#1
Posted: 3/11/07 at 6:48pm
Saw Les Miz with Lea on Wednesday night, my first time seeing the new "revival" production. I will preface my review by saying I worked at the Imperial Theatre for a few years while Les Miz was playing there, and I've probably seen the show upwards of 100 times. Here are my thoughts on the current production at the Broadhurst:
ALEXANDER GEMIGNANI (Jean Valjean) was absolutely one of the best I've seen in this role. Jean Valjean is such an epic role, I think I lot of actors just try to sing the crap out of it and make it as broad and sweeping and epic as possible. Gemignani avoided this trap, making is Valjean one of the most human I have seen. He chose to honor the text and the story, make interesting and specific acting choices and finally, when appropriate, let his voice soar. His chemistry with Lea Salonga and Ali Ewoldt (as Fantine and Cosette, respectively) was spot-on, making his death scene very moving and poigniant. Vocally not the very best I've heard, but still one of my favorite performances in this role.
I didn't find NORM LEWIS (Javert) nearly as engaging as I'd hoped. I've been a fan of his work since I saw him in Side Show, but something about his Javert just didn't read for me. Another reviewer on this board said he'd thought the role of Javert might have gone over Lewis' head a bit, and I actually agree with this. Or perhaps he was just slightly miscast. He was in good voice, as usual, but I didn't find myself interested in him until his suicide soliloquy - which was well-acted. He also sang the "I am reaching but I fall..." bit up the octave which was very interesting (in a good way I think) - I'd never heard it that way before.
LEA SALONGA (Fantine) was breathtakingly beautiful. I confess, I'd never seen her live on stage before, and I've always preferred Frances Ruffelle's take on Eponine to Lea's. But her rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" was among the loveliest I've heard. Her voice is so pure and beautiful and she sings with such ease, it is really something to behold! Her Fantine was less gritty than many I've seen. She seemed like a really sweet, good-hearted, even slightly innocent woman thrust into a very terrible situation, making her demise even more tragic. She had wonderful chemistry with Alex Gemignani in her death scene, which was one of the more stand-out scenes of the show that night. I should also mention that she looked absolutely thrilled to be back on the Broadway stage. She was BEAMING during "One Day More". I was actually fairly indifferent to her before Wednesday evening, but I think I'm officially a fan now!
TESS ADAMS (Young Cosette) wasn't my favorite, that's all I'll say about that. KYLIE LIYA GOLDSTEIN was on as Young Eponine, I wish I had seen it the other way around. (Also Adams looks a lot like a young Celia Keenan-Bolger, while Goldstein more closely resembles Ali Ewoldt.)
JAMES CHIP LEONARD was on as Thenardier. He did well, his vocals were on and he was fine in the role, but greatly upstaged by JENNY GALLOWAY as Mme Thenardier. Truly, that woman is a master of physical comedy. She did the normal Mme Thenardier bits slightly more understated than other actresses I've seen, but she was still very successful with those tried and true jokes. She also added many new things that I've never seen in the show before, including running in while doing an operatic screech when Javert entered after "Look Down" - really funny, guess you had to be there. :)
I believe I saw JACOB LEVINE as Gavroche. I enjoyed him, very spunky and he sang the role well. I didn't like the addition of "Ten Little Bullets" in place of "Little People" though. Didn't work at all for me. In Gavroche's death in the original Broadway production, at least he was reprising a song we'd already heard and identified with Gavroche. "Ten Little Bullets" came out of nowhere and didn't last long enough to make much sense.
CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER as Eponine. I don't know where to start with this. When I was a teenager I was one of those Eponine groupies, and I remain very particular about this role to this day. Having said that, as Eponine, Celia was... puzzling. I liked that she chose to play her gawky, tomboyish, the opposite of cute, a true street rat. That is so much truer to the book than the glamourized, cute version that so many actresses choose, especially in more recent years. Some of Celia's acting seemed a little unnatural and over the top at times, but overall I liked her interpretation of the character. Her vocals were another story. (I cannot even believe I just wrote that because I have been awed by her voice pretty much every other time I've heard it.) She was very hard to listen to in this role. Her "On My Own" was alright (probably her strongest vocal moment, but that's not saying much), but everything else lacked depth and power, sometimes I could barely hear her, her vowels sounded bizarre... it was just... odd. Literally unpleasant to listen to. Maybe she was sick? That's the only explanation I can think of. I saw the show with a bunch of people who had seen her in Spelling Bee, and they were also really surprised by how she sounded in this role. I walked by the theatre a few days later and noticed that Marissa McGowan would be going on that evening, so I'm guessing she was just ill. Hope so.
