and also drawing on the true historical beginnings of the children's game....hit me in the gut like a punch.  The emotions of this performance were heightened not only by a greater emphasis on the acting (which my dad told me before the performance- they saw it twice this time around), but also by these very specific and bold changes to the choreography and set.  In some ways, they stripped it down.  In others, they hyped it up by technology.  I enjoyed it, but part of me worries that they made it more like all the other Broadway shows, and perhaps stripped away a bit of the "old" which everyone's been afraid to touch... but perhaps that fear was with good reason.  I've grown up thinking there are musicals, and then there is Les Mis. 

As for the individual performances themselves, this was the best TenerdeausFontine was my favorite.  I wished she'd been in every song, her voice was incredible, her acting was excellent! When she returned to the stage for the final song, I wanted to cheer immediately!  Eponine's voice was excellent, but her acting seeemed lacking.  It could also be that I just didn't enjoy how she chose to represent Eponine.  She only seemed angry, and perhaps desiring, but she didn't grab at all the emotion and empathy that I was ready to give to my favorite character.  Her face never showed the disappointment, frustration, heart-breaking I've always felt in her songs. And Cosette.  Let's be honest, she sort of gets the bum vocal part in the Musical.  No one says "Oh, Cossette's part is my favorite!" No, she's near operatic.  And while she did manage to salvage it, she sounded so pitchy in A Heart Full of Love that I felt uncomfortable.  She acted well enough, but I was so disappointed by her singing I almost didn't care.  A Heart Full of Love, and One Day More are some of my favorites, and I just couldn't enjoy them this time.  Hear's Marius pulling his part, but Cosette is jumping everywhere and I'm pretty sure she's not on the note she should be, and if she is, she's holding on to it with one hand and dangling, and Eponine is standing outside the gate reminding herself "He was never mine to keep" and echoing "standing here" but she looks more angry than devastated and I just can't connect to the scene the way I want to!

I shouldn't end with a negative... so, remember, I am dramatising it all myself.  The performance was incredible, and by the end Cosette had pulled it together I felt and Eponine sounded so lovely I'd forgiven her.  I'd enjoyed seeing this nee depiction of my favorite Musical, I loved the well-thought-out additions that heightened the themes.  There was a new character this time through, a man who appeared to be like a father to Gavroche, and when Gavroche was shot, you see this man's face, staring right at you center stage and you FEEL the loss amidst a life of numbness and you choke on a cry in your throat.   This cast was overall remarkable, some of my favorite performances will remain from this run I have no doubt.

(I didn't take any photos, except the one above.  You know how irked I am.)