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sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-28 08:22 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-28 08:22 pm
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Les Miserables Original Broadway Cast
Now it's time for my opinions on the Original Broadway Cast!
(I KNOW, I KNOW, I WILL FINISH VOLUME IV OF THE BRICK SOMEDAY SOON I SWEAR.... I just got sidetracked by MUSICAL.)
So! This one, like the TAC, features Colm Wilkinson doing a fine job as Valjean.
UNLIKE the TAC and the CSR, however, we have SOMEONE NEW as Javert! This would be Terence Mann, and he plays Javert somewhat differently than Philip Quast. But I quite like him! I'm down with either dude's interpretation of the role. (although I loled when he swung the "never" in "men like you can never change" in Confrontation)
The Bishop here is good, which is a relief after the travesty of the Bishop in the TAC.
Fantine...She is in some ways better and in some ways worse than the TAC. Still better than the CSR. Still not even CLOSE to Anne Hathaway.
MY CONTINUING OPINIONS on the Thenardiers: I still disagree with the choice to make them comic relief, but gosh, I CANNOT HELP but find Mme Thenardier's bits of Master of the House hilarious. At least in this recording Dog Eat Dog was a bit closer to sinister than to cheerfully nasty?
One of the most tragic cuts to this version (and I think to the TAC as well) is Gavroche's cheeky take-down of the inspector immediately post-Stars. I LOVE THAT. I love how Stars is all serious and dramatic (and awesome!) and then Gavroche is just like "hahaha oh Inspector". Though the more I think about the song Stars, the more I'm just like, GOSH I LOVE THE SONG but it is so not brickverse.
Red and Black had one of the most odd lyric differences I've noticed yet: Grantaire says "I've never seen him ooh and ahhh". SEEN instead of HEAR? Makes no sense in that line. But Grantaire's little laugh directly after that line is good -- he sounds GENUINELY AMUSED, unlike the laugh in the CSR.
This Marius is VERY much in the same line as Michael Ball's Marius. I could tell they were different dudes but he evoked exactly the same kind of thing and sounded extremely similar. Frankly I'm equally happy with either of them, but happiest with Eddie Redmayne. I must say, when Eddie Redmayne sings Empty Chairs At Empty Tables I get all choked up and teary. When Michael Ball or David Bryant does, I am unmoved. I do like, though, how David Bryant sounds all gentle towards Eponine during A Little Fall Of Rain.
I'm no longer giggling at Michael Maguire's Enjolras, but I still just can't take him as seriously as Anthony Warlow's Enjolras, and I cannot tell why. idk, I guess to me Warlow's just better at selling Enjolras' utter conviction in what he's saying. Because Enjolras' lines, without conviction, DO NOT WORK.
All in all, I think this too is a very good version of the musical.
(I KNOW, I KNOW, I WILL FINISH VOLUME IV OF THE BRICK SOMEDAY SOON I SWEAR.... I just got sidetracked by MUSICAL.)
So! This one, like the TAC, features Colm Wilkinson doing a fine job as Valjean.
UNLIKE the TAC and the CSR, however, we have SOMEONE NEW as Javert! This would be Terence Mann, and he plays Javert somewhat differently than Philip Quast. But I quite like him! I'm down with either dude's interpretation of the role. (although I loled when he swung the "never" in "men like you can never change" in Confrontation)
The Bishop here is good, which is a relief after the travesty of the Bishop in the TAC.
Fantine...She is in some ways better and in some ways worse than the TAC. Still better than the CSR. Still not even CLOSE to Anne Hathaway.
MY CONTINUING OPINIONS on the Thenardiers: I still disagree with the choice to make them comic relief, but gosh, I CANNOT HELP but find Mme Thenardier's bits of Master of the House hilarious. At least in this recording Dog Eat Dog was a bit closer to sinister than to cheerfully nasty?
One of the most tragic cuts to this version (and I think to the TAC as well) is Gavroche's cheeky take-down of the inspector immediately post-Stars. I LOVE THAT. I love how Stars is all serious and dramatic (and awesome!) and then Gavroche is just like "hahaha oh Inspector". Though the more I think about the song Stars, the more I'm just like, GOSH I LOVE THE SONG but it is so not brickverse.
Red and Black had one of the most odd lyric differences I've noticed yet: Grantaire says "I've never seen him ooh and ahhh". SEEN instead of HEAR? Makes no sense in that line. But Grantaire's little laugh directly after that line is good -- he sounds GENUINELY AMUSED, unlike the laugh in the CSR.