ALI EWOLDT was a very endearing Cosette. Good actress, very pretty girl and she made the relationship between Cosette and Valjean very real to me. Her voice was pretty, but thin. She also sang above the pitch A LOT, which would bother some people more than others I guess. She also cracked on the high C in the "Heart Full of Love" reprise. I'm not saying it's easy to softly float your voice up to a high C, but this is Broadway show... ?? Yay for her acting, she looked beautiful, but not crazy about the singing.
I was disappointed with ADAM JACOBS as Marius. I found myself thinking "Is this the best they could get?" a lot during the Marius-Cosette-Eponine sections of the show. I found myself thinking "Are all the good young pop voices in Wicked?" He seemed like just a pretty face, a decent voice, not a lot going on behind the eyes. Granted, maybe that's what Marius IS, but... I've seen a lot better.
NEHAL JOSHI was on as Enjolras. The man clearly has the vocal chops to sing the role. However, he didn't have Enjolras's usual commanding presence and he seemed to disappear on stage. It occurred to me that this might have been one of his first times on in this role, and he did a formidable job, but I wish I'd seen Aaron Lazar.
I found the ensemble to be very hit and miss. There are some really good voices (fantastic ensemble sound on the big numbers) and some nice moments, but there were also some very amatuer-ish acting moments that made me cringe.
I really disliked most of the new orchestrations. I found them underwhelming most of the time, and also distracting at times. One thing I LOVED though was Grantaire playing the guitar in "Drink With Me". It really made something out of an otherwise lackluster filler song. It made the lines "Will the world remember you when you fall...?" etc. very poigniant.
I guess I felt underwhelmed by the show as a whole, and with a few exceptions (Alexander Gemignani, Lea Salonga and Jenny Galloway) I almost have to laugh at the "all-star cast" thing. I'm glad this production wasn't my first experience with Les Miz. It was in pretty tired shape when it closed at the Imperial a few years ago, and it still seems tired to me now.
ALEXANDER GEMIGNANI (Jean Valjean) was absolutely one of the best I've seen in this role. Jean Valjean is such an epic role, I think I lot of actors just try to sing the crap out of it and make it as broad and sweeping and epic as possible. Gemignani avoided this trap, making is Valjean one of the most human I have seen. He chose to honor the text and the story, make interesting and specific acting choices and finally, when appropriate, let his voice soar. His chemistry with Lea Salonga and Ali Ewoldt (as Fantine and Cosette, respectively) was spot-on, making his death scene very moving and poigniant. Vocally not the very best I've heard, but still one of my favorite performances in this role.
I didn't find NORM LEWIS (Javert) nearly as engaging as I'd hoped. I've been a fan of his work since I saw him in Side Show, but something about his Javert just didn't read for me. Another reviewer on this board said he'd thought the role of Javert might have gone over Lewis' head a bit, and I actually agree with this. Or perhaps he was just slightly miscast. He was in good voice, as usual, but I didn't find myself interested in him until his suicide soliloquy - which was well-acted. He also sang the "I am reaching but I fall..." bit up the octave which was very interesting (in a good way I think) - I'd never heard it that way before.
LEA SALONGA (Fantine) was breathtakingly beautiful. I confess, I'd never seen her live on stage before, and I've always preferred Frances Ruffelle's take on Eponine to Lea's. But her rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" was among the loveliest I've heard. Her voice is so pure and beautiful and she sings with such ease, it is really something to behold! Her Fantine was less gritty than many I've seen. She seemed like a really sweet, good-hearted, even slightly innocent woman thrust into a very terrible situation, making her demise even more tragic. She had wonderful chemistry with Alex Gemignani in her death scene, which was one of the more stand-out scenes of the show that night. I should also mention that she looked absolutely thrilled to be back on the Broadway stage. She was BEAMING during "One Day More". I was actually fairly indifferent to her before Wednesday evening, but I think I'm officially a fan now!
