Tonight, I was able to see a production of Les Miserables at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. It was my first time seeing the entire musical and let me say, it was phenomenal. However, coming from my old high school's drama department, I do have a bit of a critic in me, so there are a few things I wanted to talk about.
If you do not know what it's about, I'm not going to summarize it because it's very complicated. I tried to explain the basic plot to my dad but it still took about twenty minutes because there's so many little things that have to be included! So if you are unfamiliar with the musical, you can read about it on Wikipedia so you can understand the characters and scenes I'm talking about.
Firstly, I'd like to talk about the set and lighting. As part of the set, they had this screen that they would project onto to show the background or scenery, and in some cases it moved. Like when Jean Valjean was carrying Marius through the sewers, they had a sewer image projected onto the screen that moved so it looked like he was traveling through the sewers. I thought that was very cool.
The lights, though, were a bit less than satisfactory. The overall lighting and color filters they used were good and fit the mood. However, there were some times where a performer was not in enough light. I don't know why, but their faces were in shadow. There was one scene at the beginning with Javert singing and he was the main focus, but if you hadn't been paying attention, you wouldn't have known which person onstage was him because his face was in shadow and he had the same amount of light as everyone else. Also, the spotlight that was following people sometimes missed and the people would be out of the light for a few seconds.
Now, to discuss the performers. There's a lot I could say about them, but I will keep it brief. The man playing Javert was a great actor, but I couldn't understand what he was saying most of the time. I already knew some of the lyrics to the songs, so I understood those parts, but the parts that I didn't know sounded like gibberish. He could articulate a little more. I think that bothered me so much because articulation is one of the most important things we work on at my old school's theatre program. The audience needs to understand what you are saying.
Eponine was a phenomenal singer, but I don't think her voice was right for the part. The girl has an incredible voice, but sometimes, the songs would sound a bit awkward with her voice. She killed the end of On My Own, though. I was almost in tears because she sounded so wonderful. Also, her acting wasn't up to par. I mean, obviously Eponine would be a difficult character to play, and she did a decent job, but I don't think she really thought about the different layers that went into her character. She was good, but she could have done a much better job.
I also didn't hate Cosette as much as I thought I would. I know that there are a lot of people who don't like Cosette, and I'm not quite sure why. She isn't a bad character. I think it's mostly because people feel bad for Eponine, and that causes them to hate Cosette. I love Eponine, but I also really like Cosette too, and I like her relationship with Marius. It's what the story needed. Marius was never in love with Eponine anyway, and Eponine knew that. If Marius had been torn between Cosette and Eponine, then I might understand people not liking Cosette because he chose her instead, but there was no choice. He always loved Cosette and they have a good relationship.
I'm not sure if my rant about Cosette is considered complaining, but I'm going to stop complaining now so I don't seem whiny and talk about people I liked. My favorite actors were those playing Jean Valjean, Fantine, and the inkeeper & his wife. Those people were absolutely outstanding. Especially Fantine and Valjean. I was in tears at Fantine's Death because it was so...beautiful. I'm not sure that's the right word, but both actors were amazing and brought so much emotion and talent to the scene that it had me in tears. The other number I really liked was Master of the House. It was hilarious.
I'm also glad that Fantine and Cosette actually looked like they could be related. Often, I've seen that Fantine looks more like Eponine than Cosette for some reason, which makes no sense because Cosette is Fantine's daughter. And then there's the the 25th Anniversary Concert with Lea Salonga as Fantine and Katie Hill as Cosette. How do you go from Asian to white and blonde? I don't get it. But this time they were both blonde, so that was good.
Overall, it was a great production. I'm actually really excited for the film to come out later this year, and I plan on going to see it at midnight! I'm also glad that Samantha Barks is Eponine for the film because, of all the different girls I've seen as Eponine on youtube and such, she is my favorite.
Anyway, I should be getting to bed because I have to be up early tomorrow because I have freshman orientation. Yay college! Before I go, I wanted to let you know that I have a new blog on Tumblr for short stories and such that I write, so you can check that out if you'd like at http://deathbypolarbear.tumblr.com/
Until next time.
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