Saw it last night and it is really a first rate revival
We joked immediately that the turntable was gone. Seriously, everyone in the cast is first rate. Ramin acted and sang the hell out of Valjean. Swenson held his own as Javert. From top to bottom, the cast is uniformly great.
Much has been said of darkness of the sets. Well duh that is what they are supposed to look like. There were plenty of 3 dimensional sets. What helped this revival immensely was the projections by the same team that did similar duties on Big Fish. Whether it was Valjean in the Paris sewers or the rebels marching in Paris or Javert suicide, the projections really did the trick.
The orchestrations were up to the task.
During the opening chords of Bring Him Home, we immediately started thinking about Forbidden Broadway and the song "Bring It Down/The Keys To High". We looked at each other & had a silent laugh.
Naturally they were selling stuff. Inexplicably, there was no hoodie or baseball cap or sleep shirt much to my wife's unhappiness. She had to settle for a $40 tee shirt and naturally the fridge magnet. Food was being hawked like at a baseball games including a $ 14 wines in their shubert cups. Latecomers were few and far between except some couple who came in midway thru act 1
I have seen the obligatory standing ovations everyone mentions . The standing O here was instantaneous and heart felt. This was a standing o that raised the roof.
P.S.
If you want to see what the evil Mr R looks like with his wife, go onto facebook. It is under name Marsha Hoffman Diamond(my wife's account)
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Updated On: 3/28/14 at 11:45 AM
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