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meta-squash · 5 years ago

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A ramble on Dallas Theater Center Les Miserables

So, 5 years late, I jumped back on the bandwagon and finally watched a bootleg of Dallas Theater Center’s 2014 production of Les Miserables.

And wow. I can’t believe I waited 5 damn years to watch it. So here’s a long rambling write up on it based on the live-tweeting I was doing as I watched (and a little bit on me skipping through the bootleg video right now). It’s partly just me summarizing scenes so I can nerd out about the little details I loved and towards the end me talking about the show as a whole and why it was so fucking important.

First of all I wanna say that I'm surprised it took this long for a professional theater company to do a "modern day" Les Mis. I know all the fans fucking love their Modern AUs fics, I've been reading them since like 2012 and I love them. But also I'm SO glad someone finally did it because Les Miserables' themes are universal and they are amazing but they're also really relevant to what's going on today, or 5 years ago (since it's only gotten fucking worse tbh).

My first big impression was how great the costuming was. You can tell the socioeconomic class of the characters just from what they’re wearing, from how they posture and interact with others. Which is easy when it’s period costuming, you just make everyone look dirty and ripped up vs not dirty, but this (aside from the Thenardiers) is a little more subtle.

Also re: the costuming, I absolutely LOVE that they modernized Javert’s costume into a cop’s uniform but managed to retain the classic Javert Silhouette by giving him that trenchcoat, so we still get the expected Inspector Javert Silhouette despite the fact that he’s a modern day cop. Also all of the other cops/soldiers being straight up SWAT was an excellent decision, not only because it shows the sheer violence of a police that isn’t supposed to necessarily be SWAT, but also because the helmets completely cover their heads, so when the soldiers sing lines, they don’t even sound human. Yet another layer.

Nehal Joshi as Valjean was great. Honestly the moment I keep thinking about is actually from the very beginning, just after Valjean is released. Joshi looks so happy, delighted, like his heart is light again. He smiles as he sings “ Drink from the pool / How clean the taste” while looking up into the sky like he’s amazed at being in the open air. Then suddenly his posture changes completely, becomes guarded and hard, his expression gets closed off, and he sings “Never forget the years, the waste” before thumbing at his nose in that tough way and grabbing his bag off the ground. It was an emphasis on a pair of lines that I’ve never seen properly emphasized before. Usually the emphasis is on the next lines, when Valjean is saying “Now let’s see / what this new world has in store for me”. But here they emphasize that despite being free, he has traumas he has to deal with, and experiences that mean he’s wary of the world. It makes his theft of the silver make a lot more sense; it’s not just opportunistic, it’s also that he straight up doesn’t trust anybody.

(Another note on costumes: Valjean’s post-prison costume is his orange jumpsuit with this weird ratty, torn up sweater thing over it. I do very much wish they’d given him a hoodie that was equally as ratty instead of a sweater because I feel like that would’ve been another interesting layer of commentary.)

Two notes I made specifically about this production’s Soliloquy: This production had Valjean rip his prison papers accidentally, while he’s in the middle of an emotional gesture, then he stares at the rip in disbelief, and comes to the realization that he could just rip it up, and so he does. I thought that was a very cool mechanic. The audience literally watches him get the idea of changing who he is. Also, when he sings “I am reaching, but I fall / And the night is closing in” he actually wraps the rope of his bag around his own neck, like he’s considering death, like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. I thought it was really interesting considering those are the lines that directly mirror/parallel Javert’s Suicide.

This production also has all the Bad People roles played by white people, which is just fantastic. The foreman, Javert, all the cops, etc etc. I thought it was an excellent decision, since all of the main characters (minus the revolutionaries) are POC.

Fantine was amazing, has an incredible voice, and her I Dreamed A Dream sounded genuinely miserable, almost frantic with the fact that not only is she a single mother struggling to pay for her child who’s living with some other family, she now has nowhere to turn for money at all, and she’s completely alone. I think she’s my favorite Fantine of any of the ones I saw.

And Lovely Ladies absolutely blew me away. This was the first Lovely Ladies I’ve ever seen that felt Real. Not just that there was sex going on (because there was, there’s people fucking and getting blowjobs etc in the background the entire time), but it doesn’t feel like something silly or shallow. The entire thing feels desperate and exploitative and miserable and painful. Most of the other characters are dressed in provocative, revealing clothes. But there are a few in just jeans and t-shirts, looking desperate and kind of bedraggled. And then you have Fantine, who is literally just in a slip and long socks, looking out of place and terrified.

The usual Lovely Ladies shenanigans do ensue, but there’s a tinge of horribleness to it that is sharper than in the traditional show. In the traditional show, the moment where the music suddenly slows, and all the women sing “Lovely ladies / Going for a song / Got a lot of callers / But they never stay for long”, it usually feels like kind of a weird and unprompted moment of introspection after so much ruckus, but in this version the reason everyone slows down is because the pimp plucks their cash out of each of their hands one by one. And then the horribleness is increased tenfold because all of the women are in a line with men behind them simulating sex, and Fantine is in the center, bent double, the Captain behind her, staring down the audience. With each thrust she grits her words out like she’s in pain in every way imaginable. And the Captain ‘finishes’ just as she hits the line “dead!” Which is just. A lot. But so good. It packs so much more of a punch than Fantine leading the Captain offstage, or to one side of the stage.

The way that Confrontation was staged was also so cool to me. In the shows I’ve seen the first part of Confrontation is Javert and Valjean facing off with Javert stage left and Valjean kind of up beside Fantine’s bed, but they’re on the same “level,” in that Valjean walks a few paces forward a few lines later and they grapple. In this version, they stood quite literally on either side of Fantine’s hospital bed, so that they’re arguing across her dead body.

