I love Rob. And Anderson. And Nikki.
Sep. 8th, 2008 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmebahorelNot so sure I love Fred Hanson. Costume issues - too much shiny. Poor Rob had this shiny black vest that looks like what Percy would inflict on Chauvelin. It do shimmer so. Cosette's dress is nice, but then she has a horridly shiny petticoat that shows when she's sitting on the bench in her garden. All the men's coats have horrendously shiny linings that are really distracting. Poor Rob Evan I swear was wearing a costume that was a knockoff of something Powers Boothe had in Deadwood. And Enjolras continues to make his own clothes *facepalm*.
However, the sets were terrific: most of the projections worked (except for the scribbly ball of angst that I just didn't get), the set pieces were used extremely effectively, and there was no turning around of the barricade thank god. For Gav's death, some actors come out as national guard, attacking the audience, while the barricade is attacking backstage. These are picked off one by one as the argument about going after bullets goes on. Gav goes over the barricade, backstage, then slips through a door in the barricade to come downstage to pick through the guards. After he's dead, with the angsty timpani, the boys come downstage, are brightly lit from below, looking all angsty, as if they've gathered to watch, and in the dark behind them everyone dead on the "other" side of the barricade hurries off, so when the loudhailer comes up, everyone is clustered downstage and moves back upstage to the barricade. (by everyone, I mean only the named boys - a scattering of women and "workers" remain in their places on or near the barricade.) I thought it worked extremely well. Oh, and they were making bullets! They had what today would be an oil drum, and Nikki and Joseph Dellger were definitely stirring molten lead and making bullets right there on the barricade. It was pretty dang cool.
Rob Evan is fine - nothing amazing, but not awful. Earlier in a week indoors would probably have helped his BHH. He maintains a bit of a rough edge to the end, and I think if the Thenardiers had pushed him a little harder, at least one of them would have been bleeding.
Rob Hunt, obviously, I adore, because he is awesome.
Nikki I always thought the best sung of the Broadway revival Fantines, but I preferred Havi because she had balls. Well, Nikki was fierce last night :) I wish they hadn't been so careful with the stage combat because it looked v. slow and thus v. fake from the front row, so she wasn't really getting thrown around as much as she should have by Bambi, but she was definitely giving him what for and laughing at him, too. Plus it's Nikki and she's gorgeous and I love her.
Laurent Giroux was an interesting Thenardier - his Waltz was freaking awesome, but his MotH was just kinda there (though thankfully he was letting the material do its work without forcing it). I think I would have liked him better with someone other than Cindy Benson, who I've never really liked as Mme T. What was annoying, though, is that he was doing a Thenardier voice, which was OK and all, but he had these really strong, nearly operatic low notes that he couldn't do in his Thenardier voice, and it just made me long for someone overall better sung (ok, so I found myself missing David McDonald, particularly in DED, and I haven't seen David in many years - I didn't go when he filled in in DC). But his Waltz was great. Particularly "let's not haggle for darling Colette" - Cindy smacked him in the shoulder and corrected "Cosette", of course, but he looks at her and shouts "Cosette?" as if "What the hell? No way. You've been telling me for years her name is Colette, why the hell are you bringing this up now?" and seems about to smack her.
Anderson, OMG, Anderson! Gorgeous, adorable, dorky, all at once, and then his ECAET made my cry so hard. I love this boy so much. (and we chatted a bit about the novel after, so of course, more win) why is it that I'm not exactly Dolt Boy's biggest fan, but I keep finding all these incredibly awesome actors making me adore the role? (so, where are all the good Eponines hiding, hmm?)
Jenny Fellner is a perfectly fine Eponine. She's not too cute, but she's not really the crazy ballsy Eponine I actually like. I did like that it appears she's the only Eponine I've ever seen with stringy hair, and Marius mostly makes contact with the brim of her cap. Good voice, got better staging for OMO than usual (she got to start out curled up in a ball against a wall, hugging her knees, which went perfectly with her portrayal), she got to do what I love in ALFOR (try to sit down rather than collapse dying in Marius' arms straight off because she's trying to not give in to the whole "I love you" thing yet), and Anderson did well with her, keeping some distance but it still feeling realistic when he was upset she died in his arms.
