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Jan. 19th, 2012 07:31 pmWent to see our Youth Section's production of "Les Miserables" last night. They were terrific, and gave really, really excellent performances, everyone on the stage so talented and working all the time. Somewhat let down by the technical side, in that the sound was *far* too loud and heavily skewed towards the bass—quite a lot of the words were in consequence inaudible, which was a pity.
Ultimately, though, I'm not a fan of the show. I've seen it before—twice, or as I like to say, one and a half times, since the first time I was seated behind the two people with the biggest heads in the world—and never caught the Les Mis fever. To my mind it has a lot of wonderful music, but it isn't a great musical. It's more... it's a parade of Highly Emotional Moments which never actually earn the emotion they're trying to evoke. I mean, I dreamed a dream is a great song, but it is just as great without the context of the musical as it is on the stage. We get five minutes of "Poor Fantine, Life is Tough" and then the song and then off she pops and on we go to the next thing. "Bring Him Home" is another lovely song, but you have to fill in Valjean's motivation for yourself if you blink at the wrong moment, 'cause it's not on the stage. And I just realised, I was totally unmoved by Javert's death scene. It's dramatic, sure, but I don't *care*. I don't remember whether I got more out of seeing the show performed by professionals, but I don't think so, because if I had, I'd have retained some of it.
I talked to someone in the audience who was completely bewildered as to what the heck was going on—and that's not just a sound issue, that's a script issue as well. My suspicion is that when you try to turn a 19th-century novel into a musical, you have to leave quite a lot out; the team creating this musical picked all the highly emotional moments (I guess) but forgot the characters.
But maybe it's just me.
Ultimately, though, I'm not a fan of the show. I've seen it before—twice, or as I like to say, one and a half times, since the first time I was seated behind the two people with the biggest heads in the world—and never caught the Les Mis fever. To my mind it has a lot of wonderful music, but it isn't a great musical. It's more... it's a parade of Highly Emotional Moments which never actually earn the emotion they're trying to evoke. I mean, I dreamed a dream is a great song, but it is just as great without the context of the musical as it is on the stage. We get five minutes of "Poor Fantine, Life is Tough" and then the song and then off she pops and on we go to the next thing. "Bring Him Home" is another lovely song, but you have to fill in Valjean's motivation for yourself if you blink at the wrong moment, 'cause it's not on the stage. And I just realised, I was totally unmoved by Javert's death scene. It's dramatic, sure, but I don't *care*. I don't remember whether I got more out of seeing the show performed by professionals, but I don't think so, because if I had, I'd have retained some of it.
I talked to someone in the audience who was completely bewildered as to what the heck was going on—and that's not just a sound issue, that's a script issue as well. My suspicion is that when you try to turn a 19th-century novel into a musical, you have to leave quite a lot out; the team creating this musical picked all the highly emotional moments (I guess) but forgot the characters.
But maybe it's just me.