Let's play "what if."

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

So with all the regional productions of Les Miz cropping up lately that don't have to stick to the standard staging, and in fact are required to reinvent it, I've been pondering a bit... if you were handed the reins of a Les Miz production and told to create the staging from scratch, what would you do with it?

Questions to ponder: Would you have a revolve? Would you stick to the mostly-minimalist sets of the "official" version, or go all-out on scenery? Have one main, versatile setpiece that can represent various places, or switch things around? How would you deal with "tricky" scenes like the barricade, the sewers, and Javert's suicide?

As for me, I'd really like to see a production where Gavroche's death takes place offstage. Kid hops over the barricade and is out of sight, and all you hear is him singing and the gunshots going off. (And hell yes I would use Ten Little Bullets for that.)

I've also toyed with the idea of having the barricade off on stage left, at a right angle to the audience, so the stage looks like a cross-section of the street. And, if there were enough ensemble members, show the army storming the barricade: the soldiers finally get over the top of it at the end of the final battle, and the ensuing slaughter takes place during the oboe solo, absolutely silent and possibly in slow motion if it doesn't look too stupid that way.

Minor blocking things I'd change: little Cosette, in the well scene, actually drops the bucket, and Valjean actually comes up behind her and picks it up. C'mon, it's one of the most famous scenes in French literature, how hard would it be to get it right? And have Javert enter just as Fantine is about to die.

I, uh, won't get into costume design or cuts and line reassignments. Whole different beast altogether. But I'm thinking some major costume redesign for Cosette, Eponine, the whores, Enjolras, the wedding guests, and possibly Fantine.