Madame Thenardier made me think of a bizarre cross between Miss Hannigan, the mom from Matilda, and Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous. She did a great job. M Thenardier is a douchey hipster pirate type guy with white guy dreads. Also they made him an ex-con as well, but he displays the numbers tattooed on his chest with pride compared to Valjean who hides them, which was yet another interesting decision.

This version of Les Mis has taught me that “My mom doesn’t let me drink” is the absolute BEST piece of spoken dialogue you could throw in before Master Of The House kicks the fuck off.

Also this version has Eponine participating in the scams during Master Of The House: she takes peoples’ orders, carries plates, dances, etc. She’s cleaner and more pampered than Cosette, but she’s still being used.

Look Down was really interesting to me. Now, I think what I’m about to say is partly informed by costuming. That is, I think with period costuming an audience has a harder time distinguishing more subtle roles between (non-main) characters. What I mean is, in traditional Look Down, it just seems like three characters having an argument with each other, but with a modernized version the costuming makes it clear that it’s an old beggar woman, a prostitute, and her pimp. While that’s obvious from the actual dialogue, the period costuming makes it a little harder to glean the separate character types other than “beggar type”. Anyway, the roles being clearer via costuming makes all the interactions seem a lot more Real. It’s not just people all dressed alike singing lines at each other, it’s actual separate people having actual conflicts.

Also, I really really liked Mark Hancock as Gavroche. He’s older, or at least bigger, than most kids who end up playing Gavroche, and he’s not the most beautiful singer, but I think that works all the better for a production like this one. He’s not a cutesy Oliver Twist-type character. He’s a kid living rough on the streets, and he’s got a sense of humor but he is a badass.

This version also had a LOT more flirtatious behavior between Marius and Cosette. Like it’s not just one glance on the street. During The Robbery, Marius and Cosette are giving little glances and flirty waves the whole time, all shy and cute, little hand signals like “I want to talk to you oh my god” etc. Also this Cosette has glasses! She’s so cute!

Stars as a song feels very weird when it’s a Modern Day Cop singing about such a philosophical topic, and at first I was kinda ??? about it. Because you know, in a period piece, you kind of expect more elaborate language, you expect certain types of morality, etc. It sounds weird coming out of someone dressed like a pig you’d see on the street in real life. But then at the end of the song Javert takes a rosary out of his breast pocket to sing “Lord let me find him...” etc, and suddenly it actually made a lot of sense. It finally connected the religious references and morality displayed in the lyrics. Because a lot of shitty cops in real life are masquerading as Christians, so again, a good decision.

Ah, the ABC Cafe. Always lovely to hear those horns. John Campione was AMAZING as Enjolras. At first I was a little disappointed they made him a white guy, but then I thought about it and it actually makes a lot of sense. Despite his passion about justice etc, Brick Enjolras is a wealthy student; what better way to show his privilege in a modern setting than to have him be white? Anyway, I think Campione did a great job of portraying a leader who is so passionate, and so dedicated, and so intent on his cause but also kind of stressed out as the day draws nearer. (More on that later.)

Similarly, this Grantaire is a little shit. He does this hilarious like “call on me!” hand raise before “I am agog, I am aghast” which I thought was quite funny and cute. Also after “It’s better than an opera,” the Amis all laugh and clap, and Enjolras does this extremely sarcastic slow clapping before admonishing Marius with “It is time for us all to decide who we are” etc. Also Grantaire and Enjolras are actually standing beside each other for Marius lines, so that when he says “struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight,” Grantaire looks directly at Enjolras and stays staring at him, so that when he moves downstage to stand across from Marius and sing “Red!” and “Black!” at him, it feels more like solidarity than mocking.

But then Enjolras pulls Marius further downstage for his “Marius you are no longer a child” etc lines. His body language is great here. When he sings “Who cares about your lonely soul,” he doesn’t just look like some charismatic leader man. He looks like someone who’s stressed out and a little annoyed/exasperated that this person is causing a distraction right when things are started to get important. He runs his hands through his hair, his gestures are clipped and fast, like he’s got too much energy and isn’t quite sure where to put it. It’s so good. He sings “Our little lives don’t count at all.” And then there’s a long, long moment of silence. A long one, where Marius looks around at his friends and realization that what they’re undertaking is much bigger than his emotional outburst, that Enjolras is right and he has to be with them instead of off in the clouds. And he raises his hand tentatively and then more surely towards Enjolras and sings that next “Red! The blood of angry men!” all on his own before the rest of the Amis join in. GREAT decisions there. SO COOL. (Also this is the moment when an Amis Hand Sign is established, which is important later on.)

This show uses silence in a way that I’ve never really seen another version do it. After Gavroche yells “General Lamarque is dead!” there’s usually a beat of silence before Enjolras begins to sing. In this version there is a long, long moment of silence when everyone looks around at each other, a moment where Joly tosses his pamphlet angrily onto the table and sits down with his head in his hands, a moment where Marius and Grantaire are the only two who turn away and face upstage at the news, a moment where they all process that this is fucking Real, and everything that they’ve been planning is suddenly Actually Happening. And then Enjolras begins, and his voice is so soft, and so sad, and it’s like he’s delivering a eulogy, but it’s only when he gets to “Is the sign we await!” and we get those trumpets that it changes into Enjolras The Leader, and it’s go time, and everything is Intense. Campione is fantastic as Enjolras because I think often people play Enjolras as this solid, charismatic leader who is stoney-faced and sure of himself etc. Which works for the period style (and is fairly Brick-accurate), but I think would seem a little odd in a modern day setting. This Enjolras is in it, he’s into it, he’s fucking intense and ablaze with energy. He sings Do You Hear The People Sing like he’s giving a speech, like he’s trying to convince (And “the real glory is to convince” so y��know).

