“Dawn of Anguish,” “Second Attack/Death of Gavroche” and “The Final Battle,” North Shore Music Theatre, 2014. Steve Czarnecki as Enjolras, Blake Stadnik as Marius, Will Ray as Jean Valjean, unknown Gavroche, Joseph Spieldenner as Grantaire.
This heartbreaking audio shows how effective it can be when a regional production takes a fresh approach to a scene, rather than going though the motions of other productions. As I’ve written before, this production seems to have let its cast members ad-lib much more than usual and here they do it to moving effect.
When the very young-sounding yet strong voiced Gavroche meets his fate, there isn’t a long silence, nor does only Grantaire shout “NO!” Instead we have a collective “NO!” from all the revolutionaries, bringing Hugo’s statement “The whole barricade gave a cry” to life. But Joseph Spieldenner doesn’t let his Grantaire’s special bond with Gavroche be overlooked: a few moments later, he lets out an agonized “WHYYYY???!!!” and then sobs uncontrollably.
I saw Steve’s Enjolras in another regional production a year after this one and I can definitely hear here what I remember from there: that his Enjolras is more humanized and anguished than others. We can hear the despair in his voice on “The people have not stirred...” and during the battle... well, more on that below. He’s not Hugo’s marble lover of liberty, but within the musical, I think it works. In no way does his anguish at watching the insurrection fail and his friends die around him signify a lack of courage or heroism, which his “Let others rise...” and other defiant lines show that he still has in spades.
As for “The Final Battle,” the production’s “ad-libs welcome” policy makes it especially raw, with so much shouting and so much audible desperation and defiance as the barricade falls. The rawest moment of all comes just before the final orchestral “Red and Black” reprise. Apparently, instead of having Enjolras die before Grantaire as in replica productions, this staging had Grantaire die in Enjolras’s arms. We hear Enjolras shout “Grantaire!” and then lapse into inarticulate, nearly hysterical pleas to his dying devotee (“No, no no!” and “I’m sorry!” are the only words I think I can make out) before shouting “LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!!!” in a wild, grief-stricken, rage-filled tone as his final burst of defiance before his own death. I only wish this were a video recording, because those final moments must have been especially powerful to see.
