#gavroche you adorable child

[jolys-cane]

TOUR THOUGHTS

Saw the Les Miserables Tour at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto on May 21 2024; here are my thoughts (Long read, sorry I have a lot of feelings)

Prologue/Look Down/Valjean's Soliloquy

We got like, holographic waves crashing and the men are rowing a boat LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE it's awesome

Oh my god the pipes on the background actors were so good. THE SUN IS STRONG ITS HOT AS HEEELLL BELOW

I miss Javert's stupid guard hat. Was bareheaded as he gave Valjean his yellow ticket

PETIT GERVAIS?????????? Valjean steals a little boy's coin when he's roaming the countryside 😭

Randy Jeter as the Bishop blew me away. Not just his voice but his acting was FANTASTIC every single movement was like. I am an old bishop. This is how an old bishop moves. Idk idk it was really good

Nick Cartell did a great job w Valjean overall, but I totally loved him as pre-MsurM Valjean the most. He acts like a feral animal, grabbing the wine out of the nun's hands and the bread from the priest all hunched over and practically snarling - very very cool and awesome

At the End of the Day

Not a negative but when we went to At the End of the Day there was very minimal lighting and my first thought was Oh no the lighting broke hope they fix it and we don't have to have a brief intermission but then when they went 'At the end of the day there's another day dawning' the lights went up and I was like OHHHHHHHHHHHH so that's just me not understanding lighting direction

Foreman killed it, so did all of the factory workers I love all the interactions and ad-libbing in the background it makes me so happy to see

Every time I saw a tall graceful ensemble member I was like '"That's Kyle Adams" and 8/10 times I was right. Otherwise it was Daniel Gerard Bittner

I Dreamed A Dream

OKKKK VOCALS???? Haley Dortch has such a beautiful, clear, emotional sound and she left not a dry eye in the house. Literally the second intermission hit my parents and myself were like. Holy shit dude what about that Fantine

I got her autograph after the show and she was so so sweet 🥺 She accidentally messed up her signature and had to redo it and was apologising to me and I was like GIRL you brought the house down you could stab me right now and I'd be like 'Thanks have a good one'

Lovely Ladies / Fantine's Arrest

Bamatabois (David Andino) was a standout performance, really chewed the scenery and I adored every second he was on stage (Plus his costume was fantastic)

The other girls defending Fantine 🥺

I like that after the police show up and they basically arrest all of the ladies and pimps, regular well-off citizens come out to witness Valjean defending Fantine from Javert. Thought it was a nice touch

Fantine's Death

My first and only cry of the evening, Haley Dortch no one does it like you

The Confrontation

If you've heard me talk about the confrontation you'll know that I absolutely hate the new chain choreography, HOWEVER. I really really liked it this time. Preston in particular gave it a lot of physicality that I enjoyed

Nick Cartell is a little guy and I don't really believe that his Valjean managed to knock out Preston's Javert

For some reason the percussion was really loud and I could barely hear the vocals so I don't have many thoughts on them

Master of the House / Waltz of Treachery

MATT CROWLE YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS

Both Thenardiers were fantastic, not a crazy amount of ad-libbing but when they did they made it count ("BYE, BAGUETTE")

Madame in particular was hilarious

Master of the House is very busy in a good way, everywhere you look interesting things are happening. Another number where the ensemble shines and you can tell everyone is having a blast

The Bargain was funny as hell, Thenardier tells Cosette to die in his arms and she goes limp when he's saying she's 'often been ill'

Valjean gives Cosette Catherine!

Look Down / The Robbery

Gavroche was super charismatic and confident, really great child actor (Milo Maharlika)

Eponine tosses Marius' book across the stage and he goes "I like the way you always ... tease 😐" They're such cute friends together

After Enjolras and the boys are done their preaching Enjolras gets stopped by a policeman and is told off 😭

During the robbery Montparnasse keeps Marius away by brandishing his little knife at him which I thought was cute

Also! Montparnasse is the only member of Thenardier's gang to escape during the Robbery!!! Which is a nice Brick reference

After Thenardier's 'In the absense of a victim' spiel he does this exact pose

Gavroche's little 'Clear the streets' 🫡moment is so cute

Stars

God I love Preston Truman Boyd

His Javert is so stalwart and reserved and dedicated, he's kind of robocop and it really really works, and you get to see just a smidge of vulnerability peek out in this song

ABC Cafe / Red and Black

I DON'T REMEMBER A LOT bare with me

Grantaire was absolutely the standout. Slapped Marius' butt with his coat. Stuck his wine bottle dick in Enjolras' face. Offered Combeferre a sip of his wine (who reluctantly accepted). Blew a kiss at Enjolras

Kyle Adams physicality is probably my favourite aspect of his Grantaire - he moves very assuredly, like a cat, in a way that is like okay he's drunk but he's so used to being drunk that his stumbling is more like dancing. I remember reading a fic that described Grantaire's movements in a similar way and I wonder if that was one of the fics Kyle took inspiration from?

