Les Miserables Tour 2017 — Page 3

Kitsune said: 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."

I agree with Babe_Williams - it really depends how much you love Les Mis and how okay you are with the changes. I paid $95 for center orchestra seats when they went on sale in January and I was fine with that price because I have loved Les Mis for years, but I wasn't willing to pay $210.for the premium orchestra seats (and after seeing the show, I'm really glad I didn't pay twice as much to sit a little closer). To me, seeing this production is definitely not worth $200+.

One thing I hate about SHN is how they keep increasing ticket prices for the same shows. I know they're allowed to but it sucks. The same seat I paid $95 for is now $122-$147 (through SHN, not resale) depending on what day/time you go. As much as I love Les Mis, with all the issues that bothered me in this production, it wouldn't have been worth $150/ticket to me.

As you can see from my list of complaints above, I definitely had some problems with this production. If the issues I described would detract greatly from your enjoyment of the songs, then I'd stay home and just listen to the soundtrack. At least you know what you're getting with that! But if you really love seeing the show live, I'd say go since you don't know if the next version of the tour will be any better. Ha, that sounds very pessimistic but as HunterK pointed out, they keep cutting more corners so I have no reason to believe that they will massively improve things in future tours.

The show I saw had only one cast substitution (a swing performed for Feuilly). The entire cast was perfectly fine (unlike when someone gave me tickets to a non-equity tour of Rent and I thought my ears were going to bleed from some of the off pitch singing) so the singing and performances are not going to be a huge disappointment.

One of my pet peeves is when they hire people to play Eponine who can't hit all the low notes in A Little Fall of Rain. Sam Barker was the queen of "acting" on all the low notes (pain and rain) to hide the fact that she couldn't reach those notes, which annoys me to no end. Paige Smallwood (the new Eponine who just joined the tour cast two weeks ago) wasn't nearly as egregious

They have daily rush (TixToday and in person) for $40, not sure how many tickets they typically have. But if you can see this show for $40 from balcony/side of orchestra, it's good. I did pay full price but I'm a subscriber so I got some discount for orchestra center seats.

 

I wasn't going to see this tour as I did not like the revision (not the performance) when I saw in 2013, but I found decent seats (Opheum is huge but as long as you sit in the center orchestra close to the aisle, pretty much any seats have good view) so decided to revisit. 

 

I got an u/s JVJ and the main JVJ looks young on the picture, and ANDREW MAUGHAN looks young but not as young as Nick. I always look forward to the scene with the priest, and since Andrew who is the priest when he's not understudying was JVJ, the u/s priest went on and oversang the scene, I was disappointed. The overall impression of this company is that everybody sings in a big voice and belting. I could not hear any subtlety, Eponine's On My Own sounded like a scream. I'm always hard on Javert but Josh Davis lacked the crucial vulnerability. 

 

I wanted to check who I saw in the last tour company and it was in 2013, and as soon as I saw a couple of actors' name, it reminded me that THAT tour company was pretty good. Peter Lockeyer as JVJ, Jason Forbach was Enjolras, and Grantaire was Jason's husband, Joseph Spieldenner. 

 

During the show, I remembered the performance I saw in Toronto in 1998, that was the tour when Colm came back as JVJ. Gosh it's 20 yrs ago, but I still remember the entire cast (except Javert lol) was excellent. Glad I made that trip!

LizzieCurry said: "Todd Alan Johnson?"

 

Ohhh yes I think so! And Timothy Howar was Marius and he was super cute.

 

Keala Settle did the flirting thing with Ramin Karimloo and it was hysterical. And in her final performance she even made him break for a moment. 

Seconding what adamgreer said about Andrew Varela and Philip Quast.

Thanks, everyone. My friend finally confirmed that she wanted a ticket as her belated birthday present from me to her. I had to figure out how to outsmart the online purchasing program, which wanted me to buy three tickets (together) rather than just the two I needed, but I figured it out. So tickets are purchased for 9/23. So I’ll be going to Oz (in Tulsa) on 9/6 then France (by way of OKC) less than 3 weeks later.

Updated On: 8/20/18 at 08:40 PM

Miles2Go2,

Are you seeing it in New Haven? 

Actually is anyone seeing it at the Shubert in New Haven?  It's a great venue to see Les Mis.  It's cozier than these huge touring houses and everyone is closer and more connected to the action.  Plus, the sound system is awesome.