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[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction.net now has RSS feeds for all its categories. I've created a syndicated account of the Les Mis section at lesmis_ffn, which should update every time an English story or chapter is added to the site. If you want me to create a feed for another language, let me know.

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Cameron Mackintosh saw the Broadway revival last Saturday and seems to have done a bit of housecleaning; Lea Salonga's blog mentions that "One actor is going from his current track to another and being given an additional role to understudy, another actor is being given a brand new understudy position, three people are leaving this Sunday, two people are leaving next weekend, one is coming in as a replacement for another who's going on medical leave, and so on and so forth." At the time the post was written, she wasn't allowed to name names, but now most of it has come out:

- Kate Chapman and Marya Grandy JD Goldblatt are leaving when their contracts expire next week.
- Ben Crawford, one of the current Javert covers, is changing tracks and becoming Valjean understudy as well.
- Gary Beach is out for an extended period of time. This is probably the "medical leave" that Lea mentions.
- Ben Davis, Mandy Bruno, and Ann Harada were fired by Cameron Mackintosh. Their last show was Saturday.

From Ben Davis' blog:

Wow, what a turn of events. Sometimes events happen in life that you just can't make sense of. It's only after time passes that you are able to see the reason it needed to take place. So, last night was my last night in Les Miz. Last Saturday, Cameron Mackintosh came to see the show. Great I thought... I was happy with my performance, everybody else seemed happy with my performance. Well, this past Thursday I get a call from my agent telling me that Cameron wants to replace me. My world went completely upside down. It absolutely blindsided me. Folks, I had not been given 1 note by the associate director from London, the musical director from London, nobody! The reason they gave me... "your voice is too heavy and classical for the new orchestrations"... HUH? This just doesn't make sense to me. But I also know Cameron is notorious for pulling this kind of stuff. He likes to come in and blow up a place. In talking with friends that have also dealt with him, you can't look for rationale in his decisions. And of course he didn't tell me himself so I am left wondering what the hell went wrong!

All this being said, life goes on. I feel really good about what I did up there on stage. I had an absolute blast with the role, and felt like I was still discovering which is always good. In situations like this, you can either let it destroy you and make you question your talent or you can understand that, like the old saying, opinions are like... well you know how it goes.

So thank you so much to everyone for coming to see the show, for your support, for everything. These things can look very huge when you are in the middle of them, but I know that in the totality of things, it's gonna be a blip on the screen and nothing more.

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I know I'm not the only one who was upset by this. Mandy Bruno and Ann Harada were frankly not that good, but Ben was a fantastic Javert and totally did not deserve to be fired from the show. The excuse they gave him sounds like just that: an excuse. I have no idea who the replacements are, or what hallucinogens Cameron Mackintosh was on when he made this decision; nobody's been fired from the Broadway company of Les Mis since the "housecleaning" in 1996, and Ben and Lea have been the only leads keeping the show afloat ever since the cast change. Lord only knows who the replacement Javert, Eponine, and Madame Thénardier will be.

UPDATE. From Lea's blog:

Oh my goodness... there has been so much news coming out on message boards and other blogs that I guess it's time to straighten a few things out (without giving away news that hasn't already been delivered officially).

First... Ben Davis' last show was on Saturday, June 16, and Mandy Bruno's was today, June 17. As for their replacements, Robert Hunt (who was in the ensemble of this production and a Javert on the tour) will be rejoining the show in a couple of weeks. Understudies will be going in for both roles in the meantime.

As far as ensemble departures, Kate Chapman's last show was today as well... replacing her will be Lucia Spina. J.D. Goldblatt's final show is this Thursday, but because he's been out sick (he had surgery on his foot last night and is now recovering), I don't know that he'll be able to play his last 5 shows. I hope he comes back though, he's great. That's it, as far as I know. Mike Evariste will be taking over. Don Brewer will be doing the Courfeyrac track while Ben Crawford will now be Brujon, as well as a Valjean understudy. Victor Hawks will be leaving the show on Saturday, June 23. Christy Faber will also be coming in as a vacation swing for the girls, and Jeremy Hays, currently in Dan Bogart's track, will be covering a myriad of roles this coming week. Whew!

Gary Beach will be having surgery, so he'll be out for a while. Chip Zien (Into the Woods) will be performing in his place. Gary and Chip are old friends, so Gary's really thrilled that Chip will be joining us. I think he'll be a great addition to the show.

And that is all! Any other rumors of firings and cast changesthat isn't written here are all untrue. If I didn't write about it, it didn't happen.