OOH they did the wine bottle keep-away thing with Grantaire and Marius which I didn't know they still did so that was exciting

J.T Wood is such a cute Joly I love his voice

In Do You Hear the People Sing Grantaire grabs a gun and holds it at arms-length like it has cooties before handing it off to another student

Combeferre waves the flag both times (Here and in One Day More) and I'm not sure if it's always Combeferre who does that or if it's because Andrew Marks Maughan is clearly the most physically strong of the Barricade Boys

In My Life / A Heart Full of Love

Delaney Guyer is a really good Cosette in that she has a gorgeous voice and also has a lot of personality and actually reacts to things going on around her

Marius (who was played by Christopher James Tamayo for this performance) is such a cute little nerd. You can see him try to figure out what he's going to do, then he throws a rock at Cosette's window and kind of cringes at the noise - he's so unsure of himself and awkward

Cosette is very excited that he's here and closes the window right away, which prompts Marius' 'I'm doing everything all wrong!' until she reappears downstairs and they get to be cute dorks in love

Attack on Rue Plumet

I don't remember a lot but I DO remember that Eponine was really good here

When Valjean is like 'Tomorrow we'll away' Cosette goes 'WHAT? NO!'

David Andino is so good as Babet he is a chronic scene stealer at this point

One Day More

If you know Another thing about me you know I hate the One Day More box-step but it actually did not bug me this time. They put Grantaire next to Enjolras for the marching portion which is cute

On My Own

Holy shit Mya Rena Hunter delivered the most heartbreaking and powerful rendition of this I've ever heard

The Barricade

Loved Feuilly in his little part

Javert is a good spy. If I didn't know the plot of Les Mis I would've been like Holy shit that's Javert? Crazy. I love him drawing the 'plans' he'd overheard into the ground with a stick

Gavroche flipping Javert off >>>>>

Buff Combeferre is one of the two to drag Javert away to be tied up lol

A Little Fall of Rain

The only version of ALFoR that actually made me feel something

Marius and Eponine get a lot of time to be cute together before the barricade actually notices that she's dying - and Gavroche is the first to notice and gets a front row seat to her death which is heartbreaking

The First Attack

Grantaire's "AND SO THE WAR WAS WON!" was sooo scathingly sarcastic

Javert waited, like, 30 seconds to leave after Valjean freed him, with his back almost against the barrel of Valjean's gun as if he were hoping to be shot

When the gun went off the entire barricade abruptly snapped their heads to look at Valjean and the audience laughed 😭

Telling Valjean 'Well done' for shooting a tied up hostage is a strange choice

Drink With Me

I still hate 'For certain as the eagle flies' I think it's the dumbest line in the entire musical

Grantaire's part was very grand - His voice has like noticeably changed at this point in the musical to give it a sort of hoarse hopeless quality to it which absolutely hits you in the feels

Enjolras comforted him and I swear Grantaire let his hand linger on his cheek for a few seconds longer than normal before pushing him away

Gavroche hugged Grantaire from behind and Grantaire couldn't even turn around at first because he was so distraught and kind of blindly reached for him 😭

Chris Tamayo's Marius is such a poor little meow meow

Bring Him Home

Absolutely jaw-dropping performance from Nick Cartell

He sings Bring Him Home like it's a lullaby - which it's supposed to be

I don't exaggerate when I say that the applause went on for about a minute straight, and was the loudest of the night by far

Death of Gavroche / The Final Battle

Oh poor thang

Grantaire near the end of Gavroche's singing was turned away facing the audience like he knew Gav was going to die and couldn't bear to watch 🥺

Later on in the final battle Grantaire spends most of the time next to Gavroche's body in like a catatonic state

The SPOTLIGHTS representing BULLETS as Les Amis died almost made me lose it

Grantaire dies last, I'm sure he said something before he started climbing the barricade but I couldn't hear it 😭He and Enjolras still have their moment over Marius' body

The Sewer

Javert comes across Enjolras' cart-carried body (Still hate the cart but I can learn to appreciate it) and looks a bit uncomfortable

Then he stumbles upon Gavroche's corpse, kneels, and does the sign of the cross over him

Almost made me cry ngl

DOG EATS DOG WAS SO GOOD I LOVED IT

Javert looked like he wanted to shoot Valjean as he walked away with Marius

Javert's Suicide

HOOOOOOLYYYY SHIIIIITTTTT

It was so good

Preston Truman Boyd you will always be famous I fully believe that Javert had completely lost his mind at this point in the play

I don't have many thoughts on the rest but I loved Marius and Cosette reading Valjean's confession as he walked away with Fantine - and the Bishop hugging him as he arrives in heaven

Also Kyle Adams as Major Domo mincing about the stage in The Wedding was an absolute delight

Am very sleepy now but overall 10/10 I love this cast so much

[wanderinghedgehog]

Another high school Les Mis. Live reaction:

Oooo they got actors in the aisles. I like that.

