Review: Les Misérables (West End), 22nd June 2018

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Full new 2018 cast except for David Thaxton, who was off due to a sprained wrist, instead the former 2017/18 understudy Lee van Geleen was on as Javert.

Principal cast

Dean Chisnall as Jean Valjean:

Decent, good JVJ. Good enough voice - nothing outstanding and you could hear the strain in the Soliloquy, but it worked. I’d rather watch a Valjean that has to work to get those notes than Alfie Boe. (I’d rather watch a pantomime Valjean than Boe.) Still has to settle into the role A LOT, right now you can tell he’s just scratching the surface during some bits and can dig a lot deeper which he hopefully will. Acting-wise, the Soliloquy was great, vocally, Bring Him Home was good. His Valjean is very much an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. If he can get more into the haunted, conflicted parts of the character, he’ll be great. Enjoyed everything up to Paris a lot more than his 1832 bits.

Lee van Geleen as Javert (understudy):

Best person on stage that night tbh. A really, really, really good Javert. Grounded, dry, principled. Excellent, reserved, subtle acting. Reminded me a LOT of Jeff Nicholson’s Javert which is as big a compliment as I can offer. Vocally good, not great, but some speak-singing parts work very well for Javert anyway. Stars was good, the Suicide was fantastic. Just overall very impressive yet understated.

Carly Stenson as Fantine:

Apparently this is her second year? I felt like she still had a long way to go with this role... Vocally great, her IDAD was flawless, and she clearly looks the part and her acting is good, just very safe I thought. Her Fantine was drunk but not ill at all as we get to the end of Lovely Ladies/Fantine’s Arrest, which really bothered me.

Toby Miles as Marius:

Making his West End debut, I believe? I liked him. He still needs to get more confident, vocally, but his acting especially in the café scene was wonderful and charming. ECAET was a little forgettable but overall he’s engaging and most importantly not annoying.

Amara Okereke as Cosette:

Beautiful, wonderful voice, so soft and soaring. She was a great Cosette, very good acting and very natural. Cosette is such a limited and rather thankless part and you really notice when there is a good singer and actress who could clearly do more with the role. A stand-out performance anyway.

Elena Skye as Eponine:

Good, yet a bit of a disappointment. Vocally, I can’t fault her, she has a great voice and she knows how to use it, but the stakes don’t seem to be particularly high for her Eponine... OMO was just a song in the end, ALFOR didn’t leave much on an impression either. I think she can probably go a lot further with the part. Perhaps understated is what she’s going for, and I do like that her Eponine is awkward and decidedly not pretty, but it still all feels quite rehearsed. It’s still the first few weeks though so I hope as she gets more comfortable with the role, she can add more depth and despair.

Samuel Edwards as Enjolras:

Okay so I had really high hopes for him, but most of the performance was a slight let-down (for me). I do like that he’s a tall and clearly “older” Enjolras (as in: closer to 28 than 18) and I loved that he unlike many others who shan’t be named didn’t rush into Lamarque Is Dead as soon as Gavroche had finished speaking, but he still seems to struggle a lot with getting the balance of being naturally authoritative vs just being bossy and irritated right. The café was still pretty good, but the barricade was your typical ‘they were schoolboys, never held a gun’ affair. Some of it may be direction and blocking, but this incarnation of Enjolras is very clearly not a good leader and the barricade is unorganised, shouty and messy. Vocally, he was okay during some parts but rather mediocre and a little pitchy during others.

Steven Meo as Thénardier:

Right, so. Good start, watchable, does the weaselly body language very well but then sadly completely overdoes it and ends up dragging out and spelling out every joke with extra commentary and ad-libs, which often ruins the flow of the scene and hogs the attention unnecessarily. Really annoying. He doesn’t have the voice nor right idea for Dog Eat Dog either. Such a fantastic song and such a great opportunity for this role to add some depth and layers and drama (Decades of Cosettes would have died for a chance like this!) - why would you ruin it for some awkward laughter from the audience...?

Vivien Parry as Mme Thénardier:

Alright. Better than some I’ve seen, but some very heavy-handed moments as the show progressed... eh.

Honourable mentions...

Antony Hansen and Barnaby Hughes as Courfeyrac and Combeferre:

Best of the best, brilliant, absolutely fantastic, I loved them! Antony was, of course, Feuilly and first cover Marius in my very personal YEARS OF LORE circa 2009 and has a very special place in my heart... but he was such a joy to watch. I do like excitable, passionate Courfeyracs (Mark Dugdale still reigning supreme) and his voice is just outstanding. Barnaby almost seemed like a carbon copy of Gavin James’s Combeferre (2008-2010), collected, calm, intelligent... good voice, great presence in the café... lmao I want to cry just remembering Gavin’s Combeferre I LOVED HIM but Barnaby was a lot like that and seemed very comfortable in the part.

Joe Vetch as Feuilly was good, too, he just didn’t stand out as much.

Adam Bayjou was a great Foreman, Sam Harrison was a fucking fantastic Bamatabois.

Other notes:

The ensemble was great, sounded brilliant, and seemed very settled into the show already. ATEOTD remains the best song in the show, fight me. Lovely Ladies was a bit of a mess, as were the barricades but overall there seemed to be a lot of energy and love for the show.

Cosette’s new (lmao how long has it been since they changed it?) dress is pretty but I still hate it.

The Queen’s upholstery is falling apart in the Dress Circle slips (A36 REPRESENT), I guess Cameron spent all his money on the Victoria Palace.

Whoever is training and directing these children is doing them a disservice... I’ve seen a fair share of kids in the show, and they can do a much better job than this. Little Cosette was being CHASED through COAC and ended up just singing it talent-show-style without any emotion or acting, and Gavroche didn’t seem particularly secure or confident in what he was doing at all. They can probably do a lot better and they should get the training and rehearsals they need...

The audience bloody loved it all.

Being back at the Queen’s triggered a lot of nostalgia and the weirdest flashbacks and memories - George Miller’s drunk spending all of MOTH just trying to nick a bottle, the bridge not coming down during Look Down, Simon Bowman throwing the candlesticks across the stage, Nancy Sullivan and Katie Hall staring at each other through the Rue Plumet gate on Katie’s last night and breaking into tears, Simon Bowman not having a letter in his pocket in the Epilogue to give to Cosette, Jon Robyns going for an octave change during his muck-up matinée ECAET and failing spectacularly, Brenda Moore’s heavily pregnant nun in Fantine’s Death, Simon Bowman almost falling into the orchestra pit during Valjean’s Arrest, David Thaxton’s Enjolras... everything.

Still the best show ever, etc.

Bee is still doing really well - and being the cutest - as are her siblings and the other kittens in the same room.

me, 99% of the time: ‘Yeah I’ve got a really bad fear of flying so that sucks.’ me, going past an airport and seeing planes land and take off: ✈️😍😍👌👏sign👏me👏up (background choir 🎶SIGN 📢HER🎙THE💺FUCK🎉UP💪)🗽🌋good shit 😃😃✔️🛩THAts some 🌟GOOD🌦shit‼️🛫🤘💯right thERE (RIGHT🎤THERE)🗺🛬🎻🎻✈️