This Marius is VERY much in the same line as Michael Ball's Marius. I could tell they were different dudes but he evoked exactly the same kind of thing and sounded extremely similar. Frankly I'm equally happy with either of them, but happiest with Eddie Redmayne. I must say, when Eddie Redmayne sings Empty Chairs At Empty Tables I get all choked up and teary. When Michael Ball or David Bryant does, I am unmoved. I do like, though, how David Bryant sounds all gentle towards Eponine during A Little Fall Of Rain.
I'm no longer giggling at Michael Maguire's Enjolras, but I still just can't take him as seriously as Anthony Warlow's Enjolras, and I cannot tell why. idk, I guess to me Warlow's just better at selling Enjolras' utter conviction in what he's saying. Because Enjolras' lines, without conviction, DO NOT WORK.
All in all, I think this too is a very good version of the musical.
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Oh good, I loooooove Terrence Mann! Hee, this being the recording I grew up on, I had totally taken it for granted that he swung the "men like you can never change" and I had to sing it in my head to be all "oh, yup, he does do that!"
Oh man, Dog Eat Dog... isn't that supposed to be completely sinister? I thought it was on both this and the CSR. I don't find it funny at all.
One of the things I liked about the movie very much is that though they keep the Thenardiers as comic relief, it's all very much nastier than in the musical... like, in the musical I feel like it's all "aren't we so cute and funny?" and in the movie it's much more "We're being amusing and you're laughing but this is CLEARLY NOT OKAY," especially the bits where kid!Eponine is looking on and laughing, which I thought was brilliant.
ANTHONY WARLOW AS ENJOLRAS FOREEEEEVER. You know, part of my utter love for him may be that this was my first recording, and then when I listened to the CSR I was all "whoa, this guy is SO MUCH BETTER!)
That inspector thinks he's something but it's me who runs this town! (Love that too!)
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I agree, though, that the movie does a good job with that -- I too though it was excellently done to include a cheerful wee!Eponine in all of it as a sort of reminder that what's going on is Not Okay.
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I need to get my mom to mail me my TAC DVD (unless it's in a box I haven't unpacked yet and compare--I'm not sure if it was cut or just didn't make it onto the CD). I'm pretty sure the OBC is a non-complete recording.
Though the more I think about the song Stars, the more I'm just like, GOSH I LOVE THE SONG but it is so not brickverse.
I think musical!Javert is a different guy. More religious, for one thing.
A+ laughing for Grantaire, I agree.
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I think pretty much ALL of the musical characters are different people than the book versions. Like. It keeps on astonishing me as I discover more and more ways in which the musical changed things up!
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The best my googlefu suggests is that there were cuts to the concert version and possibly further cuts to the DVD/CD. I think that part may have been left out entirely. (I gotta admit, I really love the movie's decision to go straight from "Stars" into "Look Down," for the thematic contrast: Javert doesn't look down, and that's part of his problem.)
Yeah, for sure! And of course on top of that you get the individual interpretations of the actors.
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Oooh, you are super right about the Stars/Look Down cut and what it says. IT WORKS SO WELL.
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(Oh god, Michael Maguire in the TAC really does look like Gaston. Now I can't unsee it.)
ALSO YOU DIDN'T MENTION WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE BONUS TRACKS ON THE TAC, LIKE ALL THE INTERNATIONAL VALJEANS SINGING "DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?" I recommend YouTubeing that even if you don't want to watch the whole TAC, because it is great.
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Oh you're right I DIDN'T mention the bonus international Valjeans! THAT WAS SO AMAZING. I LOVED IT A LOTTTT. That was the only bonus track I have, though (unless you count the track that's pretty much just people applauding over instrumentals)
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ROBERT MARIEN, THE FRENCH VALJEAN, IS MY FAVORITE. He's on the PRC.
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(OH GOD I HAVE BEEN WATCHING CLIPS OF DREW SARICH ON YOUTUBE, MENTIONED ON ABAISSE AS THE ONLY JAVERT WORSE THAN NORM LEWIS.* HE IS ALSO AN AWFUL ENJOLRAS. AND AN AWFUL GRANTAIRE. I AM AFRAID TO HEAR HIS VALJEAN. He seems to have understudied every male role in the show, yet is qualified to sing none.)
*I like Norm Lewis as a singer, but he is waaaaay cuddly for a Javert.
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I heard David Thaxton is good, but I kind of hate how he yells "is freeeee" instead of singing it. Possibly I have just imprinted too hard on Anthony Warlow (which is weird, because I haven't imprinted that hard on anyone else for other roles). Dammit, I was going to do something vaguely useful with my evening.
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