Good singing so far.

This Javert seems oddly timid. Like even as a prison guard, he’s not especially scary. He does seems to be rather tall though.

Valjean seems good. I wish they let him sing that one verse from his soliloquy but, alas, it’s cut from the school versions.

This ensemble seems more coordinated than others I’ve seen. That might be because there’s not quite so many of them. This doesn’t seem like a very large cast for a Les Mis production.

Fantine is very sweet and her voice is lovely.

I like that her dress is decently period accurate. They gave her a modesty cloth and everything.

She also doesn’t seem to have a jarringly awful wig like usual.

I think they brought Javert in a little early during Fantine’s arrest. It was a little odd.

There’s some guy in the ensemble with a lovely red waistcoat.

Amazing runaway cart scene. Javert was so embarrassed on “forgive me sir I would dare” that he tried to just leave. He did skip a line though. But I’ll forgive :)

Valjean putting his heart and soul into Who Am I.

Awwwww they gave Champmathieu a friend or something who gave him a hug when he was let go. I like that they didn’t just leave him to stand there.

FANTIIIIIIINE 😭😭😭😭😭😭

HOLY SHIT THE CONFRONTATION WAS AMAZING!!!!! Okay the last fight section was a bit disappointing, but the rest of it was fucking phenomenal. I’m screaming! Javert was such a fucking drama queen too. Fantastic.

Lil’ Cosette :)

I think this Madame T could do to spice up her vocals a little. She sounds a little too pretty maybe. Go nuts, babe!

Red waistcoat guy is back!!!!

This Thenardier couple is kinda all over each other. It’s goofy

Don’t throw the child!!!!!

I love this stage setup. Very versatile.

Living for these background actors.

Eponine should keep Marius’s hat. It’s a good look.

They need to stop making Javert show up from one of the side entrances. It’s awkward staging.

Thernardier gets all obnoxious during “in the absence of a victim…” and Javert just lightly shoved him. I’m dead. You really just have to see it.

This Javert is kinda… doing to much I guess. He just doesn’t show quite enough restraint in my opinion.

Stars was cute. He could’ve done more on the line “and so it must be.” But it was good otherwise.

This Grantaire has stolen my heart. Adorable guy.

I can’t see very clearly, but there’s a pattern on the front of Enjolras’s waistcoat and I thought it was leopard print for a second.

IS THAT FANTINE’S ACTOR AGAIN??????? Or does Cosette just look something like her?

Marius should’ve hopped over the gate. It’s really low anyway.

This Marius is so damn pale. Ghost fella

Eponine pushed three people consecutively. Go girl!

THENARDIERS IN THE FLOOR

This Gavroche is absolutely adorable. I just know I’m gonna go catatonic when he’s killed.

Still no “shoot me now or shoot me later.” I like that line :(

EPONINE NOOO

Bestie Valjean has returned to the plot :)

Damn look at all that smoke.

Javert is back to being oddly timid. I feel kinda bad for him this time. He has such a sad look.

Nice little Drink With Me moment :)

Bring him hooooooooooooooome

AAAAAAAAAA GAVROCHE NOOOOOO

Seriously that kid was fantastic

That’s a nice tablueo

Go in the floor

Really dragging Marius around. Ouch.

two four six oh ooooooooone

Little line fuck up BUT WE FORGIVE AND MOVE ON

That jump was pretty smooth. I approve.

That was a damn good rendition.

Good harmonies in Turning.

Damn. They really put people in those empty chairs at the empty tables and then took them away again.

Cane time for Valjean.

Bishop actor spotted at the wedding.

Saddest onstage punch ever. Sorry Marius.

Is Madame T holding a real little dog? I can’t see very well.

Old man Valjean.

I think that wicker wheelchair he’s in is being loud.

Oh my god they are different actresses. Do they just have the same hairstyle? I might be a little face blind.

Yes! Actors in the aisles!

I think that’s a Javert in the finale!

Final thoughts:

Standout performance was a Gavroche. That child was brilliant so very cute. I hope he keeps doing theater.

All the singing was wonderful.

Things ran very smoothly which is impressive for any high school production.

As always, the show suffers from the amount of lines that are cut. But that’s definitely not the fault of this production.

In some ways, it was too good. Maybe it was just too traditional. I often watch school productions for the weirdness and interesting choices, but they just didn’t really take anything all that far in this production.

I loved that they had an extra bit of stage in front of the orchestra pit. That really gave a set some extra pizzazz.

I called this Javert “cute” too many times. Not sure why. I just thought this actor looked oddly sweet. Not especially intimidating I guess.

Valjean really put his all into this and he gave a fantastic performance. I just need him to get weirder with it.

I’m so sorry to Fantine and Cosette’s actors for thinking they were the same person.