TESS ADAMS (Young Cosette) wasn't my favorite, that's all I'll say about that. KYLIE LIYA GOLDSTEIN was on as Young Eponine, I wish I had seen it the other way around. (Also Adams looks a lot like a young Celia Keenan-Bolger, while Goldstein more closely resembles Ali Ewoldt.)
JAMES CHIP LEONARD was on as Thenardier. He did well, his vocals were on and he was fine in the role, but greatly upstaged by JENNY GALLOWAY as Mme Thenardier. Truly, that woman is a master of physical comedy. She did the normal Mme Thenardier bits slightly more understated than other actresses I've seen, but she was still very successful with those tried and true jokes. She also added many new things that I've never seen in the show before, including running in while doing an operatic screech when Javert entered after "Look Down" - really funny, guess you had to be there. :)
I believe I saw JACOB LEVINE as Gavroche. I enjoyed him, very spunky and he sang the role well. I didn't like the addition of "Ten Little Bullets" in place of "Little People" though. Didn't work at all for me. In Gavroche's death in the original Broadway production, at least he was reprising a song we'd already heard and identified with Gavroche. "Ten Little Bullets" came out of nowhere and didn't last long enough to make much sense.
CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER as Eponine. I don't know where to start with this. When I was a teenager I was one of those Eponine groupies, and I remain very particular about this role to this day. Having said that, as Eponine, Celia was... puzzling. I liked that she chose to play her gawky, tomboyish, the opposite of cute, a true street rat. That is so much truer to the book than the glamourized, cute version that so many actresses choose, especially in more recent years. Some of Celia's acting seemed a little unnatural and over the top at times, but overall I liked her interpretation of the character. Her vocals were another story. (I cannot even believe I just wrote that because I have been awed by her voice pretty much every other time I've heard it.) She was very hard to listen to in this role. Her "On My Own" was alright (probably her strongest vocal moment, but that's not saying much), but everything else lacked depth and power, sometimes I could barely hear her, her vowels sounded bizarre... it was just... odd. Literally unpleasant to listen to. Maybe she was sick? That's the only explanation I can think of. I saw the show with a bunch of people who had seen her in Spelling Bee, and they were also really surprised by how she sounded in this role. I walked by the theatre a few days later and noticed that Marissa McGowan would be going on that evening, so I'm guessing she was just ill. Hope so.
ALI EWOLDT was a very endearing Cosette. Good actress, very pretty girl and she made the relationship between Cosette and Valjean very real to me. Her voice was pretty, but thin. She also sang above the pitch A LOT, which would bother some people more than others I guess. She also cracked on the high C in the "Heart Full of Love" reprise. I'm not saying it's easy to softly float your voice up to a high C, but this is Broadway show... ?? Yay for her acting, she looked beautiful, but not crazy about the singing.
I was disappointed with ADAM JACOBS as Marius. I found myself thinking "Is this the best they could get?" a lot during the Marius-Cosette-Eponine sections of the show. I found myself thinking "Are all the good young pop voices in Wicked?" He seemed like just a pretty face, a decent voice, not a lot going on behind the eyes. Granted, maybe that's what Marius IS, but... I've seen a lot better.
NEHAL JOSHI was on as Enjolras. The man clearly has the vocal chops to sing the role. However, he didn't have Enjolras's usual commanding presence and he seemed to disappear on stage. It occurred to me that this might have been one of his first times on in this role, and he did a formidable job, but I wish I'd seen Aaron Lazar.
I found the ensemble to be very hit and miss. There are some really good voices (fantastic ensemble sound on the big numbers) and some nice moments, but there were also some very amatuer-ish acting moments that made me cringe.
I really disliked most of the new orchestrations. I found them underwhelming most of the time, and also distracting at times. One thing I LOVED though was Grantaire playing the guitar in "Drink With Me". It really made something out of an otherwise lackluster filler song. It made the lines "Will the world remember you when you fall...?" etc. very poigniant.
I guess I felt underwhelmed by the show as a whole, and with a few exceptions (Alexander Gemignani, Lea Salonga and Jenny Galloway) I almost have to laugh at the "all-star cast" thing. I'm glad this production wasn't my first experience with Les Miz. It was in pretty tired shape when it closed at the Imperial a few years ago, and it still seems tired to me now.
Updated On: 3/11/07 at 06:48 PM