And Do You Hear The People Sing as a campaigning song is brilliant. It starts out not with march, but with handing out fliers made of red paper, passing them out and getting out the word. Only then do they pull out signs and put on red caps and start marching.

In My Life/A Heart Full Of Love was so fucking hilariously cute. Marius and Cosette are both excellent levels of awkward, and there’s a lot of nonverbal flirting going on, and I just thought it was really well done.

I was told while I was live-tweeting that during One Day More the sort of dancing march they do (because it’s like a dance, instead of the in-place marching of the traditional version) is actually the Toyi-Toyi, a South African dance that was used as a form of protest during Apartheid and during other times as well. So that was a very cool addition. I’m sure there are other callbacks in this show to other protests or protest traditions like that that I didn’t even catch. The dance also reminded me of the body percussion used in A Quoi Tu Danses from 1789: Les Amants De La Bastille, so that was cool as well. We also get face paint and signs and red berets and button pins and a lot of stuff that has been seen in a lot of modern protests/movements lately.

Side note: Javert’s disguise is amazing because he retains his cop boots and trousers and crisp white shirt; he just puts a brown jacket and a red scarf over it and wears a red beret.

OKay SO. This is possibly the BEST On My Own I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m highly partial to Briana Carlson-Goodman as Eponine because the emotion in her voice is just mind-blowing. But this On My Own was so amazing. First of all, I’m amazed I’ve never seen any other production do this: when Eponine sings “pretending he’s beside me”, she puts out her hand like she’s holding some imaginary lover’s hand, like she’s genuinely imagining him walking with her, and it made her self-deception that much sadder. And this version was so good, I think because it was this perfect combination of angry and disappointed and yearning and self-deceiving. You can tell this Eponine KNOWS she’s deluding herself that Marius will ever love her, that she’s hugely disappointed and almost angry at that fact, but she still loves him and wants him and wants that love, and it just makes that self-deception all the stronger.

This version of Les Mis brings the barricade in as a flown set piece, which I think is an interesting decision. I definitely prefer the US Tour version, where the downstage scrim is backlit/lifted and both the audience and Eponine are suddenly confronted with the fully-built barricade. However, the barricade being flown in does give the Barricade Boys a moment to stand and admire their handiwork, so that’s kind of also cool.

(Somewhat unrelated, but throughout the show this Grantaire is a lot more still than other actors’ versions of R, but also more still than the other Amis in this show, so it’s clearly a choice. Other version of R are slumped over a table or slumped on the ground a lot, or they’re wobbly, or just generally restless and upset. This R is so still and just standing unmoved and blank it’s definitely a choice. Very much taking the “he seemed to be waiting there for a bullet which should spare him the trouble of waking” quote from the Brick and translating it to the stage version, in that he does move to shoot his gun but aside from that he’s so stock still it’s like he’s given up. Anyway. Back to the actual show instead of me just waxing lyrical about my favorite character.

When Eponine climbs over the barricade, Marius waves down all the guns just as Joly yells “There’s a boy climbing the barricade!” This kind of happens in other versions, but it seems like most of the traditional Les Mis versions all the Barricade Boys just kind of accept someone’s climbing the barricade and let Eponine over? In this one Marius like actually is waving down their guns, blatantly being like “don’t shoot, I know this person.”

And when Eponine is revealed to be shot, they don’t just let her die in Marius’ arms. The first half of A Little Fall Of Rain is sung with Eponine in Marius’ arms, but there’s also Feuilly there as a medic, pressing handkerchiefs to her wound, his hand on her with Marius’ hand on top of his and Eponine’s on top of them both. When Marius is saying “and you will live ‘Ponine,” medic/Feuilly shakes his head at him as if to say, ‘don’t tell her that, she’s not going to make it, I’m so sorry,’ but he still has his hand on her wound. It’s only when she sings “Just hold me now, and let it be” that Eponine pushes the medic/Feuilly away so she can die just with Marius. I really, really, really loved that because it seems so Right. Like, they’re fighting for a better world, they’re not just going to let an injured person die, they’re going to try their best to help her even if she’s dying and there’s nothing they can do. And I really liked that there was a medic there, but he was faced upstage, away from the audience, as if he was trying to help but also not intrude on this private moment. But when Eponine does push him away, he goes fairly easily, like he’s realized that she’s realized that she’s going to die. Also, instead of carrying Eponine offstage like a ragdoll, Grantaire and Feuilly bring over a stretcher and she’s carried off in it by Marius and Feuilly while Grantaire collects the handkerchiefs that were bloodied by her wound.

Valjean’s soldier disguise is the SWAT gear, even the helmet, although he mostly carries it in his hand rather than wearing it. It’s interesting because the difference between the SWAT gear and the suits he wears as Fauchelevent are a hugely stark difference, whereas the difference between his nice period clothes and the soldier’s period uniform isn’t quite so intense.

I noticed that during Drink With Me, Joly put his hand on Grantaire’s shoulder during “Let the wine of friendship never run dry,” which is sweet. I also noticed that aside from the moments where he was shooting his gun and the few moments he was being helpful re: Eponine’s death, Grantaire spends most of his time very very still, staring down at the floor with his shoulders slumped. He judges moments with just a shake of the head and turning away while others watch. His part in Drink With Me is sung with a bitterness that is more final than it is angry, like he can’t understand why they’ve all chosen to sacrifice themselves like this and he hates it and he’s bitter that all his friends are going to die but he’s realized there’s nothing he can do about it.