[funwithshoujocosette]

SC Abridged, episode 2: In which we meet a talking rat, a talking pig, and their kids

Fantine: Now I will look for work so that we may find a home where we can live together.

Cosette: Okay.

Fantine: Are you hiring?

Female boss: Yeah, you can start right away.

Cosette: *walks in*

Female boss: Oh, I changed my mind instantly. I can't hire you after all. *puts up a sign that says 'No single mothers allowed'*

Fantine: Why are those who need money the most denied an opportunity to earn it?

Female boss: Because Louis-Philippe is driving our economy downhill, so we barely have enough food to feed ourselves, let alone someone with a child! Do you know how much food children need to grow up properly? Anyway, I am sorry and all that. Don't tell Philippe I said any of this.

Fantine: Oh, I will just seek employment elsewhere. Or since that guy is dead, I can hope that he named me in his will or something.

Narrator: Did you?

Tholomyes: Nope, I am an asshole. Instead, I left money to Sorbonne! My home away from home.

Narrator: So what does that will really say?

Tholomyes: I left my money to my good friend. A fellow student. Nice chap. His first name is Gabriel, but readers would know him better by his last name.

Narrator: Seriously?

Tholomyes: Yes, although I'd prefer it if this wasn't spread around. I gotta maintain my status as an asshole.

Narrator: Point. Anyway, back to the plot.

Cosette: Mommy, this building has food inside it!

Fantine: This opportunity must not be wasted! Let's go inside.

Narrator: They then enter a bakery.

Nice baker: Hello, what can I do for you? Is that a child? I love children!

Fantine: Give us your smallest piece.

Nice baker: That would be this one. *holds up a really tiny piece* But since I am a nice person, who loves children, I am obliged to tell you that this one costs the same amount. *holds up a much larger piece*

Cosette: *takes it* It's so warm...

Fantine: Do you know a place where I can find work?

Nice baker: I happen to have been told about this nice chap who lives in the coastal town of Montreuil-sur-Mer by my cousin. He owns a black glass factory and he is an equal opportunity employer.

Fantine: Does he also employ single mothers?

Nice baker: I am not too sure, but it's the best chance you'll get. Unless Louis-Philippe is overthrown, of course.

Fantine: Might as well go and see if that's true.

Nice baker: Oh, but the journey might be rough for the little one. May I suggest--?

Fantine: I'll look for a place for her to stay. *leaves with Cosette in tow*

Nice baker: I was going to suggest that she should stay with me... *stares after them with disappointment*

Narrator: I'll go gun them down. *runs after Fantine and Cosette*

Madame Thenardier: *is cleaning the road outside the inn, humming an obnoxious song* "That needs to be, I am a Knight, and I go to Palestine..."

Gabriel: *is wearing the 'Free Palestine' shirt.

Narrator: Oh my...that song really was about you... *heart-eyes*

Gabriel: Yeah, no shit.

Eponine and Azelma: *are playing on a swing*

Fantine: *approaches* Your children are having fun. You're a good mother.

Thenardier: *is skulking about* "I see where this is going, and I like it.

Fantine: Would you take care of my child until I earn enough money to bring her in with me?

Madame Thenardier: I am not too sure...

Thenardier: *elbows her* Come on, it's our civic duty to help her out!

Madame Thenardier: You're exactly right!

Narrator and Gabriel: *nod at one another and pull out their guns*

Thenardier: So as I was saying... *is shot in the heart at point-blank range*

Madame Thenardier: *is also shot*

Narrator: Oh, how tragic. I guess this means they won't be able to keep your child anymore...or their own for that matter.

Gavroche *is crying adorably*

Eponine: Did you just make us orphans?

Narrator: It was for the best.

Eponine: As shitty as our parents were, living as an orphan is even shittier in this day and age.

Narrator: I think that this nice baker would be willing to raise all of you...with the money Gabriel inherited from Tholomyes.

Gabriel: Sure. *hands it over* Anyway, summer break would soon be over, and I'd better get back to Paris.

[bag-of-broadway-snacks]

Just bought the Les Mis: The Staged Concert. I liked it.

[golden-tomorrows]

Les Miserables US Tour 2022 (Philly)

Probably some spoilers I guess if you really don’t want to be spoiled!

Wow where do i begin. It was phenomenal. Every single actor up on stage blew me away. The staging was just absolutely amazing and involved. I had the best time and will 100% be looking for a bootleg of it later as the tour progresses. Now for some of my favorite things.

-The opening. Just w o w. Nick Cartell as Jean Valjean was absolutely perfect. He hit every note and made me cry four times just himself. Valjeans Soliloquy was also absolutely amazing

-After the opening before At the End of the Day they projected “Les Miserables” on the thin screen and the applause lasted the entire time up until they started singing

-Every piece of the set moved and it was awesome. They were climbing up and down the barricade, Marius climbing over Cosette’s gate, the houses moving together, just it was all amazing

-Haley Dortch as Fantine. That’s it.

