Les Miserables

Riverside Theatre – settling in to watch Les Miserables.

When Celine joined the cast of Les Miserables years ago in NIDA – she had to drag me and her mum to watch. She has been playing the London recording highlights everyday in the house for the past months and it was getting in my nerves. But, I know my duty as a parent – you do not discourage your children in their artistic pursuit.

When we finally sat in the theatre, I looked at my watch and prepared to count every minute and hoped not to fall asleep. Anyone who had watched Les Miserables would know then that we were in for a treat – it is after all the most successful musical. Needless to say – we were blown away and I regretted that I have not dragged all my friends as my daughter had me.

A few weeks ago – we saw an ad for this show at the Riverside Theatre and now it is Jessica’s turn to be blown away, but unlike me, she looked forward to see the show. We booked a family ticket and waited the day in anticipation.

We were not disappointed – it was a great show with great casts. I wont pretend to be connoisseur after only seing 2 versions but it was exhilarating to watch. Jean Valjean’s crackling voice in his dying scene was a nice touch. Jessica’s regret was that we watched the last show that Riverside Theatre will run of this production – she said she would have loved to watched it again – welcome another Les Miserables fan.

28-Oct-2012 : The following day, I drove to Penrith – 25km away, because it was the only JB Hifi store that currently have a BluRay copy of the 25th Anniversary Concert of LeMis. I knew what the mood was at home because we can’t stop talking about it after the show. As soon as I got home from the shop, we all sat to watch this 2 1/2 hour concert. If that was not enough, I went looking for Celine’s DVD on the 10th anniversary concert and watched that too. Well, the fact that Philippine’s very own Lea Salonga is in both concert gives that extra feeling of pride.

The movie adaptation will come on Boxing Day – we resolved that this is worth a family outing and watch it on Gold Class. We’ve seen the trailers and had mixed feeling about it already. Sure the cinema offers impressive sets and very authentic period representation – but can the acting of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway compensate their comparatively less than perfect vocal quality that theatre actors are breed for. Regardless – I’m betting that this movie will be of “Titanic” proportion at the box office.

2-Jan-2013 : The family watched the movie at the Castle Hill Towers Gold Class. It would be interesting to hear the opinion of someone whose first experience of LeMis is this movie. Knowing the story back to front and the lyrics of the songs as familiar as a Beatles song – every scene in the movie is like a friend to me/us. I’m sure when this movie is released on BluRay – we would watch it a few more times. But for someone who will see LeMis for the first time in the movie – I wonder if all the singing will be a bore.

There are a few things they did effectively well on the movie – Valjean’s agony upon learning someone is being arrested in his place was shot as several scene – very effective in dramatising a man’s conflict with his conscience. Fontaine’s fall from grace was sadder as you can see a dramatic change in her appearance. Gabrosh role was also largely adjusted for the movie. We were not particularly impressed with Russell Crowe as Javert. Anna Hathaway gave a really believable Fontaine – she looked starved as someone who is really sacrificing everything for what she thought was a really sick child. Hugh Jackman is ok – his role and that of Russell will always be the difficult one as most fans expects highly of these roles. Hugh in my opinion did a good Valjean.