Bring Him Home is SUCH a hard song to sing and it’s actually really interesting in this version, I think. Because in traditional shows I think Valjean is played as a fairly calm person who is just always calm. Joshi plays his Valjean like he has taught himself to be calm, but inside he’s still kind of angry and traumatized and still has those instincts and still doesn’t quite know whether to believe in god or not, or something like that. So Bring Him Home is a moment where it seems like at first he’s just hoping, and then by the end of the song he’s genuinely imploring god to save Marius. Like it’s the first time he’s ever really begged a higher power to do something instead of just acting of his own power to make the good happen. I have no idea if I’m articulating myself well.

Again, Campione is a FANTASTIC Enjolras who plays him like a stressed out passionate leader who is constantly stuck between This Is Finally Real Hooray and Holy Shit This Is Too Fucking Real Oh God. In The Second Attack he portrays it really well, looking around at all the people he suddenly feels responsible for, body language like he’s trying to make too many split-second decisions. It’s just really good.

Death Of Gavroche is also great because even though this Gavroche is not the best singer, he gets shot once and keeps reaching for the bullets, and only stops when they riddle him with bullets. Also, I didn’t realize this until skipping around in the video to write this, but I think they kind of tried to retain some of the Gavroche-Grantaire relationship that the US Tour established? Grantaire goes from being kinda listless stage left to bolting over to the barricade once Gavroche starts climbing, reaching for him desperately; he gets shot in the leg and goes down and spends the rest of Gavroche’s lines up to his death with his head in his hands. Once Gavroche dies, Enjolras actually checks on Grantaire and wraps a tourniquet around his leg while Feuilly and Marius tend to Gavroche’s body.

Marius gets a thigh injury during The Final Battle (we know this because this production shows Actual Blood! Gavroche is actually bleeding! Eponine, too! And Marius! And Enjolras! Like there’s actual red and it makes it so much more intense! Anyway, Marius gets a bullet to the thigh, which frankly I think makes a lot more sense than the shoulder injury he gets in canon at least in terms of him being unconscious for so long (although I guess in canon he also has at least one head injury so meh). Anyway, Valjean sees it and immediately tourniquets him as one by one all the revolutionaries are picked off by bullets.

This Enjolras death is my favorite I’ve ever seen. We don’t get a permets-tu scene, but that’s okay because this is fantastic in another way. Enjolras doesn’t die on the barricade.

Enjolras is standing center stage, the bodies of his friends around him. He’s shot once, in the stomach, and goes down on all fours. As he’s on the floor, SWAT cops surround him, pointing machine guns straight at him. Enjolras struggles up, standing, and faces the cops and the audience. He raises his hand in a defiant fist to the air and is shot in the head.

Then there is a long, long stretch of silence. Quite literally an entire minute (I just counted) of silence, where there is no music, no speaking, nothing. Just the sounds of SWAT walking around, checking the bodies on the floor, and the indistinct sound of walky-talky chatter. Only after a whole minute of silence has passed and the SWAT leave the stage do the little plucked notes and the clarinet playing the Bring Him Home instrumental begin as Valjean stands up.

Valjean actually goes over and checks Enjolras’ pulse to see if he could possibly be alive, which I think hurts A Lot. And then there’s a moment where he looks around at all the bodies on the floor and kind of doubles over in shock, but only for a moment, and then he’s bolting back over to Marius to make sure he’s still breathing and then heaving him up into his arms.

(By the way, the bodies of the revolutionaries remain onstage through all of the proceeding songs.)

Dog Eat Dog is a boring, crap song in every production, and this one is no exception. The guy playing Thenardier is quite good but there’s really no way to redeem how boring a song Dog Eat Dog is. Also, this version cuts out the long instrumental part of Valjean walking with Marius through the sewer due to the fact that they don’t have that crazy projection thing. Instead it’s just a few seconds of him dragging Marius before encountering Thenardier and then also a few seconds before encountering Javert. Also, Valjean straight up puts his chest against Javert’s gun while he’s asking to save Marius’ life. Brave as fuck.

Okay this Javert’s Suicide was mostly really really good. Edward Watts gives Javert this sort of frantic emotion that Valjean spared him on the barricade and then is only asking to save this stranger. He looks genuinely freaked out and distressed. It’s not just confusion, it’s like actual Freaking Out. The only part I didn’t like was the actual throwing himself off the bridge part, but honestly I feel like there really is no way to do that part in a way that isn’t a little ridiculous-seeming. It’s hard to have a show where they never had any sort of fly rigs or any special types of practical effects at all and then suddenly there’s a guy flying through the air? and take that seriously. I dunno. But in any case, the rest of it is really good because the frantic confusion and questioning and anger and sadness and everything is so well done. Also, he takes his cross out of his pocket and drops it on the ground before he jumps, like he believes even god has failed him.

And then the lights return and the bodies of the revolutionaries are still onstage, with police tape cordoning them off. Turning begins with women in black mourning clothes coming onstage: at first they stand behind the tape with candles and flowers and teddy bears, then someone breaks the tape and they move to sit beside the bodies and set flowers down beside them. As Turning is going on, as the women move to sit beside the bodies, Marius also enters and sits in a chair upstage.

So Empty Chairs At Empty Tables happens with the bodies of the revolutionaries lying on the floor right in front of Marius, and women in black kneeling beside the bodies, facing upstage. But as Marius sings “Phantom faces at the window, phantom shadows on the floor,” the revolutionaries rise and move downstage, looking at him. They all make their little group hand sign before exiting, until it’s just Enjolras looking at him, then he makes the sign as well and exits and Marius is left alone with the mourning women in front of him and his hand raised in farewell. It’s just SO GOOD because I think it makes it all the more real. It feels like he’s actually singing to the bodies of his friends as well as their memories, like he’s full of survivor’s guilt and he’s watching them walk away from him and doesn’t know what to do. Combining the Turning Women’s mourning with Marius’ mourning is really cool, because it shows it’s really not just Marius that’s affected by this, and essentially he’s singing Empty Chairs for himself as well as the women in mourning kneeling on the stage before him.

Side note: Dorcas Leung, who plays Cosette, is a True Fucking Soprano. Her voice is SO high. It’s wild. Like, really wild. Like, glass-breaking high but in a good way. Also she’s really cute.

Anyway, the next thing I took note of was Valjean telling Marius why he was leaving without telling Cosette goodbye. He sings “Promise me, Monsieur, Cosette will never know” and puts his hand out in a way that’s partially imploring, and partially asking for a handshake on the promise. Marius says “For the sake of Cosette, it must be so,” but pointedly does not shake his hand. He’s going to honor the promise but he’s not gonna fucking like it.

Wedding Chorale/Beggars At The Feast is mostly unremarkable except that Mme Thenardier is dressed like Cruella de Ville. Oh, and Thenardier gets a kick in the balls instead of a punch to the face from Marius. Also the actor who played Combeferre and the actor who played Bossuet are dancing together so during Beggars At The Feast when Thenardier sings “This one’s a queer, but what can you do?”, the Combeferre actor does a little wave.

I’ve always hated in the musical that Valjean goes from being perfectly healthy to straight up dying in a matter of minutes but I also understand that montages of like a year are hard to do in musical format, so I forgive it but it’s still annoying.

Anyway, this Epilogue is FUCKING FANTASTIC. Valjean does this beautiful laugh of relief and amazement when Fantine tells him “And you will be with god” like he’s still amazed after all these years that he’s a Good Person Who Deserves Heaven.

Also, Fantine sits down on the bench beside Valjean, and then when Marius and Cosette enters, Cosette runs and sits down between Valjean and Fantine, facing Valjean, and there’s a moment where Fantine smiles in disbelief and strokes Cosette’s hair like “oh my god this is my daughter!”

Finally, the fucking kicker for me: “Take my hand, I’ll lead you to salvation / Take my love, for love is everlasting.” That’s always the moment in the show when I start actually crying and this one made it even sadder: Eponine is not the only one to enter in that moment. Eponine enters singing the duet with Fantine like usual, but Enjolras and Gavroche also enter, standing behind her, not singing.

This was such a great, fascinating, unique decision, and I fucking loved it. Because with that group, you have all the types of love and belief that are Important in the Brick: Fantine, the love of a mother. Valjean, the love of a father and the faith and belief that comes from someone else suddenly believing in you and the goodness that is a result of that. Marius and Cosette, romantic love, but also love of children and chosen family. Eponine, unrequited love and sacrifice. Gavroche, not necessarily love but an innocent death, a death from the goodness that comes from wanting to help. And Enjolras, the love of the people, the belief in the people, love of patria and the belief in justice. Just all of these important symbols standing together.

Then Do You Hear The People Sing reprise starts up, and the rest of the cast enter and stand at the edges of the stage around the group at center before everyone scatters out and spreads across the stage.

So basically that was an incredible fucking show. Like, okay. Since joining the Les Mis fandom in late 2011-ish or something I've read A LOT of Les Mis fanfics, I've read the entire book, seen the show live half a dozen times plus a ton of filmed boots and movie adaptations and last year's BBC miniseries. I've got a Les Mis tattoo and I'm vaguely thinking of getting another one. I've read fanfic taking place in canon era, modern day, Mai 1968, the 90s, the 40s, and on and on. All of them are important because all of them interpret the themes differently. Basically what I'm saying is I've consumed A Lot of Les Miserables.

But this version of Les Mis is So Important. Like, it's important enough I'm really surprised they didn't give in to the call for a DVD recording back in 2014.

Because the difference between like, the traditional version of the show, and reading a modern day AU fanfiction, and this Dallas show is that this Dallas show is In Front Of You. It's important because you're used to seeing this show with 19th century clothes and 19th century mannerisms so you don't necessarily connect it to today, or you do on a surface level only.

And in fanfics you can imagine it, but it's not the same.

But this show takes the music we all know and the characters we all know and places it in front of us NOW. We get Valjean in an orange jumpsuit, posturing like we've seen people posture in real life. We get Enjolras in a denim vest and button pins. We get Fantine, a woman of color, being fired for having a child out of wedlock and being accused of prostitution, and having to actually turn to prostitution. And we get a depiction that shows so viscerally how horrible that is. We get white people as cops (SWAT, no less) while POC are abused.

Suddenly this is a show that connects on every level.

And not only that but the visuals of the actual rebellion can be connected to so many movements and protests and things that have happened in recent years. Like with the Toyi-Toyi. And all the signs and pins and face paint and weapons and clothes and even to some extent the barricade.

And the cops going from soldiers with bayonets (which, to be fair, back in the day were pretty daunting weapons with their triangular blades, but we don't see them that way) to SWAT with helmets that black out their faces and semi-automatics is a a hard-hitting message.

And I've always thought it was funny that people who see the show casually think it's about Marius & Cosette's romance. Because that’s not all it’s about, of course. But this version made me really, really realize how little that romance matters in the musical. How much the musical is about Valjean, and then in tandem about the rebellion. Because place the whole "I've known you a day and I'm in love" thing in a modern setting and you realize how ridiculous it is, and how much more important Valjean's growth is, and how much more important the movement and the rebellion is. I mean the entire book is just about the Power Of Love And Belief In All Its Forms etc etc. But I think this version pointed out better than any other how many other forms of love exist in this story, besides the romance of Marius and Cosette.

