Les Miserables Fan Community

I saw Dudu Fischer as Valjean. He was actually the first Valjean that I ever saw but as I was about 8 years old I don't remember too much about his performance! Maybe that's a good thing?

I also saw Daphne Rubin-Vega's Fantine in January. There are no words. I wasn't expecting her to be good vocally since she was totally wrong for the part to begin with. But I figured that maybe she'd give a good performance acting-wise. I'd seen her years earlier in Rent and was impressed by her ability to throw all of her energy into the character. No such luck though. I found her performances dull and very one note. She starts off pathetic at her facotry job and there's no chance as Fantine descends into prostitution and sickness. There's the same level of anguish that never really changes. I've seen Fantines who really marked the characters descent, her loss of hope, her loss of pride, her shock at being treated kindly etc. I got none of that from Daphne.

I also have to add Alex Gehgmenani's (sp?) Valjean to my list of unintentionally amusing performances. Not that he was "bad" per se, but waaaay too young. He looked older so appearances weren't the problem and for most of the first act he was fine. But when the Cosette relationship became a large plot point he didn't seem to know what to do. I don't think he was able to relate to the paternal feelings or convey them well. Also at the end of the Threnardier's Walz of Treachery, when he picks Cosette up and spins her around, he grunted and strained his face like she saw the heavest thing on earth. Um...your character is supposed to have this fabled strength. Just a little while ago we saw him lift a heavily loaded cart off a man, and now you want us to think you're struggling with the weight of an underfed child?

Oh gosh I'm mean!

From:

Heh, it's alright! My favorite nickname for Alex's Valjean is "Crankypants", which is, IMO, rather what his performance is. He's continually pissed off at Javert (I think he called Drew!Javert a SOB once), and he seems quite annoyed at Cosette in "In My Life". Valjean is supposed to mellow with time, not become more grouchy! XD

From:

meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com

You are aware that I shall now always think of him as such, right?

From:

Mission accomplished! ;)

From:

mbs-bookworm.livejournal.com

Definitely a good thing, unless he was better on Broadway than he was in Israel.

From:

Probably not. I suppose I'd remember if he did something totally horrendous but it certainly wasn't a memorable performance to my 8 year old mind at least.

From:

Martin Pasching!

"Rrrrrrrrrot! Das blut ist heiss und jung!" Never fails to crack me up every single time.

From:

*facepalm* How could I ever forget our favorite flaming Enjolras, the one and only Martin Pasching?

From:

XD I love the man dearly, but... there's just no one who matches his gay.

From:

Actually, I think Uwe Kröger far surpasses him... Did you see my journal post a few weeks back in which I linked to Uwe singing "Copacabana" on youtube? That is truly the epitome of gay. XD

From:

Haha, yes. Oh, Uwe. XD

But I meant as Enjolras, though. Martin's easily the gayest Enjolras in the history of ever.

From:

Oh, as Enjolras? Definitely!
But his Death is so straight! It's a wonder.

From:

Not only straight, but, uh... Well, first I must ask: have you gotten hold yet of the 8 March 2003 bootleg of Elisabeth Essen? Because I have to say... I totally have a crush on Martin's Tod after hearing that version of der Letzte Tanz. Which... yes, slightly embarrasing.

From:

Ah, nope. I've heard a few clips, though.

From:

I don't have it uploaded, otherwise I'd send it your way, but perhaps one day when I'm not feeling so lazy. Seriously, my initial response was "Good god Martin, when did you become so hot?!"

From:

Oh, wait... hm, now that I think on it, I do have Martin singing "Der letzte Tanz"; whether it's from March 8, I don't know. But, yes! It's really excellent.

From:

meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com

Enjolras!Martin: *three snaps in a Z formation*
Der Tod!Martin: I LOVE BOOBIES.

From:

runaway-elf.livejournal.com

When I saw Les Mis in January, there were two standout unintentionally amusing things..
1. During A Little Fall of Rain, Adam Jacobs looked up briefly and rolled his eyes. Or at least, that's what it looked like to me and the people near me. There was kind of this collective, "did he just do that?" reaction. But he was SO GREAT otherwise that I forgave it.. haha. Except for that bit of weirdness, he was absolutely wonderful.
2. Going into the sewers, Alexander G...(can't spell) said "sorry" to Adam. As they were going into the trapdoor, you could definitely hear a "sorry." It was weird.

