Thursday, October 26, 2006
Les Miserables, Original Broadway Revival Cast (2006)
Cast: Alexander Gemignani (Jean Valjean), Norm Lewis (Javert), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Fantine), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Eponine), Adam Jacobs (Marius), Ali Ewoldt (Cosette), Aaron Lazar (Enjorlas), Jenny Galloway (Madame Thenardier), Gary Beach (Thenardier)
For more info about this revival, see the official Les Miserables website.
For the most part, the cast of the revival of Les Miserables is amazing. The staging and sets are mostly the same. The orchestrations have been changed a bit, but are wonderfully done.
Daphne Rubin-Vega didn't impress me in the original Broadway cast of Rent, but she was much better in that than she is in this revival. She was by far the worst Fantine I've seen in the 5 Les Miserables productions I've seen. Sometimes when I saw it, characters were so bad that I looked forward to them dying. This feeling was never as strong as it was for Fantine when I saw Les Miserables this year. I kept counting down till her part would be mostly over. The sad thing is that everyone around us who had seen the show more than once was in complete agreement on this part of the show.
The other annoying thing (though this was true in every production I've seen) is that the wheels for changing the sets out make a ton of noise. It'd be nice to see them minimize that a bit more.
Fortunately, the majority of the cast was the best or second best person I've seen playing the role. This definitely makes the revival of Les Miserables a good show to see. If you've been missing Les Miserables since it left Broadway or (like my husband) you didn't get around to seeing it during the long run on Broadway or the tours, I definitely recommend this production. If you can, try to find out when the standby is going to be in for Daphne Rubin-Vega as Fantine.
Grade: A-Labels: 2006, Best Musical, Broadway, musical, original, revival, war