Les Miserables at Signature Theatre (Virginia)- Page 3

[MerMaggieGalinda]

Posted: 12/8/08 at 5:31pm

Wow, I love the look of the set! It's very dark and grim. The Thenardiers look very sinister.

[Spider Woman]

Posted: 12/8/08 at 6:08pm

The show is pretty awesome. I don't really get the chair thing at beginning and the Val Jean is not my favorite, but, having seen the show in Washington, Baltimore, NYC and London I can say that this production is unique (in a good way). Never have I been to see Les Miz where people whooped after songs. Fantine and Eponine will blow you away. The ensemble boys rock.Javert's death...woah! Brava to Eric and the gang!!

[GetUp&LiveIt]

Posted: 12/8/08 at 7:00pm

Outstanding. Saw the show this past weekend. The design is gritty and dark, the orchestra is stellar, and the cast is for the most part top notch. The women are particularly good. Tracy Lynn Olivera and Stephanie Waters are wonderful as Fantine and Cosette. The Eponine, Felicia Curry, really steals the show though. Her On My Own is possibly the best I've ever heard.
Updated On: 12/8/08 at 07:00 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 12/8/08 at 7:08pm

I'm taking a friend who has never seen a production of Les Miserables. This production is a bit radical visually. Is it still easy to grasp the story line?

[GetUp&LiveIt]

Posted: 12/8/08 at 7:37pm

I thought so.

[Trekkie2]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:11pm

Bumping this thread due to the fact that I just got tickets for tonight and am so excited! I'll be sure to post my thoughts when I get home.

[Brandy_Breath]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:48pm

So, posting my thoughts from Saturday night. You may not want to read this if you don't want to know some things about the show before seeing it.

This is Tim Burton meets Les Mis. And it works so well.

Everything is black really except a few exceptions - Cosette's dress (yay for the black dress of BLAH not being used) and the armbands. Everything else is black or some other form of neutral color.

This space is VERY small and it makes the show so intense. Eleasha (and the rest of the ensemble) was staring down the people in the front row during At The End of the Day, it was so cool. I don't think she can do anything but, to quote a friend, sing her face off. I would love to see her as Fantine.

Fantine and Cossette are my least favorite characters and usually I just want Fantine to die so we can get on to my favorite parts. But, not with Tracy. She had me and the people behind me crying during I Dreamed a Dream. Tracy also plays Fantine not if she is dying from TB, but VD (this is from something she said back in September). Without all the melodramatic coughing, her death actually was sad for me for the first time.

The ensemble boys (and girls!) are all love. I can't wait to see Matt as Thenadier. Oh, and AJ is really good as Gavroche in his clothes that are too big for him. Don't wear a Les Mis shirt around him unless you want him to start singing the show to you. lol, I was wearing a 24601 shirt from London and he went around singing Who Am I?.

What makes this production so unique from others, besides from doing things differently from the "traditional" Les Mis things they either aren't allowed to do or just aren't, is that they paid attention to little details. When Epponine and the students died, there was blood. When Valjean is singing about drinking the water from the pool - there is a little pool of water. When Thenadier is singing about the sewers running with blood - blood comes down from the pipes in the ceilings. Valjean and Cossette give out REAL coins to the poor. It is just the little things.

And one last thing...

**Big spoiler coming up**
Javert shoots himself instead of jumping to his death and does not finish the song. I can't explain how it changes the tone for who Javert is/his mindset and that scene, but it is intense.
**End spoiler**

The only big complaint I have about this production is Greg Stone. He was okay, not my favorite in the world. I'll (hopefully) be going many times more and maybe he'll grow on me.

(Sorry if names are misspelled! My internet is being wonky.)

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:46pm

**Big spoiler coming up**
Javert shoots himself instead of jumping to his death and does not finish the song. I can't explain how it changes the tone for who Javert is/his mindset and that scene, but it is intense.
**End spoiler**

This sounds interesting, and somehow makes more sense than Javert fake!jumping to his death.

I'd really love to see this production, if not for the changes in costuming and staging details alone.

[matty159]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:56pm

Thanks for that review, Brandy. That just really lit the fire under me to get there to see it!

[rapplega]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:44pm

Great reviews in Washington Post and Variety.

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR2008121603112.html

Variety: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939224.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 11:17am

Here is Gary McMillan's review of Les Miz on DC Theatre Scene.
DC Theatre Scene's Gary McMillan on Les Miz

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 11:25am

Check all the Les Miz reviews and those to come at THEIR REVIEWS at DC Theatre Scene.
ALL THE LES MIZ REVIEWS IN ONE PLACE

[actorgaedu]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 1:04pm

Does anyone know how the obstructed view seats are?

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 1:16pm

According to someone on all that chat, you miss some of the barricade and anything upstage. I asked the same question. An $80 price tag at Signature is obscene!

[Jay4]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 11:42pm

I've seen 2 shows in that theatre that weren't even noted as obstructed and was either looking at the backs of the actors heads 75% of the time or had my view totally blocked of some of the actors during the entire prodcution. Avoid the seats at the ends of the side sections!

[hubee]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 1:42am

I did rush and got lucky with centre of side Dress Circle and they were perfect. (though not an easy theatre to do rush since it's so out of the way so if you don't get it, it would suck)

I'm not an all out fan of Les Mis (I think its great. I don't think its perfect though) but it was a really cool experience seeing it so up close and personal and IN YOUR FACE (which is good and bad because it brings out some of the inherent flaws of the show itself).

The production is great though and a lot of the cast is GREAT (esp Eponine, Madame Thénardier and Andrew Call as Marius (who I thought was great in Glory Days so I feel a bit vindicated here that he was just playing a dumb jock in that and not just a dumb actor and his voice is outstanding (and actually better than I remembered it))).

I will say though that I did not love Greg Stone as Jean Val Jean either. I didn't love Cosette either. (oddly, those were the two actors that played their roles on Broadway).

Still, if you're a Les Mis fan or musical theatre fan in general, it's worth seeing just for the different experience.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 1:44am

Tom Zemon was also on Broadway. What'd you think of him?

And it's Valjean, not Val Jean.

[hubee]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 1:53am

Tom Zemon was perfectly unlikable. I didn't like "him" but that's probably the point! Voice wise he was better than Stone.

Stone wasn't BAD but I've just heard better and again, since you're in such a small space. You hear EVERY little wrong inflection and note and everything just becomes more obvious. You can't hide like you could in a larger theatre.

Ooops. Valjean I mean.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 7:39pm

Here's an interesting time-lapse video of the Les Miserables set construction.
http://www.youtube.com/user/sigtheatre

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/30/08 at 7:41pm

Ah, I feel gypped! They show you that video when you go on the behind-the-scenes tour, and make you feel like you're someone special! Turns out anyone can see it online. Hmph.