-Lovely Ladies was great and had amazing energy

-Master of the House was so funny and just all around amazing. Thénardier and Madame Thénardier were s o funny and they had the best chemistry

-LITTLE COSETTE WAS SO CUTEEEE SHE SUNG BEAUTIFULLY

-Jean Valjean and Little Cosette were adorable. He gave her a little doll and then picked her up in a hug and spun her around and my heart was just so full.

-Gavroche

- Gavroche was so small he was amazing and adorable

-After The Robbery and before Stars when Javert was clearing the streets Gavroche went around saying “You heard the man” and chases the rest of the people off the stage including another officer. Then he turned to Javert and saluted him while Javert just stared at him like “Who is this child”

-Stars was just amazing Javert was awesome he was just wow

-Eponine has a p o w e r f u l voice and blew me away every time she opened her mouth

-Marius was perfect

-Enjolras, Grantaire, Courfeyrac, and just all of the rebels were perfect

-Grantaire and Enjolras though 😚

-During Red & Black Grantaire got his drink stolen and passed around the men and he tried to like fence them it was really funny

-After Gavroche stood on the table to announce Lemarques death Enjolras grabbed him by his armpits and yanked him off the table it was so cute but funny cause of how small Gavroche was and how hard Enjolras picked him up

-Grantaire and Gavroche

-Do You Hear the People Sing was fabulous. The red flag is just so good.

-In My Life and A Heart Full of Love were both so beautiful. Cosette had an absolutely incredible voice and a beautiful vibrato

-One Day More. Wow. The formation of the rebels, marching in an out of each other was just amazing. Again Jean Valjean hit every note. The end with the acapella “Oneee Dayyy” literally made me burst into tears and cry even harder at the flag in the back. Such a powerful part of the show.

-The barricade looked amazing. It was set so nicely. Also the lighting was insane for everything

-Did not recognize Javert when he came dressed as a rebel it was kind of funny

-The shooting between the rebels and police was so cool. They had lights flashing everywhere, the guns actually fired like fake rounds so it was actual gunpowder, it was so loud and ugh it was amazing

-Lots of people started coughing after the shooting started. Thought that was really funny

-On My Own was beautiful and I cried and the end opening up to Eponine being in front of the barricade with like 10 spot lights shining down on her from different directions was just 😚

-Gavroche flipped Javert off and it was just so funny. He was so small

-A Little Fall of Rain was so sad but beautiful. At one point towards the end of the song everyone at the barricade realized what was happening and started watching Eponine and Marius on the ground. Gavroche ran over and stopped in front of them and Grantaire came up behind him and wrapped his arms around him and it was so sweet. After Eponine died and they took her body away, Gavroche leaned down and gave her hat to Marius 🥺

-don’t know what he did with the hat

-Drink With Me was so sad but so good. Grantaire drunkenly tried to

fight Enjolras and was just so sad. Gavroche was behind the two of them trying to stop Grantaire from his drunken babbling. Grantaire then walked away to the far wall and leaned against it, facing towards the wall and away from the barricade, and Gavroche ran over and hugged him from behind 😢 They then fell asleep together, with Gavroche curled up next to Grantaire.

-Bring Him Home ding ding here comes the tears. Wow. Best version I have every heard.

-Gavroche :’(

-Gavroche’s death was so so sad. He slid down behind the barricade and allll of the rebels tried to grab him. It was sweet. While he was down there Grantaire looked away from the barricade and out towards the audience. After the first gun shot everyone started to look away sadly, but once Gavroche started singing again they all, including Grantaire, looked up and went towards the top to see him. Gavroche made it to the top of the barricade, but got shot and fell right into Enjolras’s arms. He gently handed him to Grantaire, who stared at him in utter disbelief.

-Before the final battle, Grantaire laid Gavroche’s body towards the front of the stage and sat there with him.

-Before Enjolras went to the top of the barricade to die he went down to Grantaire and grabbed his arm gently. Grantaire reached out and cupped Enjolras’s cheek with his hand 😭

-When Enjolras got shot he just fell of the barricade

-Mans literally just fell face first off of this giant structure

-They shone a spotlight down on every rebel who got shot, showing their deaths

-Grantaire was the last one to die, and he died the exact same way Enjolras did, by climbing up to the too of the barricade and getting shot. He fell back down on the barricade though, into like a sitting position

-They brought the barricade away with all of the rebels, so it was literally just Gavroche lying on the stage. Javert and another officer cane on stage after that

-The officer was pulling a cart and in the cart was Enjolras, upside down facing the audience, lying on the red flag. instant tears

-Javert kneeled down next to Gavroche and crossed himself before gently touching Gavroche’s arms and signaling for the officer to get his body and he was put next to Enjolras. As they were wheeling them out, Enjolras’s other arm that was on his chest or something, fell limply down and it broke my heart