Deborah Lew is a perfectly fine Cosette. Nothing OMG amazing, but a better match to Anderson than, say, Leah was to Adam. A good pairing helps. I wish they'd restored the IML cut, but she and Rob Evan handled it without her being too much of a pushy bitch and without him getting too upset. And she got a balcony scene, and it was adorable. (only she came down for Anderson instead of him climbing up the way Josh did. Really, it was freaking dorky and adorable, she was looking the other direction, Anderson had to climb on the bench to get her attention and startled her half to death, then when she disappeared from the window, he literally facepalmed, and then when they're both finally on the ground together, they keep turning around at the wrong times and getting each other's backs. It's really cute.) And she's v. nice at the end, with Every Day and Valjean's death, but Cosette gets so little it's unfair.
I have a new baritone and his name is Edward Watts. Physically, he sorta makes me think of Tewks, but vocally, he reminds me so much of Ben Davis that I was in love from "Where are the leaders of the land?" OMG gorgeous powerful voice with a v. similar tone to Ben. Ben was a much better Enjolras, but Edward did nothing really wrong, just missed a lot of the nuances that you get when you spend more time in a role with sympathetic cast members and a director who doesn't make you quit doing good things. He was better than fine, and OMG that voice.
The projections were pretty awesome and rather what I had hoped would be done for the Broadway revival. They looked like mezzotint illustrations from a 19th century edition of the novel, except without people in them. Black and white mostly, smudgy but detailed, and everything from the dark forest where Valjean finds Cosette to Parisian street scenes that recede while everyone is marching in the ODM triangle so they actually are *gasp* going somewhere! The most effective, I thought, were the sewer ones, which receded as Valjean moved forward and changed to show tunnels branching off, a wide space with a ledge, and finally showed where they came out under the bridge, all looking like they were taken from a book on the Paris sewers.
Rob is not doing a somersault - it's a log roll. Alas.
Working on the necessary follow-up, hopefully will finish tonight. Right now, I'm going to go outside because it's probably warmer there than here.
However, the sets were terrific: most of the projections worked (except for the scribbly ball of angst that I just didn't get), the set pieces were used extremely effectively, and there was no turning around of the barricade thank god. For Gav's death, some actors come out as national guard, attacking the audience, while the barricade is attacking backstage. These are picked off one by one as the argument about going after bullets goes on. Gav goes over the barricade, backstage, then slips through a door in the barricade to come downstage to pick through the guards. After he's dead, with the angsty timpani, the boys come downstage, are brightly lit from below, looking all angsty, as if they've gathered to watch, and in the dark behind them everyone dead on the "other" side of the barricade hurries off, so when the loudhailer comes up, everyone is clustered downstage and moves back upstage to the barricade. (by everyone, I mean only the named boys - a scattering of women and "workers" remain in their places on or near the barricade.) I thought it worked extremely well. Oh, and they were making bullets! They had what today would be an oil drum, and Nikki and Joseph Dellger were definitely stirring molten lead and making bullets right there on the barricade. It was pretty dang cool.
Rob Evan is fine - nothing amazing, but not awful. Earlier in a week indoors would probably have helped his BHH. He maintains a bit of a rough edge to the end, and I think if the Thenardiers had pushed him a little harder, at least one of them would have been bleeding.
Rob Hunt, obviously, I adore, because he is awesome.
Nikki I always thought the best sung of the Broadway revival Fantines, but I preferred Havi because she had balls. Well, Nikki was fierce last night :) I wish they hadn't been so careful with the stage combat because it looked v. slow and thus v. fake from the front row, so she wasn't really getting thrown around as much as she should have by Bambi, but she was definitely giving him what for and laughing at him, too. Plus it's Nikki and she's gorgeous and I love her.
Laurent Giroux was an interesting Thenardier - his Waltz was freaking awesome, but his MotH was just kinda there (though thankfully he was letting the material do its work without forcing it). I think I would have liked him better with someone other than Cindy Benson, who I've never really liked as Mme T. What was annoying, though, is that he was doing a Thenardier voice, which was OK and all, but he had these really strong, nearly operatic low notes that he couldn't do in his Thenardier voice, and it just made me long for someone overall better sung (ok, so I found myself missing David McDonald, particularly in DED, and I haven't seen David in many years - I didn't go when he filled in in DC). But his Waltz was great. Particularly "let's not haggle for darling Colette" - Cindy smacked him in the shoulder and corrected "Cosette", of course, but he looks at her and shouts "Cosette?" as if "What the hell? No way. You've been telling me for years her name is Colette, why the hell are you bringing this up now?" and seems about to smack her.
Anderson, OMG, Anderson! Gorgeous, adorable, dorky, all at once, and then his ECAET made my cry so hard. I love this boy so much. (and we chatted a bit about the novel after, so of course, more win) why is it that I'm not exactly Dolt Boy's biggest fan, but I keep finding all these incredibly awesome actors making me adore the role? (so, where are all the good Eponines hiding, hmm?)
Jenny Fellner is a perfectly fine Eponine. She's not too cute, but she's not really the crazy ballsy Eponine I actually like. I did like that it appears she's the only Eponine I've ever seen with stringy hair, and Marius mostly makes contact with the brim of her cap. Good voice, got better staging for OMO than usual (she got to start out curled up in a ball against a wall, hugging her knees, which went perfectly with her portrayal), she got to do what I love in ALFOR (try to sit down rather than collapse dying in Marius' arms straight off because she's trying to not give in to the whole "I love you" thing yet), and Anderson did well with her, keeping some distance but it still feeling realistic when he was upset she died in his arms.
Deborah Lew is a perfectly fine Cosette. Nothing OMG amazing, but a better match to Anderson than, say, Leah was to Adam. A good pairing helps. I wish they'd restored the IML cut, but she and Rob Evan handled it without her being too much of a pushy bitch and without him getting too upset. And she got a balcony scene, and it was adorable. (only she came down for Anderson instead of him climbing up the way Josh did. Really, it was freaking dorky and adorable, she was looking the other direction, Anderson had to climb on the bench to get her attention and startled her half to death, then when she disappeared from the window, he literally facepalmed, and then when they're both finally on the ground together, they keep turning around at the wrong times and getting each other's backs. It's really cute.) And she's v. nice at the end, with Every Day and Valjean's death, but Cosette gets so little it's unfair.
I have a new baritone and his name is Edward Watts. Physically, he sorta makes me think of Tewks, but vocally, he reminds me so much of Ben Davis that I was in love from "Where are the leaders of the land?" OMG gorgeous powerful voice with a v. similar tone to Ben. Ben was a much better Enjolras, but Edward did nothing really wrong, just missed a lot of the nuances that you get when you spend more time in a role with sympathetic cast members and a director who doesn't make you quit doing good things. He was better than fine, and OMG that voice.
The projections were pretty awesome and rather what I had hoped would be done for the Broadway revival. They looked like mezzotint illustrations from a 19th century edition of the novel, except without people in them. Black and white mostly, smudgy but detailed, and everything from the dark forest where Valjean finds Cosette to Parisian street scenes that recede while everyone is marching in the ODM triangle so they actually are *gasp* going somewhere! The most effective, I thought, were the sewer ones, which receded as Valjean moved forward and changed to show tunnels branching off, a wide space with a ledge, and finally showed where they came out under the bridge, all looking like they were taken from a book on the Paris sewers.
Rob is not doing a somersault - it's a log roll. Alas.
Working on the necessary follow-up, hopefully will finish tonight. Right now, I'm going to go outside because it's probably warmer there than here.