But truly I think the most important thing that this show did is what I mentioned earlier: it placed the story, its themes, its characters, its rebellion, it's Love and Belief, in the Here And Now, and made it really, truly connect with its audience and the present world. This is a show that people always say is so relevant, so important, and it is. It really is. But sometimes, for a casual viewer, it’s hard to see past the period costumes and sets. And then you transplant the show into modern dress and modern sets and suddenly it’s a story that is just as believable and hard-hitting and important now as it was then. Suddenly you can connect with these characters and you can see these things happening in real life, in present day, and you can believe that it would happen.

It just blows my mind that we have all these Modern AU fanfiction pieces, that we have multiple groups of people doing Modern Les Mis Youtube interpretations, that there’s a Spanish musical out there that’s purely about Grantaire (which, god I wish there was more info on!), that there’s a ton of music and TV adaptations and yet this is the first time I’ve seen a professional company do any sort of modern interpretation of the show. And it works SO incredibly well and is SO hard-hitting and just took my breath away.

Uh so yeah such massive praise to the Dallas Theater Center for having the courage and imagination and awesomeness to finally do a modern version of this story because they knocked it out of the damn park and made an already important story even more important.

#les miserables #les mis #dallas les mis #dallas les miserables #dallas theater center #dallas theater center les miserables #les mis dallas #les miserables meta #les mis meta

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toomanycharr · 7 years ago

Text

Character list (WIP)

Character list, will have bios added at some point. Not currently complete, I have forgotten a few. ((Edited 07/10/2017 - added genders.) Really should add all my characters but there are just so damn many)

The Xyx Brigade

(Xyx is my favourite and main character, and I have many AU versions of them. Oop. All Ash Legion.)

Xyx Blacklunar (main) - Male. Lieutenant of Lunar warband. Lazy ranger who gets his bird (Rat) to do all the hard work.

Xyx Blackrune - Agender. The ‘real’ Xyx. A Gladium ranger-turned-engineer who makes tiny drones and dreams of being something more than she is. Puns, self-depreciating humour, and mental illness.

Xyx Blackbrand - Female. WIP, really. I just made her for renegade, tbh.

Xyx Blackruin - Female. Young Xyx. A naive charr ranger who doesn’t quite know how hard a soldier’s life is, just yet. Weak as hell.

Xyx Blackjaeger - Female. Sentinel. Very high opinion of herself, and not without reason. She could probably benchpress you. Ruthless on the field. Xyx Blackbriar - Male. Chronic pain and cooking

Blood EU

Nenqe Furywatch (Main) - Female. Iron-Blooded Soldier of Fury Warband. Adamant guard hater - Guitar maker / player - Blacksmith - Shield Enthusiast - Fatty fat.

Yaxa Oozemaw (Secondary) - Female. Angry Legionnaire of Maw warband. Anger issues - Mesmer - Focusing on illusion and heavy-handed attacks.

Apnea Spiritmaul - Female. Pretty charr, will kick your ass. Flirtatious and egotistic. Spirit Warband’s Scribe.

Sergi Spiritclaw - Female. Probably the mother of half of my charr. Old asshole, hates most of her cubs. Became an adoptive warband mother of Weirdfolio’s Lirae, treats her like the perfect cub she never had. Forced into Spirit Warband by her Centurion, hates it.

Tabus The Displacer - Male. He looks cool? No character as of yet.

Mayall Stargazer - Female. Soldier of Star warband. The ‘good cop’ of the duo, being very friendly and approachable.

Hoag Starcrusher - Male. Legionnaire of Star warband. Not a nice guy, and does not give a shit about you or your opinions.

Volca Slashthroat - Long Bio - Female. Centurion and Professional arsehole.

Iron

Eris Spiritheart - Female. Half-Legionnaire of Spirit Warband and twin of Arcturis, has never gotten over losing her girlfriend, Vanessa. Sort of depressed, and learnt the way of the Revenant so she could perhaps one day speak to her beloved once more. A lot of Spirit’s think this makes her unsuitable for the role of legionnaire, so she shares the duty.

Arcturis Spirtmaw - Male. Half-Legionnaire of Spirit Warband and twin of Eris, A worry-wart and mom-friend. Will always be there for his friends, and will always chop off someone’s head for them, too.

Bess Havocether - Female. Soldier of Havoc Warband. Cannoner and child of two aetherblades. Grew up on the ships, but got herself lost on a mission- saw what the Aethers were doing and was disgusted, so deserted to the Legions. Very untrusted, still.

Seamstress Kombucha - Female. A tailor, making a living selling garments to any cloth-wearers that may want them.

Klovan - Male. Gladium scum. He tries so hard to get into a warband but no one will take the poor bugger.

Artois Earthshaker - Agender. A charr elementalist who became slowly encased in stone. Now looks more like an earth elemental. (Sort of not RP)

Auxantios (Secondary) - Male. Alchemist. Knew killing the elder dragons was a bad idea, is very ‘told you so’ about that fact. Makes poison and stuff. Probably the ash-iest iron legion ever.

Aries The Obstinate - Female (MtF). Transgender charr lady, and guard of Stonemist castle. Dies a lot, but hey, she’s already in hell the mists.

Luluzure Vividwrath - Female (MtF). A pretty charr with no real lore. I didn’t even make her! Probably something simple like a farmer. Kangra Silverbrew - Female.

