831 replies to this topic

[Emmy_84]

Hey everyone,

I was at the show on Friday night and here's my thoughts.

Alfie Boe - absolutely excellent - gorgeous voice and he has great characterisation and his facial expressions are great, quite menacing at times - he seems to be playing this VJ a little more, violent, more fights and confrontation which I think work very well - especially when he is younger - and seems definitely more of a match of Hadley Frazers Javert at the begining. I think in the new cast you do see more of the similairites between Javert and Val Jean -  on account I think of Hadleys playing Valjean a little younger.

Hadley - again - excellent - a different Javert to past ones - when he's younger I like that he doesn't seem to be as authoritive in his mannerisms as others have, he definately starts out portraying as a young police officer and progresses to the stronger, more obsessed Javert - LOVED it - f.y.i - does he normally appear at the top of the barricades after they're all dead? - I don't remember - loved the symbolism of it!

Caroline as Fantine - Lovely voice and good acting, she does seem keen on the vacant, demented staring -  if you can see past that she is great, plays Fantine a little older than some have which is a nice change.

Alexia as Cossette - I'm sorry I really didn't like it, a bit too squeeky, too fond of scrunching her face up, found my mind wondering in On my Own - which doesn't usually happen - saving grace was A little Fall of Rain - beautifully done with not too much over dramatic wheezing

Cossette - really underwhelmed and I found her quite forgetable - sorry!

Matt Lucas - not perhaps quite as commanding as he was when at the O2  - found myself distracted by the actors behind at times, but still very funny and kept in the "Monne-sey-urrrrrrrr" in which was hilaire! Loved it and he works excellently with Katy Secombe at Mme.

Marius - Loved him - nice to see a younger Marius - lovely voice, a little quiet at times but with time I think he'll be fabulous.

Liam as Enjolras - again nice to see a younger Enjolras - another one that with time with mature and i'm sure be even better!




Special mention should go to Adam Linstead - his Grantaire had me in floods of tears during the barricade scenes - loved it!

Definately envious of those going to see it - probably the best cast I've ever seen - and I've seen a few!







Em x

[Cactus]

Emmy_84, on 26 June 2011 - 11:45 AM, said:

Marius - Loved him - nice to see a younger Marius - lovely voice, a little quiet at times but with time I think he'll be fabulous.

I don't know which cast was the last one you saw, but a young Marius is really not a particularly recent development.

Would love to hear some reviews from people who have seen one of the recent casts and can maybe put these reviews a little bit into perspective...

Edit: And I think that I have problems with a younger Valjean, after all he is very old at the end when only eighteen years have passed. He is not a young man at the beginning, which is the point - he has spent the prime of his life in jail.

[Titan]

Cactus, on 26 June 2011 - 12:18 PM, said:

I don't know which cast was the last one you saw, but a young Marius is really not a particularly recent development.

Would love to hear some reviews from people who have seen one of the recent casts and can maybe put these reviews a little bit into perspective...

Edit: And I think that I have problems with a younger Valjean, after all he is very old at the end when only eighteen years have passed. He is not a young man at the beginning, which is the point - he has spent the prime of his life in jail.

Well the last Marius (GAreth Gates) wasnt THAT young

[ultimatetheatrefan]

Titan, on 26 June 2011 - 03:15 PM, said:

Well the last Marius (GAreth Gates) wasnt THAT young

But he looks young and sounds very young, when you compare him to say, Michael Ball!

[snowy01]

Emmy_84 From what I can remember Javert does always appear at the top of the barricades, I cant wait to see the new cast in October

[Greeneyes]

.

[Emmy_84]

What I meant was, most other Marius' that I've seen (all fairly recent), have been played by people who were obviously mid 20's and played the character fairly mature from the start, not allowing for any kind of character development, I always thought Marius and the other students should be student age, so it's refreshing, for me, to see Craig play Marius very much younger.

snowy01, on 26 June 2011 - 03:59 PM, said:

Emmy_84 From what I can remember Javert does always appear at the top of the barricades, I cant wait to see the new cast in October

Thanks Snowy - I couldn't quite remember

[Cactus]

Well, they have all been student age recently. Marius is supposed to be 22, Enjolras 26, all other students around that age. Alistair Brammer, though many didn't like his voice, portrayed Marius just like that, too, for example.I'm sure Craig Mather is great, but I have seen character development from other actors, too...

[Harold Hill]

I was there on Saturday night, loved the show as a whole, here's a few observations :-

Alfie Boe Excellent performance, especially Bring Him Home, which got the best ovation I've seen in over twenty visits to the show. He was obviously pleased with it as he slipped into a grin for a milli-second before remembering where he was and what character he was in. I'd love to see him again nearer to the end of the run, I imagine he'll be simply stunning.

Matt Lucas Had a sore throat, which hampered his vocals, but he looked like he was messing about at times and tried to make other corpse. I didn't like it in One More When his character was pointing at the others and mocking them, not sure I ever remember that happening. In short, good in parts, bad in others.

Javert Wasn't sure at first, but as the show went on, he really grew on me and his suicide was full of emotion.

Marius. Enjorlas, Cosette All good solid enjoyable performances, as good as I've seen in recent times.

Eponine Good performance, but I just didn't warm to her at all as a character, except for A Little Fall of Rain which was outstanding.

Gavroche Possibly the best I've seen, not sure of which actor it was.

Grantaire Brilliant portrayal, hard to take my eyes off him when he was on stage, his reaction to Gavroche's death was simply awesome!

[Harold Hill]

Actually, what I forgot to mention was the sound, I've never heard so many late microphones cues as I did last night, and there were a couple of distorted effects during the barricade scene. Apart from that, the sound and orchestra sounded great.