Les Miserables Tour 2017- Page 2

[Marway44]

Posted: 7/24/17 at 5:25am

You know, that's a good point. Not seeing Gavroche does make it more chilling and you feel worse seeing him pop up before he dies. 

By the way, with the show opening so soon, you would think they would announce the cast by now. I can't wait to hear Valjean is going to be. 

[mikey2573]

Posted: 7/24/17 at 5:09pm

Originally, the 25th Anniversary staging did not let us see the death of Gavroche; it all happened on the other side of the barricade, out of sight of the audience.  It was followed by one of the characters yelling out, "Nooooooo!" which actually generated laughs from the audience the night I saw it.  Anyone who saw the original staging knows how powerful that death was; to go from that to snickers is not good.  For the Broadway revival that just played the Imperial they had the good sense to have Gavroche climb back up the barricade and get shot just as he reaches the top, so the audience sees him die.  This was a much more effective way to stage his death, and brought the new staging of that scene almost up to par with the original. And, it eliminated the snickering from the audience.  

Updated On: 7/24/17 at 05:09 PM

[Marway44]

Posted: 7/24/17 at 7:11pm

I remember when it first started at the Paper Mill Playhouse that you did not see Gavroche once he went behind the barricade. It's much better and dramatic that you see him when he gets shot the final time, especially because it's the shot that kills him. 

On another note, did anyone notice Valjean stopped saying "make way Javert, there is a life to save"? I noticed it was gone as soon as the 25th opened. I still can't figure out why that line was removed but I thought maybe they want to focus on Javert just letting him go and him not being able to handle it. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 9/22/17 at 3:53pm

So the first performance was last night. Anyone go?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/22/17 at 3:56pm

I saw the pre-Broadway tour of this production and that was bad enough.  I'm not interested in seeing the movie version on stage again.

[HunterK]

Posted: 9/22/17 at 4:20pm

I will be seeing it 10/3 in Hartford and would be happy to post a review. 

I honestly enjoyed the 25th Anniversary Tour and this past Broadway revival. Looking forward to this new cast. 

[AllThatJazz2]

Posted: 9/22/17 at 4:48pm

I'll be seeing it next Thursday. Happy to share my thoughts when I have, and to hear what others who are attending think!

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/22/17 at 6:35pm

Call_me_jorge said: "So the first performance was last night. Anyone go?"

I was there. Great show. Went off without a hitch. Cast were all terrific.

I haven't seen the show since the original tour. So I can only compare it to that. It was much more atmospheric and dark, visually, that is. The only complaint I had is that the playing area of the stage was really compressed to a small space, boxed in by whatever set was built around/from the wings. Several people in my party noticed the same thing. PPAC has a massive stage. So it's nothing to do with 'fitting' it into a smaller theatre. They don't get bigger than PPAC. It was just giant stationary side pieces forcing all the action into a tiny area in the center.

 

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 9/23/17 at 1:49am

broadwayboy222 said: "Somehow hoping and wishing that insanely, phenomenally talented Nathaniel Hackmann finally gets to be principal Valjean for this tour, after understudying for both the last tour and then the revival on Broadway."

He is currently here in Lancaster PA at Fulton Theatre in Little Shop of Horrors. I saw him in Beauty and the Beast here playing Gaston. He was fantastic. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/13/17 at 8:09pm

Has anyone rushed this tour in Chicago(or elsewhere)? Wondering what time I should get down there. I usually leave myself two hours and I sit at the Starbucks or Argo until I notice a line starting, so if I got there at 8 would that be fine? It looks like it’s selling well.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 10/13/17 at 11:40pm

mikey2573 said: "Originally, the 25th Anniversary staging did not let us see the death of Gavroche; it all happened on the other side of the barricade, out of sight of the audience. It was followed by one of the characters yelling out, "Nooooooo!" which actually generated laughs from the audience the night I saw it. Anyone who saw the original staging knows how powerful that death was; to go from that to snickers is not good. For the Broadway revival that just played the Imperial they had the good sense to have Gavroche climb back upthe barricade and get shot just as he reaches the top, so the audience sees him die. This was a much more effective way to stage his death, and brought the new staging of that scene almost up to par with the original. And, it eliminated the snickering from the audience."

