Back from Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl — Page 3

uh just got back from the show. lol

A wonderful concert for fans of the show but a seriously abridged version.

Loved Valjean, J Mark McVey was fantastic. This man moved me to tears! Second stand out was Lea Michele. I've never heard her sing due to the fact that I have yet to listen to Spring Awakening. She was just awesome. The people around me were commenting on how lovely her voice was. BSM was good but seemed a little weak. Maybe the outdoor venue does something to certain performers. I just didn't think he was going for it. I did still enjoy him. JLY was very good. His Empty Chairs/Empty Tables was little too blah for my taste but he is a terrific singer.

What was up with the mics? The levels seemed off during some big numbers and next time, tone it down with electric guitar. I don't mind it being mixed into the orchestra but when you hear a big guitar chord it pulls you out of the moment.

Did not really dig Mdm. Thenardier. She was just too, I don't know, very Carol Burnett in Annie.. lol I mean she really annoyed me. She didn't have meat to her voice. Melora Hardin was lacking something vocally as well. She did okay with I Dreamed a Dream but her acting got a little corny. She redeemed herself a the end though. Her final scene with Valjean was extremely touching.

I loved the concert all in all. The ensemble and orchestra were excellent. I love the venue but maybe the concert would have worked better inside the Dorothy Chandler or Disney Hall. Everyone around me loved it. It was a great night with one my favorite musicals.

Saw the concert last night and loved it. We had box seats and had dinner all ready arranged and delivered by the time we got there. Since it was the 3rd night, and it being a Sunday, I thought that the Bowl wouldn't be full. Not the case...it was 90% full - very impressive.

Lea was fantastic as was John Lloyd Young! J Mark was wonderful as was Brian Stokes Mitchell. All ready being very familiar with the show, I could tell where songs/scenes had been edited down. The on screen naration did help, but I'm wondering if people could read it who sat way up high?

Young Gavorche (sp?) was very good, and young Cosette must have been having mic problems. At the end of Act 1, the Thenardiers (sp?), you couldn't hear them as they were singing. There were quite a few mic problems last night. They were very funny! Ruth Williamson was a hoot as Madame T. Since she's so different from Rosie, I'm sure the production team had to scramble to get a Madame T on short notice. She was wonderful. An earlier poster said that she reminded them of Carol Burnett in Annie? That thought never entered my mind. Ruth and I have done a few shows together here in LA.

Considering the local curfew, that all shows must end by 10pm on Sunday, and 11pm Tues-Sat, they did a fantastic job with the cuts to tell the story. And, with the space of the Bowl being so big, the way it was staged was just fine.

A completely delightful evening!

I saw it on Saturday night and I thought it was one of the most frustrating productions of the show I've seen. I've seen the show many times and have been in it, and I thought the cuts made terrible choices. There were so many continuity errors and at one point their on-screen summaries was just flat-out wrong. Plus the cuts made the orchestrations sound weird too. I knew a lot of people in it who would have been happier just doing the school version. I understand that they had to keep it under 2 1/2 hours, but that's what the school version is!

Besides that, I did enjoy a lot of the cast. McVey was the best Valjean I have ever seen, hands down. The way he actually plays the different age ranges Valjean goes through was flawless. Lea was amazing as Eponine, even Michael McKormick as Thenardier was hilarious. I thought that Hardin's Fantine was true to the character. While she doesn't have a powerhouse voice, I don't think Fantine needs it, it makes it more character driven which is perfect for Fantine. Also, Ruth Williamson was an excellent replacement for Rosie.

A lot of the others I was unimpressed with. JLY I thought was underwhelming and lacking character (which I know I'm not alone because I've had people in the show agree with me). Tom Lowe was also lacking the power of Enjolras. (and by the way, shouting "to the barricade" after one day more makes a really awkward transition to intermission).

So I don't know if it was my headache from the obnoxiously loud gunfire, or if I was prematurely upset because of the couple not being able to find their seats and standing in front of us for 20 minutes complaining about not finding there seats after they were 30 minutes late, but the show didn't quite meet my expectations. All of which, for me, stemmed around those truly quesionable cuts. I don't know how any Les Miz first timers could follow the show!