Ash

Speldan (Main) - Agender. Part of the Tyrian Expedition Companionship, often ends up as the cleaner. Spends most of her time cleaning the ships and lugging around heavy materials. Has a pet moa named Screech, who is a noisy little bugger, and talks to him a lot.

Congou (Secondary) - Female. An eccentric drake-breeder who has a lot of wanderlust and no self-control. Often ends up who-knows-where in search of new breeding stock.

Tamika Dustshot - Female. Bullied by her peers due to her low, smooth voice, Tamika moved to Divinities Reach where she now is a renowned jazz musician. Very well groomed, pretty rich, and mostly liked. Close to Xyx and Temac, and has shelled out a LOT of her money to keep Temac safe.

Temac Gemstrike - Female. Thief of the notorious Gem warband (Which is more of a thieves guild?) Out to steal the rarest and finest, sell it on, split the profits. Also runs a shop where she sells seedy stuff and also rare, expensive stolen items. She does not know it, but Tamika buys most of her stolen stuff and returns it to keep her out of trouble.

Rauch The Brusque - Intersex, she/her. The loneliest charr. Lost in Magumma after the passing of her warband, Rauch hopes for nothing more than to feel the closeness she once had. She won’t let it be known, though.

Taube Lunargleam - Male. Medic of Lunar warband .Guardian and battleaxe nurse. Will cut your leg off and scorch it until it’s not bleeding if you tell him you got a bruise. Doesn’t really understand that other people feel pain- doesn’t do what he does because he’s evil, he just doesn’t understand. How he got to be medic, no one knows. (Please replace him I don’t want Xyx to have no arms or legs)

Kallisti Smokehunt - Female. Another pretty charr with no real lore. Oops.

Toucha Blacksnow - Male. Soldier of Black warband. Born and raised by charr adventurers in the shiverpeaks, sent to serve the legions in the citadel. It’s ALWAYS too hot for him.

Teague Blackblade - Male. An old, scarred sentinel who suffers from PTSD. He has retired to a farmers life, and tends to ramble.

Worina Blackweld - Female. Legionnaire of Black Warband. An old guardian with a hatred of, and unfortunate knack for, healing. 0 sense of humour.

Galao Blackcandle - Male. Quaestor of Black warband. is usually found cooking for his warband on missions, and seldom fights. When he does, you wouldn’t guess he is not a fighter- specializing in stunning and taking a foe out quickly.

Malaya Blackheart - Female, we guess?? Soldier of Black warband. A silent thief, who tends to follow her legionnaire until there’s a fight to be had.

Breve Blackeye - Male. Disgraced soldier of Black warband. A drunken hobo whose unfortunate past lead to a hatred of asura. Extremely volatile and unpredictable. Drinks to forget the horrors he faced whilst being an inquest test subject.

Spinel Blackcarve - Female.

Kallias Blackgrog - Male.

Flame

Geier Hearthhew - Male. Cub.

Syn Thunderstalker - Male.

Legion Deserters

King Tyant (Tyant Flayclaw) - Male (FtM).

Glistertooth - Male. HALLOWEEN

Falk (Missing) - Male.

Human

Tiffany Salter - Female.

Theo the Serpent - Male.

Tea Apnea (Non-RP) - Agender.

Sylvari

Teacae - Agender.

Aries Hellebore - Agender masc???

Norn

Tea Ursinnehare (Non-RP) - Agender.

Non-RP / Jokes / Memes

Badly made fursuit - Female.

Cant be charrsed - Male. (Actually a really good looking character hot damn I wish I could RP him.)

Overdunked Rich Tea - Intersex.

Salty Tea - Female.

Spoopy Booplesnoot - Male.

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mcrmadness · 4 years ago

Note

4, 11, 18 & 26 for the non american ask^^

Thanks! :D

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

Does rye bread count? You just can't get the perfect type of rye bread from anywhere else than from Finland, and I think also Estonia loves their rye bread? There's probably some dark breads in Scandinavia too but I feel like they might be a bit sweeter, which is not my favorite. (They also had rye bread in Poland when I visited there, and it was fine but not like the one I've got used to here :D)

The typical, good Finnish rye bread is almost or only 100% rye and it's slightly sour. I usually eat only rye bread that is 100% rye because the wheat there is totally pointless and if it's not wholegrain, it's just... basically same as putting sugar in the bread, (the wheat there) has absolutely no nutritional value.

***

11. favourite native writer/poet?

Hmm. I don't like poems in any language and apparently this is something I've had since I was a little kid because I always took some Finnish poetry books from the bookshelf (my mom loves poems, especially this author's) and yeeted it to somewhere in the room............. I just didn't like having it in the bookshelf at all XD

I also haven't really read any books from Finnish authors. I don't think we have THAT big of a scene, it's quite difficult to be any kind of artist in Finland cos you have to do so much work for that and it still might not be enough. I guess most here do several things, or write a book as a sidejob because it might be impossible to make a living with that. The first and latest book written by a Finn (Antti Holma) was this autobiography by someone who started as an actor, but doesn't even live in Finland anymore because this country just doesn't offer him suitable work anymore, and he can still write occassionally when living abroad. I liked the book tho, but I don't know if I he is the best answer for this when his books are literally the only two books written by a Finn that I have read.

I own more of non-fiction by Finns, but mainly those are just horse related books, e.g. about the history of Finnhorse, or horse training books from an animal trainer Tuire Kaimio, and her books were my first touch to "natural horsemanship" when I was 13.