I will always prefer "the revolve" (turntable) to the new staging, but the last few times I saw the original staging at the Imperial, what made the audience laugh was that Gavroche was never able to throw the bag of bullets to the students---it always missed by about 5 feet. And it made his death for naught. 

 

[Babe_Williams]

Posted: 11/15/17 at 2:54pm

Anyone else see this production recently and want to review it? I haven't seen this since the 90s so am interested in how the changes will be. I'll be seeing it in the spring.

[schubox]

Posted: 11/15/17 at 5:32pm

Babe_Williams said: "Anyone else see this production recently and want to review it? I haven't seen this since the 90s so am interested in how the changes will be. I'll be seeing it in the spring."

I'll be seeing it in Kansas City next month 

[schubox]

Posted: 12/9/17 at 4:43pm

So I saw his in KC and...it wasn’t very good. The whole thing felt extremely rushed, like they were racing through every song. People either singing with no emotion or way overreacting. Everyone had incredible voices but the whole thing was a disappointment. I thought maybe it was just me, but my gf turned and said the exact same thing to me before I even said anything

[Jallenc32]

Posted: 1/19/18 at 10:00am

Caught the show in Philly last night. Holy backphrasing Batman. I don't know if Javert ever sung two lines in a row as written. The show has devolved into cartoon (something that's been happening for years now), but I've never seen it played this badly & broadly on a major tour.

 

Also the new tour orchestrations were horrible. Incredibly synth heavy with a weird piano solo in On My Own. I'm actually wondering if a couple players were out and they couldn't get subs in time. They also completely cut the exit music which I found really odd.

 

I may have to fly to London to cleanse the palate with the original Trevor Nunn / John Caird staging.

 

Side point... my god the sightlines at the Academy of Music are terrible. It was my first time there, and seats they were selling for full price had more than half the stage cut off from view.

[Babe_Williams]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 9:27am

I'm going this weekend. Has anyone else caught this tour lately? Bummer to hear that it might be a disappointment.

[Eliza2]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 9:37am

Babe_Williams said: "I'm going this weekend. Has anyone else caught this tour lately? Bummer to hear that it might be a disappointment."

I loved it. Nick Cartell is one of the best Valjeans I've ever seen.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/2/18 at 12:54pm

I saw it in DC earlier this year. I had a great time, although looking at most the principals across the ridiculous landscape of Les Miz productions I've seen, I could describe some of the ones currently on tour as close to ineffectual. Josh Davis was never not entertaining, though. And Joshua Grosso is one of the best Mariuses I've ever seen.

[Babe_Williams]

Posted: 3/4/18 at 7:38am

I saw it last night and witnessed some of the worst theater behavior in a long time, but that’s for another post. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I thought Josh Davis was fantastic as Javert. Yes, he was melodramatic and a bit over the top, but so is Les Miz and the way Javert is written in the book. It’s probably the first time that I have seen Javert portrayed as frightening as he was supposed to be in the book. He really stole every scene he was in and I couldn’t get enough of these scenes with Valjean and Javert interacting.

Nick Cantrell was very good, although there was not nearly enough subtlety in his performance during the prologue. His Bring Him Home was just beautiful.

We had understudies for Enjolras, Marius and Mme Thendaier. They were all fine but nothing standout-ish. Same with the rest of the cast.

 

oh wait, thought of something. Grantaire is totally over the top to where his Drink with Me solo is meaningless and his extended reaction to Gavroche’s death overshadows a portion of the final battle. There is no Enjolras/Grantaire moment during Drink With Me. The piano solo in On My Own is odd too. 

The pacing was definitely fast feeling and they cut various dialogue and verses (bummer to a nerd like me who lived and breathed the complete symphonic recording) but it still was about 3 hours from start until we got out. They cut the short overture at the start of act 2, so don’t be late getting back to your seat . And I loved the projections and changes to the sets from the last time I saw it forever ago. I wasn’t sure how lack of turntable would work but it wasn’t missed at all.

Anyway, go see this if you can.