Saw the Saturday night show. I agree. This shouldn't be a newbie's intro to Les Miz. It will be frustrating and hard to follow. Overall, it was a mixed bag. My first time to see Lea Michelle and she was impressive vocally and acting-wise. She almost made me forget the other Lea (Salonga) but I missed Salonga's vulnerability. Michelle's Eponine was all toughness. Melora Hardin is a good actress but her singing was, as one poster put it, blah. She had problems with both high notes and lower register.

J Mark McVey was outstanding. His "Bring Him Home" was perfect (listening to that song at night, outdoors with a cool breeze on your skin just induced goosebumps) and his acting was just right, not too restrained and not too melodramatic. Talk about restrained, John Lloyd Young (Marius) was just too controlled (for my taste, anyway.) A little histrionics would have been more effective especially on such a humungous venue. Nice non-Frankie vocals, though. Michael Ball's version ("Empty Chairs..." particularly)is still the gold standard for Marius IMO.

You always expect the best from Brian Stokes-Mitchell and he did not disappoint here. The rest of the cast did very well considering all the cuts in most of the parts already mentioned.

Just not being swallowed up by the huge stage and venue was an accomplishment in itself and to be able to keep a majority of 18,000 people engaged for over 2 hours and rise for a standing ovation at the end was a testimony to the talent of all the people involved and the awesome beauty of this musical.

One complaint. If you're bringing liquor, try not to drop and break the bottle like the people behind us did, so we spent the entire night with our feet soaked in wine and the night air reeking of alcohol.

Updated On: 8/11/08 at 02:19 PM

yes, that smell of wine (and beer I think)...ugh, all I needed was the smell of stale urine and I would have thought we were in the French Quarter....way too many dropped glass bottles...

Brian Stokes-Mitchell was invincible......truly amazed with his performance......

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Updated On: 8/11/08 at 02:25 PM

Why would they record it for GP? It was not that good.

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DCS........huh? What??? I am absolutely baffeled how you could have thought that? I was there last night and could CLEARLY hear every word that Brian Stokes Mitchell sang. Yes, there were a few mic problems, but nothing to do with clearly singing the lyrics. How was the suicide scene over the top? Explain that. And, to laugh out loud........WOW! Rather immature, don't you think?

John Lloyd Young was very compassionate and very good, hardly "walking through" anything.

Sounds like something's bothering you. Just hate for last night's show to be on the receiving end of your misguided emotions.

> Why would they record it for GP? It was not that good.

PBS needs to start a MEDIOCRE PERFORMANCES series.

I posted some thoughts I had at the link below when I saw the show on Saturday evening. I don't think I had seen the Bowl that full before. I was afraid some people sitting on the hill walkways would roll down the incline if they had too much wine. :)

The Hollywood Bowl is an outside venue, so the smell of drinks, food and the hearing of wrappers is expected. It's suppose to be for families after all. I guess I was lucky in that where I was sitting I had a perfect view of the screens, no cell phones went off, no one stood up in front of me until during curtain call.

The show wasn't the best I've seen, but I was entertained. And it was one of the few times I could understand every word each character spoke/sang.
Les Mis Thoughts

I saw a Les Miz school edition where Javert actually did a swan-dive off the bridge upstage. (I assume onto a huge mattress.) The effect they used at the Bowl was nice, but really only worked if you'd seen the show before.

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Updated On: 8/11/08 at 11:31 PM

Can someone please explain how they staged the suicide?

He swirled around, not really jumped. At least from what I could tell -- but the lighting wasn't very good and was far too dark on the big screens.

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I saw the Friday night performance, and I took my teenage daughter for her first live Les Miz. She loved it, and has been singing "The Song of Angry Men" nonstop ever since. I enjoyed the concert presentation, missed everything that was cut but understood why, LOVED Stokes Mitchell's voice, agree with most of the other evals of the other actors/voices, but really hated the suicide scene. The staging reminded me of Eliza on the ice in the King and I's Uncle Tom's Cabin ballet, and I thought Javert's entrance into the water looked a little silly. I loved the Bowl, and the music against the backdrop of the night sky. On the whole, it was a lovely way to spend a summer night.