I think it would be great!
Jean Valjean-Lawrence Clayton
Javert-Norm Lewis
Fantine-Eleasha Gamble
Madame Thenardier-Merle Dandridge
Thenardier-Jessie L. Martin
Enjolras-Derrick Baskin
Marius-Cliffton Oliver
Eponine-Nikki M. James
Cosette-K.b. Hart
I feel like you've started multiple threads like this.
Does it really matter? As long as the performers are talented, the show will work.
Jesse L Martin as Thenardier? Don't see it. At all.
I really hate specific all "anything" casts. I love a color blind cast....on just about any show...unless the show deals with race.
I feel like you've started multiple threads like this.
That's because you're right.
Its like an all white Aint Misbehavin.'
Or an all Asian GRIND. It's madness! MADNESS, I SAY!!!
Can Laura Bell Bundy play Kim in the upcoming production of Miss Saigon in my basement?
Lawrence Clayton already proved he can't handle te role of Jean Valjean for any sustained length of time.
Also, Merle Dandridge is too young and pretty to play Madame Thenardier. If anything, she's appropriate for Fantine.
Les Mis is not a show that needs an all anything- actors of all different races have already played the major roles in various productions.
Can Laura Bell Bundy play Kim in the upcoming production of Miss Saigon in my basement?
Only if you promise to let her out when she's done
But if you do that you run the risk of her recording another cd.
Makes as much sense as an all-gay SHOWBOAT.
I want an all dead KISS ME KATE.
^ I can see the marquee: NOW! WITH ZOMBIES!
"Here Lies Kate!" The Musical
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
I've got you all beat. I'm currently musical director of a production of CABARET that has NO gay men in the cast.
I agree....I don't see what the point is for a show like that...Its like the All Black Cast of Cat On A hot Tin Roof...JUST WRONG>>>>> Cat is a white story not a black one....Les Mis isn't a black story....And for the record...>Les Mis and pretty much with the exception of the OBC ALWAYS had a multi racial cast...
Sean, wouldn't an all-gay production of Show Boat get confusing with the character of Gay in the show, or was that what you were going for? A whole bunch of Gays running around and singing their love for each other? Vanity at its best.
Oh and I want an all drunk production of INTO THE WOODS.
I didn't want to make a new thread but I did want everyone to see this video... An 8 and under version of Les Mis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZFkoU9a2Ws
That might have been cute if they were black.
How about an all white version of PORGY AND BESS?
Stand-by Joined: 12/16/10
It'd be awesome if Keith David was in the Les Miz movie.
First of all hilarious, Eris!
I agree that Les Mis can easily be done color blind, like most operas have been done for almost a century. An all black Les Mis is retro to the point of an anachronism - a throwback to the Pearl Bailey Hello Dolly. It was wonderful that Pearl got to play Dolly of course, and she was amazing from every indication and record of the performance, but there was no reason to build an all black show around her even then, much less to do an all black version of a musical like it or Les Mis now.
There are certain plays and musicals where race is at issue - an all black (or all white for that matter) Show Boat or an all white (or all black, as in with no exceptions, for that matter) Raisin in the Sun makes absolutely no sense. For those in which race doesn't play an issue, there is generally (as with anything else of course there might be exceptions when doing so might not work) no reason that the theater can't take the same position that opera does with respect to casting people of a different race than the character would have been historically and or in the show's original cast. For example, Audra as Carrie in Carousel.
Why would this be necessary. There are always seems to be plenty of talented black people in the show already. My favorite Fantine EVER was black and she was so flawless in her performance.
An under 30's Follies?
Videos