Updated On: 3/4/18 at 07:38 AM

[Sally Burns]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 8:52am

Jallenc32 said: "Caught the show in Philly last night. Holy backphrasing Batman. I don't know if Javert ever sung two lines in a row as written. The show has devolved into cartoon (something that's been happening for years now), but I've never seen it played this badly & broadly on a major tour.

Also the new tour orchestrations were horrible. Incredibly synth heavy with a weird piano solo in On My Own. I'm actually wondering if a couple players were out and they couldn't get subs in time. They also completely cut the exit music which I found really odd.

I saw the tour in San Francisco and I found myself getting annoyed with several aspects of the show. First, like many other Les Mis fans, I have listened to the complete symphonic recording many times over the ears so it's really noticeable to me when a production cuts anything. The biggest cut was that they shortened Castle on a Cloud by removing an entire verse ("there is a room that's full of toys". They also got rid of the spoken line "There's a boy climbing the barricade" when Eponine returns from delivering Marius' letter. I know they got rid of the turntable, but they couldn't show her climbing in?

I had somehow forgotten my previous complaint about the last time I saw this show on tour, which was that they increased the tempo on many of the songs. They did it again which I felt was a detriment to anyone in the audience who wasn't already familiar with the songs. At one point (I can't remember which song), I thought man, if I didn't already know all the lyrics to this song, I would have no idea what words they spit out for that song rapidfire. The most egregious example of speeding up songs was A Little Fall of Rain. If you want people to feel the impact of Eponine's death, maybe don't have the two actors racing through the song. Give the actors and the audience a second to breathe.

The lighting was so dim that in some of the larger group numbers, I couldn't tell who was actually singing because it was so dark. I think it was Red and Black where I wanted to march myself to the light board and ask them to bump the dimmers up to 60%. The lights in that scene were dim plus there was some smoke and they used some backlighting so it was almost impossible to know who was actually singing which line. The dim lighting was a problem throughout the show. In several scenes, the wash for the stage was very dim with a blue or yellow cast and the only visible people were whoever had a spotlight on them, despite the fact that there were other main characters on the stage at the same time.

Whoever was running the fog effect was overzealous. When Jean Valjean drags Marius into the tunnels, there was so much fog that the door to the tunnel was not visible. The fog was seriously about four feet high at that point. I know it's fun to play with dry ice, but calm down there!

I had the same issue with Javert as you did, @jallenc32 - the only notes that he sang as written were the big glory notes at the end of certain phrases. Everything else was willy nilly and all over the place. But after seeing Russell Crowe, I feel like I'm not allowed to complain since everyone else is a million times better than he was!

My husband agrees with you about the orchestrations. He hated some of the arrangements they used (his biggest complaint was the guitar).

Nick Cartell did a beautiful "Bring Him Home." My biggest complaint about him was that he didn't seem old enough to play Jean Valjean. The show begins at the end of his 19 year sentence and then jumps ahead eight years to when he's the mayor and then another nine years later. Even if he was only 16 when he stole that loaf of bread, that would make him 52 for the majority of the show and he obviously is nowhere near that old in real life (despite the grey hair he sports as older Valjean).

One thing I loved about the show is that SHN sent an email to all ticket holders stating that the show would start on time at 7:30pm and that there would be no late seating for the first 14 minutes of the show. The only down side was that as soon as the prologue was over, the ushers were running up and down the aisles with their flashlights on seating tons of late people during At the End of the Day.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 10:04am

The CSR is so outdated that I haven't listened to it in years (never mind the lack of chemistry between the cast members, the weird fades in and out during counterpoints, etc) that the cuts never bothered me. The majority of the cuts were made 16-17 years ago anyway.

[teatime2]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 11:30am

Are all of the cuts and new(er) orchestrations apparent on the 2010 cast recording?

[Kitsune]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 12:52pm

Sally Burns said: "Jallenc32 said: "Caught the show in Philly last night. Holy backphrasing Batman. I don't know if Javert ever sung two lines in a row as written. The show has devolved into cartoon (something that's been happening for years now), but I've never seen it played this badly & broadly on a major tour.

Also the new tour orchestrations were horrible. Incredibly synth heavy with a weird piano solo in On My Own. I'm actually wondering if a couple players were out and they couldn't get subs in time. They also completely cut the exit music which I found really odd.