-Javert’s Suicide was really sad but reallyy well done. The projections and animations were so cool and it made it look like Javert was actually falling. Awesome visuals. Dog Eats Dog was really good as well

-Turning was really pretty. They all brought out red and white candles and placed them on the floor and it was really nice

-By far the best Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I have heard. So much emotion and beautiful vocals. All of the rebels came out during the song and stood behind Marius, watching him. They moved to pick up the candles, still while watching them. Marius then kind of lashed out with heavy emotion and kind of scared them all off. They all went off except Enjolras, who watched him for a couple seconds more

-Marius and Valjeans confession was so good and heartbreaking

-The wedding was so prettyy they all had on such pretty dresses

-And of course Thénardier and Madame Thénardier stole the show again by being absolutely hilarious

-Valjean’s death was so sad :(

-Fantine and Eponine showing him the way to heaven was just beautiful

-Everyone coming out at the end, standing behind Cosette in Marius’s arms, singing Do You Hear The People Sing was enough to make me cry the rest of the show. The last chord made me cry even harder

-Don’t think I’ve ever cried that hard at a curtain call. Maybe in Hadestown or Hamilton. but i don’t think so

Just all around I’m so happy I finally got to see my favorite show live. And it was absolutely fabulous.

Thank you for getting this far and reading! And thanks for letting me rant!

[artsy-hobbitses]

“‘It would seem thousands of cycles of Autobot history and knowledge..... have been transmitted to you.”

Neck deep in Transformers again, never thought I’d see the day. 

It’s been more than a decade since I last drew anything from this franchise, but War for Cybertron on Netflix really got me excited for the brand.

I’ve always, always wanted a TV series that could go to the dark corners of the politics behind the war and be sort of like the IDW comics in explaining more of the Transformers themselves than the people on earth and WFC, despite some glaring issues, gives me that and I can’t wait to see Earthrise (while fervently hoping that the humans they meet here aren’t annoying as all hell). WFC done do the rare thing of actually making me interested in Bumblebee as a character throughout the movies/animated series (the 2018 Bumblebee movie is also a winner in my book), I really adore how he starts out non-affiliated to anyone and doesn’t actually care about nobody’s fight above finding peace.  The way they handled his eventual choosing of the Autobot faction however is a little slap dash! I wish there was more of look into why he remained unaffiliated throughout the war for so long, even if only for survival.

(My personal headcanon is that he had close friends once, couriers like him who decided to choose sides once the war got going and it ended up with one of them being killed by the other, so he’s been adverse to choosing sides ever since because he’s never gotten over that trauma.) (My Human!verse version of him—Ben—-is a bitter teenager who once had a loving family until his dad ranked up as one of Megatron’s officers and things got tense in his household because his mother was sympathetic to the Autobot rebel faction while his father became increasingly radicalized by Meg’s rhetoric. Things went downhill when she was accused of hiding and helping them and his father turned her in to cops who hung her alongside others in the square as traitors. He balked at the very idea of joining Megatron’s faction ever since and ran off. However, what he doesn’t tell anyone is that his refusal to join the Autobots is because the person his mother was punished for helping was an injured, younger Optimus Prime, and so there’s resentment there as well which he has to come to terms with when he actually meets Prime—-who he remembers but does not in turn recognize him as the child hiding behind the door glaring away suspiciously—-years later. The name ‘Bumblebee’ was his mother’s nickname for him and his stripey hoodie was a gift she said his scrawny self would grow into eventually. He eventually gets proper power armor as a member of the Autobots, sort of their Gavroche/thief/scout, but he always wears the hoodie on top of it.)

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 1.8.4 “Authority Gains Its Power”

“Fantine had not seen Javert since the day the mayor had saved her from him. Her sick brain could not grasp anything except that she was sure he had come for her.” This makes me wonder about Fantine’s grasp on time while she’s been ill. It’s been two months since she first fell ill, but it seems like she thinks it’s been almost no time.

“Javert did not say “Hurry up!” he said, “Hur-up!” No spelling could express the tone in which this was said it was no longer human speech; it was a howl.” FMA really doubling down on the wolf imagery here translating “rugissement” as howl instead of roar. I love it.

“To him Jean Valjean was a sort of mysterious and intangible antagonist, a shadowy wrestler with whom he had been struggling for five years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, but an end.” This line and the one from the beginning of the chapter about Fantine thinking Javert has come for her secures him once again as a sort of Angel Of Death for both of them. This arrest is the literal end for Fantine and the symbolic end for Madeleine-Valjean.

