Loyola Les Mis
Mon, 24 Oct 2005, 01:12 pmBroadway Baby22 posts in thread
Loyola Les Mis
Mon, 24 Oct 2005, 01:12 pmI saw LoyolaÂ’s Les Miserables on Saturday night and must start my review with saying how AMAZING the ensemble was in this production. I did not see one person out of character for a second, real tears rolled down their cheeks, the singing was strong and clear and the most telling thing of allÂ….even after performing in Les Mis twice and seeing the production countless times, I still got goose-bumps when the ensemble sang!
The lead characters were a bit of a mixed bag. I really liked Eponine - she made the character her own instead of being the usual Lea Salonga clone. Eponine was much softer and more what I imagined Eponine to be like from reading the novel. All the students were great, the children cute, Javert menacing, the Thenardiers revolting and Cosette appropriately sweet and saccharine. Jean Valjean did a commendable job and I think my problem with him is more an issue with the director and the costuming department. In the prologue he seemed crazy with a long scraggly wig and manic movements and you were left with the impression that he should have been kept locked up for all those years. I was a little disappointed with Fantine, whose voice was not as strong as I would have liked to hear.
A review of Les Miserables would not be complete without comment on the BarricadeÂ…The different levels and the height of this Barricade was fantastic providing lots of interest in the battle scenes, however it was very 2 dimensional looking and it did not revolve which I think is an essential element to a good Barricade. While on the technical side of the production I have to sayÂ…why, why, why did they have to have the stage crew come on stage in the middle of scenes in full stage lighting. It is just WRONG when there are ways that this can be easily avoided.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with this company and look forward to seeing (or perhaps performing in) their productions in the future.
The lead characters were a bit of a mixed bag. I really liked Eponine - she made the character her own instead of being the usual Lea Salonga clone. Eponine was much softer and more what I imagined Eponine to be like from reading the novel. All the students were great, the children cute, Javert menacing, the Thenardiers revolting and Cosette appropriately sweet and saccharine. Jean Valjean did a commendable job and I think my problem with him is more an issue with the director and the costuming department. In the prologue he seemed crazy with a long scraggly wig and manic movements and you were left with the impression that he should have been kept locked up for all those years. I was a little disappointed with Fantine, whose voice was not as strong as I would have liked to hear.
A review of Les Miserables would not be complete without comment on the BarricadeÂ…The different levels and the height of this Barricade was fantastic providing lots of interest in the battle scenes, however it was very 2 dimensional looking and it did not revolve which I think is an essential element to a good Barricade. While on the technical side of the production I have to sayÂ…why, why, why did they have to have the stage crew come on stage in the middle of scenes in full stage lighting. It is just WRONG when there are ways that this can be easily avoided.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with this company and look forward to seeing (or perhaps performing in) their productions in the future.
Re: Loyola Les Mis
Thu, 3 Nov 2005, 11:21 amWalter Plinge
Most companies lack an truly innovative creative team and lean toward a pseudo-rip off of the original Nunn staging but here we have a team rethinking their approach. Though the original production design and direction worked harmoniously, one needs to look further into the structure of the work itself and explore entirely new ways of presenting the story. If the piece is strong enough, it should work with a simple, stylised approach. I applaud a company who has consciously abandoned the idea that we should simply appropriate the original production concept. Simple yet highly intelligent staging is where amateur theatre should be heading. It is essential that amateur theatre moves forward and stops trying to replicate original professional productions. There is such an enormous stigma attached to amateur theatre (particularly music theatre) and to raise the bar it needs to be re-though and energized by young, intelligent, forward thinking people. Obviously, there are companies out there doing just that (Just PretendingÂ’s recent 'Company' is a good example) but we need to modernise and re-think.
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···