Also, Finland of course has a long history of writers, there's lots of big names and altho I like reading, I'm so bad at reading books people label as classics. I haven't read any of those books that "every Finn has read". Like, no... I'm not interested in most of the topics, I even hated Kalevala (our natural epic) at school because I hate poems so much that I was crying blood (also from my ears) whenever I had to hear those super annoying Kalevala rhymes.

***

The rest of the stuff under the cut.

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

Yes!!! I'm from the East Finland and from an area where there is no particular dialect but it's like a mixture of all the Eastern dialects, and there's lots of variety already within the area of my municipality (the other end speaks slightly differently than the other end, and I live here in the middle :D). So this is really a mix of Savonian, South- and North-Karelian and I think something might come here from the Central Finland too.

I'm also extremely fond of dialects and my paternal grandma was from South Osthrobothnian, very close to the West coast, and I just recently talked about it with my mom and she said that altho my grandma lived and also died here in the East (and I was born here and have lived my whole life here so far), she absolutely hated the Savonian dialect and always said that she's not going to start talking in it EVER XD And she didn't! She always talked in her South Ostrobothnian dialect and altho I don't really remember much of that - I was 13 when she died - I guess it still is so strongly in my genes because every time I hear that dialect somewhere, I just feel like I had gone home and I feel so warm inside! Also I relate so strongly to the stereotype of West Finnish people, they're said to be very reliable and honest, and I'm a nice mixture of that AND the Savonian stereotypes too. ("A cunning Savonian", for example, lol. Apparently it has something to do with the dialect/worrisome nature of us and we not really giving straight answers, even if it wasn't even actually LYING - there's also a saying that "When a Savonian is speaking, the listener is in charge.")

That's also why I have, unintentionally, adopted lots of the Ostrobothnian dialect into how I speak, so my personal dialect is not only what people here normally speak, but also has lots of features from the Ostrobothnian dialects.

When I write online, I often clean up my dialect a bit because this Eastern dialect is actually really, really strong. I love how it (also) sounds, it has this very relaxed sound to it, like there's no worries in the world? I love it. So when I write, I write a bit closer to the common spoken Finnish, but when I start speaking... my dialect gets very strong again. Sometimes, if I'm nervous, I go more into the cleaner version because this dialect is also very noticeable and usually whenever I speak it somewhere else, people will comment on it because West Finns often find it so funny or cute sounding - or the opposite, some find it extremely obnoxious and wish no one would speak in it :D Actually if I see anyone commenting how annoying the dialect is, I start talking or writing in it even more strongly on purpose XD

Another funny thing I have noticed about how I speak is that, well, in Finnish the 1st pronoun is "minä", most people say "mä", but in my dialect it's "mie". I have always found that fun to say, but I have never liked writing it. Whenever I did comics or wrote stories/fanfiction in Finnish, I always wrote "mä". I just could not hear "mie" with them. But lately I have noticed that when I want to talk about me in a written form, like a comment on youtube, writing "mie" will give away immediately that I'm from the East and the dialect will piss off people. Sometimes they even come to comment to me something racist about Russia altho I have no connections to Russia? My whole family tree is from Finland, I might even have some roots in Germany, actually. So I very often have now replaced that with "ite" when I write - it comes from the word "itse" which, well, it's easiest to translate into German as it means "selbst". So basically I say "I myself...", but I use it like a pronoun because you can do that in Finnish, and it gives me the opportunity to avoid using "mie" and sounding "childhish", but still I have a pronoun there. Fortunately in Finnish you can also leave out the 1st and 2nd pronouns but when I add "ite" there, it kinda just emphasizes the verb even more.

Omfg I love languages and linguistics and dialects so much, I could just keep going about Finnish dialects and mine but I could imagine it being very difficult to comprehend if you don't have any existing knowledge over Finnish overall! :D

***

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

Very rarely, currently I can't remember any that would have not had Finnish people working with it. Usually Finland is not really known in the US, I think not everyone even in Europe know what or where is Finland even, so usually any time this country gets mentioned somewhere, everyone goes crazy.

There's probably not a single video on youtube without at least one comment going "Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan!" if Finland has been mentioned in the video. That phrase means "Finland mentioned, let's meet at the market place!" I even use this tag in Tumblr whenever I see some random post with lots of notes and someone mentions Finland (and the someone is not Finnish themselves).

Actually, now I just remembered something! In The X-Files there has been a mention a few times! I don't remember anything else but this one episode about a chess player boy, and Scully says "Helsinki syndrome", which is an alternative/old name for "Stockholm syndrome" :D Always have to throw a party after that line XD (Jk :D)

There's also this one time when Conan O'Brien made fun of Finns on tv, and he got a bunch of angry letters from Finns and he actually apologized on tv :D Then, I don't remember if it was before or after that, he noticed he actually looks a lot like Tarja Halonen, who was our president at the time, and he made some jokes about that and in the end he actually visited Finland and even met with her, a few times :D That was HUUUUGE for us Finns XD I remember watching the episode of his visit to Finland with my family lmao.

Now I also remembered something else... SO TYPICAL OF ME :DDD ...also typical of me to forget it right after remembering it. Wtf was it again? Oh yeah! I watched lots of Jackass and Viva La Bam when I was a teenager, and it was so exciting to see how excited Bam Margera was over Finland, because he was really into Finnish (metal) music. He even once made a movie, which wasn't that interesting tbh, called "Where the F* is Santa?" and it was kinda sweet of him how he got so angry every time someone said Santa Claus comes from the North Pole, because he knew he comes from Rovaniemi, Finland instead, and he tried so hard to pronounce the name correctly and corrected everyone who thought Santa doesn't come from Finland :DD

Okay I think this is ENOUGH ::D

#lebignom #ask games #long post #finland #finnish #finnish culture

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