Also this line establishes just how much Madeleine’s real identity has consumed Javert’s thoughts in the past 5 years that he’s been a major community leader. It hasn’t just been a passing “huh, this guy really reminds me of that convict Valjean from Toulon” type thing for Javert. It’s been a sort of conflict and, probably since the cart incident at least, an obsession. It’s also interesting because it seems to establish Javert as believing that Valjean was his responsibility, and coming to that belief as soon as he learned about Valjean’s theft of Petit Gervais’ coin. Like, Valjean is not an antagonist he’s struggled with only since Madeleine became mayor and this person Javert maybe suspected suddenly became more high-profile, it’s an internal conflict he’s had since the robbery was reported, which probably wasn’t more than 6 months after its occurrence (I would assume). Javert’s wasn’t just obsessing over Madeleine possibly being Valjean because maybe finding a wanted convict would be good for his name or whatever, he was obsessing over it because he fully felt it was his responsibility to find this wanted man.

Jean Valjean is no longer Madeleine to the reader. Hugo’s narration only calls him Jean Valjean, the full name, this entire chapter. His old identity has been pulled away and he can no longer wrap M Madeleine around himself. And he’s only going to be Jean Valjean or Madeleine for another chapter; the next time we see him after that, he’ll be Prisoner Number 9430. For a long time in the narration he was Madeleine, then he was just “the man” and variations thereupon, then he was both “Madeleine” and “Valjean” and now he is only Valjean.

The weirdest thing in this chapter is that Hugo blatantly states that Sister Simplice is in the room with them this entire time. She is here and she does absolutely nothing. I mean, this is understandable. Not only is she a woman, but she also doesn’t have any sort of leverage over either of them in any other way. She’s just a nun, just a woman of the church (and not even a woman, according to Hugo, she’s something else entirely), and she can’t really do anything to stop Valjean’s arrest or appeal to Javert or anything. But in the next chapter Javert is literally stopped from entering by Simplice’s Authority of Religiosity. So why isn’t he stopped by her religiosity here? Because this is a mirror of Fantine in 1.5.13, begging Javert for mercy and Javert telling her that “The Eternal Father in person couldn’t help you now.” Again, the law is above god here, and again he will not be moved to mercy, even by god.

“She saw the spy Javert seize the mayor by the collar: she saw the mayor bow his head. The world seemed to vanish before her eyes. Javert, in fact, had taken Jean Valjean by the collar.”

This is pretty obvious, but Madeleine is literally turning into Valjean before Fantine’s eyes. I love the way that Hugo says it though. I get the sense that it’s not just that Javert is seeing Valjean as Valjean now, but that Madeleine’s entire demeanor has changed. So he’s literally not taking Madeleine by the collar, because his demeanor would have been Madeleine’s; he’s taking Valjean by the collar, because he’s dropped the Madeleine act (at least at this very moment).

“Aloud, speak aloud. People speak out loud to me.” Ugh god this line is just so self-serving and shitty. This isn’t Javert being morally righteous via the law or acting as society personified. This is just Javert being petty and shitty because he was humiliated by Madeleine before, and now he wants that personal power reversed.

“Javert stamped his foot.” Is this meant to be as childish as it sounds? This is a really intense moment, but Javert is weirdly powerless as both Valjean and Fantine start talking back in their own ways, refusing to go quietly.

“Miserable town, where convicts are magistrates and prostitutes are nursed like countesses! Ha, but all that will be changed, high time!” It’s so interesting that Javert says this now, because it’s revealed later that after Madeleine left, Montreuil-sur-Mer’s prosperity crumbled. Which means that the town will go back to being like any other poor, garrisoned town, with a prostitution trade and plenty of depths of depravity. And I think we’re supposed to think that without Madeleine there to run a system that helps to uphold the morals and productivity and prosperity of the town, it’ll just fall back into corruption. Except that all of that depravity already existed under Madeleine’s leadership, it was just hidden better than maybe it would be if the whole town was failing. So once he leaves, yes, probably the prostitutes and criminals etc will be treated the way Javert wants them to be treated, rather than with any sort of sympathy or willingness to listen and mediate that Madeleine maybe offered to some but not all.

Fantine’s death is, I think, the only death in the book that gets such a visceral description. M. Pontmercy is already dead when we see him, Eponine just puts her head on Marius’ knee, Gavroche’s death is fairly poetic, all of Les Amis get their deaths described but they’re all so quick it’s like a montage, Javert’s actual death isn’t described. Mabeuf’s death might be the closest in terms of intense description, but Fantine’s definitely is the most detailed. Also, we get more drowning imagery. If Javert is the personification of the Law and the justice system, he is part of what tosses the unfortunate into the night-sea of prison and the mud of poverty. She is drowning because what killed her is also what drowns the poor. And I think it’s interesting that she looks to each of them, trying to speak, but she can’t reach anyone. She can’t speak to Jean Valjean (note that he’s not Madeleine here) because she doesn’t know Jean Valjean, and he’s no longer her savior, she can’t speak to Javert because he will not bend and has no mercy, and she can’t speak to the nun because currently authority will not bow to religion and she knows that because it didn’t bow to religion the last time. Now that Valjean has no power to free her, she can’t go to him. Also, I want to know the significance of her head hitting the headboard. Hugo doesn’t have her just fall back onto the pillow; she bangs her head first, like a strange sort of last injustice.

