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Les Mis Review!
Hmmm…where to start? Chronological order, I guess? THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS IN MY BRAIN!
So I got picked up by my friend and her grandpa, and we listened to the TAC while driving to Denver, and that was fun. When we got there, we didn’t have time to look for a good route to the stage door for later, which ended up being slightly unfortunate. Oh well. Anyway, we went inside and walked up a bunch of stairs (like a million stairs no joke) to get to the balcony, and then the stairs leading down to the first row of the balcony were really steep and scary, but I survived. Our view was awesome, maybe I’ll post a picture later. My friend and I sat in the 2 middle seats so we didn’t miss anything like we did last time!
Then we sat around for a while and watched the musicians in the pit because they were talented even during their warm-ups, and then BOOM the music started and I almost laughed because I was just so happy, but fortunately I didn’t.
This time, I was able to pick out a lot more individual actors, and that was fun.
I guess now I’ll do a review of each actor, sort of? Just the main ones.
Peter: duh, he was fantastic! Just like last time!
Andrew: His acting was pretty good except during Javert’s Suicide he did that rocking-back-and-forth-on-his-feet thing again, which annoyed me last time and still annoyed me this time. And his voice was slightly annoying but sometimes good. He just didn’t stand out very much.
And I’m not sure who I saw as Fantine (a little help here, Vicki?) because my friend’s family is not into the idea of stopping to check the board before finding their seats. Whoever she was, I liked her a lot! She was slightly less good than Cornelia Luna was, but oh well.
I think Katie Beetham was on for Madame Thenardier, and she wasn’t bad, she just wasn’t Shawna. She was meh.
Devin Ilaw: My friend and I were the only people who liked him as Marius, none of the rest of her family did. I don’t understand how they couldn’t like him, because he was awesome! He was awkward and derpy but also emotional and it was great! (My favorite part was when he was singing and then Cosette went inside so that she could come down and meet him and his face is just like “oh no I scared her away help” and that’s when he sings “I’m doing everything all wrong.”)
Julie Benko: Well I have a new favorite Cosette now! She was fantastic, especially considering it was her first show in a long time, and she hadn’t had the time to adjust to altitude like the rest of the cast had. But you couldn’t even tell. She was so sweet and adorable and just really great overall!
Jason: Freaking awesome as always!!! (My friend’s grandpa said he didn’t like him and I just…can’t comprehend that. How can someone not like Jason? He’s freaking awesome and amazing and the perfect Enjolras. Plus, that hair.)
Joe: Also freaking awesome as always! I think his “nooooo” after Gavroche dying ripped my heart out even more than last time. So thanks for that, Joe. Thanks a freaking lot. And my friend’s family loved him too, they kept talking about him during dinner!
Weston Wells Olson: YAY A REALLY AWESOME FEUILLY! Plus he has a new vest, which I like. (PS- “the people will rise again” made me cry so hard.)
John Brink: Yup, you were all right, he is an angry Courfeyrac. A fantastic angry Courfeyrac! (Will my parents find it strange if I go around imitating his “shoot the bastard!” for the next few days? Because I am sorely tempted.) Also he got this really awesome new blue coat and it’s possibly my favorite costume of the whole show.
I think that’s all I have to say about the cast? Maybe. I can’t remember. Anyway, on to more stuff about the show in general:
Basically it was just really awesome and amazing and I loved it so freaking much, even more than last time, and the sets are amazing. I really like the sets. A lot.
Apparently school has made me search for symbolism in everything I see because during “Who Am I?” there were 2 spotlights shining on Valjean, giving him two shadows and my brain was all “it’s because he’s choosing between being Mayor and being 24601, so symbolic omg!” And this was probably not actually meant to be symbolic but whatever.
Also, this time I couldn’t see the guy attaching the ropes to Javert during his suicide, which was nice, because being able to see that kind of ruined the effect last time.
And of course all the Grantaire/Gavroche interactions made me super sad, especially when it was Gavroche who was comforting Grantaire.
I think that’s all I have to say about the show, so time for a stage door report:
It took us a long time to find the stage door, because we went around the right side of the building, but we couldn’t find a way to get down to the street, and then we had to walk back through a huge crowd that was there for some Memorial Day thing, around the left side of the building, and around the back. And then there’s this triangle-y thing that blocks the actual stage door but we knew we were in the right place because the Three Fantines were walking toward us (it was 3 people who play Fantine so I just started calling them that :P). And we passed some other people like Andrew Varela and Alan Shaw, I think, and a few others. When we were closer to the triangle-y thing, I saw some people leaning against a building, one was texting and one was talking on the phone, and apparently my vision is really bad or I’m just really stupid or something, because I kept walking and didn’t realize until I looked up again that it was Jason and Joe. So we waited around for Joe to get off the phone and we talked to Jason for a while. (And he complimented my friend’s shirt!) And then we made my friend’s little sister take our picture and we talked to him a bit more until Joe was off the phone. So then we talked to Joe for a bit and got a picture with him, too. They both liked the pictures I drew, that made me happy. And then we continued around the corner of the triangle-y thing, where there were some more people, and I said hi to Julie Benko, and then I spotted Vicki so I walked over and was like “uh…hi” (btw Vicki I apologize for being an awkward person), and then I decided to stand there and wait for Peter. But then I see my friend’s face and it’s kind of just a face of complete shock and she pokes me and points back to where we were standing before, and lo and behold, it is John Brink. (Bless her soul for informing me that he was there because I thought he’d left before I got there, which is what happened last time.) So I run after him even though I felt creepy because I’ve wanted to meet him for over a year and I was not going to pass up this opportunity. And it was really awkward because I ran until I was about 10 feet behind him and then walked so as not to seem as creepy and then I was like “Um, excuse me, John…” and he turned around and said hi and I got a picture and he was very nice. Then I gave him the drawing I made for him and he seemed to like it so that was good. And my friend informed me later that I was shaking the whole time which is slightly weird but I guess I’m just really really shy And then I went back and waited a bit and talked to Peter and got an autograph and a picture, and then we left and went to dinner. Dinner was fun, because the restaurant had a “Toulon” sticker on the front window. So pretty much I had a really fantastic day!
And hopefully I’ll be able to post stage door picture later, but unfortunately I had to take them on my iPod, which kinda sucks. I hadn’t brought a camera because my friend’s mom said she would but she got separated from us on the way to the stage door. So I’m not sure how to take them off my iPod and make them a good size yet, but I’ll figure it out. (Send all your good vibes toward my iPod, people. It’s spazzing.)
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John Brink is amazing. He has no qualms about meeting and talking to fans. A lot of the cast is like that. Though a lot of them are also nervous to talk to fans too so keeping that in mind can help, I think, when you speak to 'famous' people.
Jason and Joe are super down to earth so that helps.
They love being made to feel important and awesome. The good ones, anyway, because they'll tell you - they do this show for US. For their fans. Some of them treat it like a job, sure. But the ones who really love doing what they do appreciate their fans.
I'm glad you got to see it one more time and I'm glad you had a good time.
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I definitely feel you on the being nervous and trying not to look creepy and still coming across as awkward and shy when doing stage door meetings. I've only managed to talk with Jason and Joe so far, and both times I was an absolute nervous wreck who couldn't quite seem to get words to come out properly. They're so nice, though, and it's so fantastic to get a chance to meet them and talk with them.
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