Uh yeah Daphne Rubin Vega was just bad.

From:

xthe-ingenue.livejournal.com

Oh my Lord. Adam <33333. That's the best thing I've ever heard. I can't blame him, having to sit through that lame, boring, overdramatic death scene night after night.

From:

mbs-bookworm.livejournal.com

Yamaguchi Yuichiro. He's not nearly the worst overall (that distinction goes to David Fisher), but he has his moments. I watched a boot of his Soliliquoy on Youtube and laughed my head off at his body language.

From:

xthe-ingenue.livejournal.com

Diana. Kaarina.

Seriously, I wanted to kill her. She's so.... cutsey and bouncy, and "oh, look at me, I'm only a little poor, but I'm tOtaLLy CUTE, feel bad for me plz kthx." If I recall, she was smiling through OMO. And I just wanted to STRANGLE her. She was the epitome of everything Eponine is NOT supposed to be, but she perfectly illustrated how much of a norm that has become, so then when GOOD Eponines like Frances Ruffelle, Sutton Foster and Celia Keenan-Bolger come along, everyone thinks they're awful.

But. Worst. Eponine. Ever.
Mandy Bruno.
Her performance SLAYED me. Just.... oh god it was hilarious. There's not much more I can say.

Oh, also Jon Lee as Marius. hahahaha. But I forgive him, because he was in SClub and I <3 SClub.

And last but not least, Tracy Shayne as Cosette. Screechy =/= good, Tracy. And the way she tried to belt her lines at the end of One Day More to try and be heard over everyone else really amuses me.

From:

I'm with you 100% on Diana Kaarina. Eponine is supposed to be pathetic, somewhat disturbing but certainly not "cute". I actually thought that Sutton's Eponine was a bit to perky for my liking as well. But Frances and Celia really "got" the character. She's not supposed to be charming and huggable!!!

Mandy Bruno- how could we forget? They should make the ability to sing a requirement for the role...

I actually sort of like Tracey Shayne though she does bug me when she tries to belt the end of ODM :) I like that she sounded...young. Like you could imagine her being the same person as the young Cosette. Generally my fave Cosettes have that light youthful sound so you're not thinking "who is this person and what happened to the kid?" you're thinking "ok, the kid grew up to be this person". I'm in a minority that doesn't like Judy Kuhn's Cosette for that reason. Don't get me wrong- I love Judy as a singer but her voice is too...heavy for Cosette. There's very little of a young girl verging on womanhood in there. She's just a woman

From:

meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com

I've always wanted to see Les Miz done in modern costuming, with Eponine looking and twitching like she's addicted to crack. (I don't mean that as a joke- that's seriously how I'd want to see her done.)

From:

Actually that's an intersting thought. I think Celia Keenan-Bolger, who was the best Eponine I've seen live came close to that in a 19th Century context obviously.

From:

vifetoile.livejournal.com

I like that idea a lot -- wouldn't Fantine, though, be the one addicted to crack? She starts drinking when she becomes a prostitute in the book.

(Well, I would have Fantine selling a kidney instead of her teeth, but that's just me...)

From:

coral-amber.livejournal.com

Eesh yea, she can sing, but her voice and everything about her was just wrong for that part.

Yea, I didn't really like Tracy either, I always laugh at the end of One Day More cause I think she holds out a bit too long.

From:

smartamy15.livejournal.com

Hmm, I thought that Alex G. as Valjean was pretty amusing. As someone else said already, he was very cranky. Valjean isn't really supposed to be cranky - just very troubled. So his continous anger and somewhat display of frustration didn't float with me as a good performance. Ah, well.

And Carly Rose Soneclar in the revival as little Cosette... dear God it was pretty dreadful. I felt simultaneously horrible and amused because she was straining so much and it just made for a really bad performance.

From: