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Les Miserables

Friday, June 24, 2011

Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles

It's hard to believe that it has already been 25 years since Les Miserables first opened on stage, but it's true.  The musical is my very favorite one above all of the others, so when I saw that the tour was returning to L.A., I bought my pre-sale ticket and was happy to see that I could get a seat in the second row of the orchestra section.  Hells, yeah!  


So I drove down to the Ahmanson Theater at the Music Center a bit early, thinking that I would encounter Dodger Stadium traffic, which I did not.  So I sat around for a while before finally going upstairs.  I believe that I was following one of the performers up the escalator, because she had a rental car key in her hand, and she wasn't dressed to attend theater, and I saw her go around the crowds to the stage door.  I wondered if I'd recognize her on stage, but since I didn't get a really good glimpse of her, I wasn't sure.  Besides, the people on stage don't all have the same color as in the headshots in the program, so I don't know.  No, I wasn't stalking her.  ;)


As I watched whomever-she-was walk around, I saw that an a cappella group was performing next to the theatre, named the Street Katz.  They were singing "Dock of the Bay", and also sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which are pretty much a/c standards.  Their sound was quite good, but I wanted to get inside, so I didn't stay for much more than that.  


I went to my seat, and couldn't believe how close I was to the orchestra pit.  I don't think that I've ever sat that close to the stage at the Ahmanson before, and I was near the center, so my view was amazing, especially because the 2 seats in front of me were empty until Intermission.  Oh, I was happy!  I knew that there would be no turntable on stage, and that there would be some sort of projections used for this tour.  So let's start, already!


Well, it didn't take more than one musical phrase before I started getting tears in my eyes.  Mind you, there's not really an overture for this show, so I was tearing up during the *introduction* to the prologue.  I think that I was just really overwhelmed that I was about to see my favoritest show up close.  I smiled at myself, thinking at what a sap I am sometimes.  


Instead of the prison setting that I'm used to seeing for the show, the men were seated and rowing or something like that instead of digging or whatever they were doing in their chain gang before.  Then I started tearing up again when the bishop gave Valjean the silver candlesticks, knowing that this is what changes Valjean to become a better person.  "I have bought your soul for God."  


Then came Valjean's soliloquy.  Oh my goodness, J. Mark McVey has an INCREDIBLE voice.  He got a huge cheer after this song, and the screen came down with a projection of the show title.  What an amazing beginning!


I noticed that the conductor was taking the tempo quicker than usual.  This must be the trend on Broadway now, because I felt like they were rushing Beauty and the Beast, too.  Or maybe it's just for the touring companies.  Whatevs.  Since Les Miz is such a long show in its original version, I understand the need to quicken the pace a little bit.  But sometimes it doesn't work for me, because I tend to be a purist.  For instance, "I Dreamed A Dream" went a little too quickly, and I wondered how Betsy Morgan was going to catch her breath and emote at the same time.  But she was wonderful.  I liked her interpretation in the phrasing, because it made more sense to me her way for some reason.  


OK, so I never realized that Fantine's first john is actually the Foreman.  I just checked the book from The Complete Symphonic Recording, and it's a sailor.  The Foreman actually provides more impact, seeing as he wanted her when she was working at the factory.   Yes, I cried when Fantine died, especially because there was Valjean, making a promise to take care of a child he'd never met before.  Wow, I was seated so close that I could actually see part of the brand on Valjean's chest when he revealed himself in court.


Oh, the Thenardiers.  How can you not love their boorish behavior?  He spits on a table to clean it, spits in a mug to clean it, picks his nose before shaking a guest's hand, and steals everything he can.  Then there's the Mrs., whom was hilarious in her lyrics of "Master of the House", especially my favorite line of hers, "Thinks he's quite a lover but there's not much there", and demonstrating this visually with a (limp) baguette and chopping it up.  The crowd loved it.  I loved it.  What's not to love about these two, besides the fact that they're actually awful people?  ;)  Michael Kostroff and Shawna M. Hamic were thoroughly entertaining.


Enjolras looked like Peter Frampton to me, because of his long, blond curly hair and his thin stature.  Seriously, I think he should be in "Rock of Ages" or something.  He's got a great voice, though, better than P.F.'s.  


I wasn't really a fan of the people playing Cosette tonight, young and old, but at least their voices matched each other, so that the aging was seamless.  I've always been more of an Eponine fan, anyway, because I relate more to her character than to Cosette's.  So in the two trios they sang, I felt much more for Eponine.  I can't remember which line it was, but she added a bluesy grace note in one phrase, and I smiled, thinking that Sarah Shahinian, understudy for the role, was making it her own.  And she was wonderful.  


For "One Day More", they had the marching choreography, with the projections on the screen behind the actors making it look like they were actually walking down the street.  It was pretty cool.  The characters with the individual solos in this song sang from the sides of the stage, from their buildings.


At intermission, I intermissed, and then got my tissues ready for Eponine to sing my favorite torch song.  I was a little annoyed, though, that the couple that had not been sitting in front of me had finally decided to sit down in their seats, because they weren't short enough to not block my view of center stage.


Yup, "On My Own" is my favoritest musical theatre song of all.  Yup, I cried.  It did not take that long for me to get there, either.  Ms. Shahinian's soulful and beautiful voice just got to me.  Thanks, Sarah!  So when she died in Marius' arms, I could hear the pain in her voice, partly because I could not see her due to her lying down on the stage floor and the man in front of me not having shrunken his head before the song started.  Not that I could have seen well through all of the tears anyway.


Oh, yeah, Marius!  Justin Scott Brown has a beautiful voice, but because I'm me, I kept thinking of Kevin Wright whenever he sang.  I wish that I could have seen Kev do that on stage.  Aw, I miss him again.  So, yeah, that went through my mind a few times.  Sorry, Justin.  It's not your fault that I'm obsessed with Rockapella.  


Then came the quintessential moment of Les Miz:  Valjean singing "Bring Him Home".  I think I cried from the 3rd word into the entire fricking song.  You see, during the introduction, Mr. McVey looks up to the sky, then bows his head in prayer, then sings "God on high" in that beautiful tenor, and has the audience mesmerized.  I thought of the plan that President Obama had announced this week to have the troops come home from Afghanistan, and could feel the relief of the families of the soldiers, especially Liz's.  No, the people on stage weren't depicting any kind of American battle, but the sacrifices still hit me.  I wanted to give a standing ovation right after this song, but refrained from doing so.  It was sung with such emotion and so beautifully that I wanted it to go on forever, but I don't think my heart could take it, because I was on the verge of audibly sobbing. 


Aw, they cut out a bunch of Gavroche's lines in "Little People"!  You know, the whole "Little People" stanza.  The only time he sings those lines in this production is when he's gathering the bullets and getting shot.   Because there is no turntable, we didn't actually get to see him die.  We also didn't get to see Enjolras actually die, but they are shown after the battle in the back of a cart.  I cried without the turntable anyway.  ;)


So then Valjean dragged Marius threw the sewers, and the projections were really, really cool.  He would turn right into one tunnel, and the projection would change, and so forth.  Neato.  An echo was also added during "Dog Eat Dog" so that it actually sounded like Thenardier was in a tunnel.


Javert's soliloquy was the first moment that I actually liked Andrew Varela's performance.  Perhaps that's because it's the moment that he gets to show more emotion than the dutiful policeman.  I think it's also because his songs were the ones that I felt were the most rushed.  So I wondered at this point, "how are they going to have him fall?"  The bridge wasn't very high, and there wasn't any use of trap doors during the rest of the show.  Here is where the projections came in handy again.  As Javert jumps, he is hung on wires as the projection shows an abyss.  Cool again!


I really missed the turntable during "Turning".  It was weird to see the little girl try to twirl her mother around, when they were all so sad at the time.


J. Mark McVey is really, really good.  At the beginning of the show, he was a strong, young man, and by the end of the show, he is old and dying, and you could see how much he aged not so much with the makeup, but through his body movements.  By the time that Fantine and Eponine called him to heaven, I was an absolute wreck, with tears streaming down my face.


"To love another person is to see the face of God."


What a wonderful, wonderful show.  Oh, I'm going to cry again.


I bought a CD and a shirt after the show.  I also told the guy selling them that they should sell Les Miz Kleenex.  He told me that was a good idea.  Seriously, marketing people should ask me to think up stuff for their shows.