I feel like I just need to take a moment to update you all on the current cast of Les Mis at the Sondheim, in London. Because OH MY GOD.
petit gervais was included. Right at the beginning as jvj makes his way into town he steals the coin, like in the book, and I haven’t ever actually seen that done. So I was like, wow, thats some detail
Fantines arrest and death made me SOB. Chanice Alexander- Burnett is one talented woman. I remember her grasping hold of jvjs collar and just her anger in ‘you let your foreman send me away’ was so raw.
The DETAIL of the Cafe Musain, woah. I know it’s because the cast doesn’t move theatres so they can afford to go all out but it was so incredible. It was just now detailed and in depth it was witu the flags and posters. They even had a cobbled street flooring out the whole way through the show.
Jordan Shaw as Enjolras is something else entirely. He’s so so perfect (and he was super nice because I met him and he was just talking to me and he was actually the one to come over first when he saw me having a heart attack over his presence). He’s the perfect mix of angry revolutionary fervour (much like Ramin Karimloo) and hope and passion and care (as I think Bradley Jaden conveyed very well). I also think he had the same sort of humanity that Aaron Tveit gave us in the movie- you know with his tears and just that look of understanding? Not to mention that man can SING. He also wore red the entire way through which I thought was interesting
I don’t know if this is just my bad memory but I could have sworn that ‘Cosette, now I remember, Cosette how can it be’ was only from the movie? I know the latter half of it is definitely in there but I don’t know. Either way it was in this.
DRINK WITH ME. OH MY GOD. Connor Jones’ Grantaire is just *cheffs kiss* and I’m positive he knows about Enjoltaire. That man followed Enjolras around stage and just stared at him constantly. In his drink with me solo it started out with him getting applause and praise for singing, quickly turning into irritation as he grew more cynical. But when the abc sort of rolled their eyes or got annoyed, Enjolras went right up to him and just looked at him in this really kind way. He tried to hug him but Grantaire just sort of flinched away and staggered into a corner. When he started to cry, Gavroche hugged him, and he just slid down the wall at the back and curled up. Gavroche then went to sleep on his leg which just set me off it was so bittersweet.
Gavroche’s death was heartbreaking. You couldn’t actually see him over the barricade but you could hear him singing. And they thought he’d made it, when he appeared at the top, but when he was killed Enjolras was the one to catch him and hand him over to Grantaire. CONNOR JONES’ REACTION BROKE ME, I was sat so close I could see his lip trembling. Bradley Jaden (as javert) prayed over his body later on, after the abc had died, and it even looked like he was crying.
I watched Enjolras and Grantaire very closely in the final battle. Grantaire made no attempt to fight, too broken over Gavroche’s death, until he saw Marius get shot. He threw himself over, checking if he was alive. Enjolras then appeared beside him, clearly thinking Marius was dead, and just embraced Grantaire in this really fierce hug. And then he looked at him for a long second and ran up the barricade. Grantaire tried to follow, desperately trying to pull him back down, but he wasn’t quick enough. Enjolras was killed first. And so Grantaire desperately tried to pull his other friends away from the fight but he has little success. He was the last person left alive and instead then just climbed to the top of the barricade and put himself in show to be killed on purpose.
The abc had little candles in Empty Chairs. They appeared as he sung about ‘and I can hear them now’ and they held these candles up to Marius and it was so so sad. They blew them out at the end of the song and it was just like this final goodbye and it absolutely broke me. Harry Apps was an amazing Marius and his emotion in that song was so obvious
Bradley Jaden as Javert is one incredible actor and singer. His EYES were so captivating in ‘Javerts Suicide’ he looked so wild and desperate that, of course, I was in tears. But you could just hear his confusion and anger and desperation it was so real. Literally everything about it- in the way that he couldn’t stand still, his hair was everywhere and he was shaking like crazy. It was unbelievable.
LUKE FUCKING MCCALL AS JEAN VALJEAN OH SHIT. That man has some TALENT and if you’ve never heard him I urge you to go listen to him on YouTube right now. He’s the youngest west end actor to play Valjean and The Phantom (he’s like 28) and that man can do fucking everything. Again, so much emotion. He just portrayed jvj so well in everything he did and HE HUGGED THE BISHOP IN THE EPILOGUE
But yeah. I’ve never cried as much in my life and it was by far the absolute best performance of Les Mis I’ve ever and probably will ever see. My goal now is just to save up so I can go back and watch it all over again.
If you haven’t seen it, YOU NEED TO