I saw the tour in San Francisco and I found myself getting annoyed with several aspects of the show. First, like many other Les Mis fans, I have listened to the complete symphonic recording many times over the ears so it's really noticeable to me when a production cuts anything. The biggest cut was that they shortened Castle on a Cloud by removing an entire verse ("there is a room that's full of toys". They also got rid of the spoken line "There's a boy climbing the barricade" when Eponine returns from delivering Marius' letter. I know they got rid of the turntable, but they couldn't show her climbing in?

I had somehow forgotten my previous complaint about the last time I saw this show on tour, which was that they increased the tempo on many of the songs. They did it again which I felt was a detriment to anyone in the audience who wasn't already familiar with the songs. At one point (I can't remember which song), I thought man, if I didn't already know all the lyrics to this song, I would have no idea what words they spit out for that song rapidfire. The most egregious example of speeding up songs was A Little Fall of Rain. If you want people to feel the impact of Eponine's death, maybe don't have the two actors racing through the song. Give the actors and the audience a second to breathe.

The lighting was so dim that in some of the larger group numbers, I couldn't tell who was actually singing because it was so dark. I think it was Red and Black where I wanted to march myself to the light board and ask them to bump the dimmers up to 60%. The lights in that scene were dim plus there was some smoke and they used some backlighting so it was almost impossible to know who was actually singing which line. The dim lighting was a problem throughout the show. In several scenes, the wash for the stage was very dim with a blue or yellow cast and the only visible people were whoever had a spotlight on them, despite the fact that there were other main characters on the stage at the same time.

Whoever was running the fog effect was overzealous. When Jean Valjean drags Marius into the tunnels, there was so much fog that the door to the tunnel was not visible. The fog was seriously about four feet high at that point. I know it's fun to play with dry ice, but calm down there!

I had the same issue with Javert as you did, @jallenc32 - the only notes that he sang as written were the big glory notes at the end of certain phrases. Everything else was willy nilly and all over the place. But after seeing Russell Crowe, I feel like I'm not allowed to complain since everyone else is a million times better than he was!

My husband agrees with you about the orchestrations. He hated some of the arrangements they used (his biggest complaint was the guitar).

Nick Cartell did a beautiful "Bring Him Home." My biggest complaint about him was that he didn't seem old enough to play Jean Valjean. The show begins at the end of his 19 year sentence and then jumps ahead eight years to when he's the mayor and then another nine years later. Even if he was only 16 when he stole that loaf of bread, that would make him 52 for the majority of the show and he obviously is nowhere near that old in real life (despite the grey hair he sports as older Valjean).

One thing I loved about the show is that SHN sent an email to all ticket holders stating that the show would start on time at 7:30pm and that there would be no late seating for the first 14 minutes of the show. The only down side was that as soon as the prologue was over, the ushers were running up and down the aisles with their flashlights on seating tons of late people during At the End of the Day."

I haven't seen Les Mis in probably 15 years, and it is among my favorite musicals. Unfortunately I'm not seeing any Goldstar discounts for the SF run, and the rush has been very hard so far.

Would you say this production is worth shelling out $100+ for? Trying to decide if I would be willing to pay full price.

[Babe_Williams]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 1:13pm

I think it depends on how big of a Les Miz fan you are? I had not seen a newer production since they removed the turntables, and enjoyed it immensely. It def was sped up compared to what I am used to listening on the recordings. But I loved it. 

[HunterK]

Posted: 8/16/18 at 1:40am

teatime2 said: "Are all of the cuts and new(er) orchestrations apparent on the 2010 cast recording?"

I know for sure "On My Own" was re-orchastrated for the 2011 Revival Tour and Broadway. It's gorgeous, the needing of "At The End of the Day" into "I Dreamed A Dream" is completely different, Fantine starts out acapella.  Lot of small bits as well, but can't think of them at the moment.

The new tour for me was a C+ at best, and I was part of a revival production. They really are cutting more corners, even from the Broadway revival. The only thing I truly LOVE (also in the Broadway Revival) was when Eponine comes to see Marius at the barricade and throws herself in front of a bullet that would have hit Marius. To me, brilliant director's decision. but...that is about it! 

I am seeing it in October in New Haven with fellow alumni, let's see how that goes!