They can cast a squirrel as Eponine for all I care, I just hope they don't transfer some of the more mediocre "improvements/updates (more like "distractions") that they put in the current tour.
Fantine's story leading up to her death was good just as it was, before they had her kicked in the vagina by a testy queen and croaking as a result, as opposed to complications of an illness that had already been spreading within her (TB). Bamatabois has always been portrayed as kind of flamboyant, but they turned him into a raging queen with tantrums of a petulant child, where he was mostly this bitter, stuck up dandy before. The changes aren't bad because they're changes--they're bad because they aren't as effective and to think audiences are so stupid, they need the reasons for Fantine's death spelled out in such a cheap manner, is irritating.
For 25 years audiences have read between the lines and--while it's never known what exactly Fantine succumbs to--it has worked just fine. I've always assumed she died of an illness, even when I first saw it on stage at age 11, and I distinctly remember enjoying the air of mystery surrounding the exact cause of death, which also gave her character a martyr-like essence, as opposed to the murder victim of a random angry queen of the present tour. It was frankly very silly. Almost comical.
Whether they cast a hermaphrodite, Ms. Swift, or sock puppet as Eponine or not, whatever, what's important to me is that they don't adopt the idiocy of turning "A Little Fall of Rain" into a gasping death rattle where you can't understand what is being sung. You might as well cut the character as they do in the majority of film adaptations. "A Little Fall of Rain" is obviously an alternate perspective of death set in song, but the new directors thought they should be "honest" and portray death as it is, even if it violently disagrees with the original intent and severely undermines the art form. In the original, we saw her die happy, finally in the arms of the one she loves and she consoles HIM, saying "it's alright, don't worry about me. Besides, look on the bright side, the rain will sprout new life, even if I'm losing mine."
It doesn't necessarily mean she dies without pain. It varied from actress to actress but the scene had always included a fair share of "reality" and every Eponine I've seen balanced that brutal sense of reality with the intent of the song--inviting the audience into her distinct frame of mind.
I can only hope Mr. Hooper gets it that this is a musical. You know, expression of what's usually the not-so-obvious that only song can deliver? This is why we have musicals in the first place--they express what the spoken word can't. So when you take a song obviously doing just that, that uses metaphors in the hopes of seeing the situation through the eyes of a character and getting a sense of her distinct feelings, and put a grim reality of DEATH in its place so that it overshadows everything, you are missing the point and need to stay far, far away from further directing.
What disappoints me most though is a very large number of fellow musical lovers whom you'd think would know better buy into it and think it actually is an improvement because it's "darker" or because it portrays "reality."
I don't know, the reality I get from the art of expression and storytelling through song that is the purpose of musical theatre, is far more real than a mere death rattle reenacted on stage.
Ahhhh, a rant! I did it aaaaaagain!!!!!
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