I also feel like the actual actions of Fantine’s death as well as Valjean whispering in her ear afterward have some sort of religious parallel that I’m not catching because I don’t know enough?

Also just ugh. Fantine dies knowing that Cosette is not out there, that Cosette is not anywhere near here, and that she will not see Cosette. It’s just such a horrible, blunt betrayal after she was so full of hope. I wonder if that’s why (later) Valjean can’t talk to Cosette about her? He doesn’t know how to confront the fact that, intentional or not, he had a hand in this betrayal? It makes sense that it is at this moment that she dies. She has been holding on for Cosette, the hope of seeing Cosette has been keeping her alive. Now, she has the realization that Cosette is not in M-sur-M, and then almost immediately after has the realization that Madeleine is not going to be able to go and retrieve Cosette.

“Jean Valjean put his hand on that of Javert, which was holding him, and opened it as he would have opened the hand of a child; then he said, “You have killed this woman.”

There’s so much child-behavior in Javert in this chapter, and I’m not sure what to make of it. The stamping of the foot, the sort of loud, frustrated insistence of respect, this opening of his hand, the way he yells at Valjean to listen to him or it’s the handcuffs and Valjean just ignores him. Javert is so impatient here and Valjean is so grave and calm. But that’s how it seems to be from now on. @everyonewasabird​ talked in his last post about how this is actually where Javert’s fall is, or at least where it begins. I totally agree with that, because it’s also where his grave, stable behavior starts to falter. In the last chapter, he was gleeful. In this chapter, he’s impatient. In Paris, we won’t see him display behavior this extreme until he’s at the barricade, but his behavior still seems different from the Javert we originally met. Much as I adore the “Would you like my hat?” line, it’s so dramatic and, I don’t know, sort of smug? Which I could see this current Javert doing, but not Javert from 1.6.2 or earlier. This whole episode has caused, as Hugo said, an inner earthquake for Javert, and I think it literally changes his entire personality. Not drastically, nothing crazy, but it does what an earthquake might do: it shifts some things around, changes his inner terrain just enough that it looks totally familiar but the ground he’s walking on is just a little rougher than before.

I’m so glad my post from a couple chapters ago included that comment about Javert and Valjean’s back-and-forth conflict because! This shift in power! Now it’s Valjean who is righteous and Valjean that is terrifying and Valjean that has the control! This chapter is just a fencing match between the two of them. Valjean starts off mildly more powerful: Javert doesn’t touch him while Fantine’s eyes are closed; it’s only when she opens them again that he again has the power over her and over Valljean. He takes Valjean by the collar and Valjean doesn’t attempt to struggle or get free. Once Fantine is dead, Valjean again assumes control and opens Javert’s hand like it’s nothing. I sort of feel like he still kind of retains the upper hand (at least morally) even at the very end when he gives himself up to Javert’s disposal. (Also, it’s interesting that Valjean has the control when Fantine isn’t looking, but Javert has control when she is. Not sure what to make of that.)

Javert’s retreat to the door is so odd. It feels so calm and detached. He doesn’t actually seem frightened or threatened by Valjean’s diy truncheon. I wonder if this is Javert’s version of the way that Valjean does things on autopilot when he’s in shock. Everything that’s happening is just so stunning that when Valjean moves away from him, Javert just automatically moves to the door. And his decision not to call the guard feels like he’s making excuses? It’s pretty obvious at this point that Valjean isn’t going to move from Fantine’s bedside until he’s ready. Except that at this point, Valjean is the one with the control, and the conflict is between him and Javert. Calling the guard adds another element and upsets the balance.

“His iron bar in hand, Jean Valjean walked slowly toward Fantine’s bed. On reaching it, he turned and said to Javert in a voice that could scarcely be heard, “I advise you not to disturb me now.” Nothing is more certain than the fact that Javert shuddered.” My first thought is: I don’t know what to make of this? Is Javert scared? Overwhelmed? Confused? Feeling Valjean’s authority? My second thought is: this is the start of Javert’s eventual change at the end of the novel. He cannot admit it to himself here, but he’s seeing Valjean act with the same selflessness and mercy that he’ll see with himself at the barricades and Marius at the sewers. His inner change can’t happen until then, but I wonder if this affects his later ability to change how he sees Valjean.

Fantine does get, like, the closest thing to a happy ending that any of the dead people in this book can get. Whatever Valjean tells or promises her, her spirit seems to hear and smiles. She suffers so much at the hands of society, at the hands of everyone, and she dies in betrayal and misery. It’s like the least Hugo could do was give her soul some sort of happiness after the fact.

[pilferingapples]

count-di-luna replied to your post: He no longer thought of Jean Valjean,–the wolf of...

I’m still pissed at Valjean’s OOC non-reaction. This is the same man who agonized over the fate of a complete stranger for a whole night.

hm, I don’t find it OOC?  Valjean is mega  traumatized and his ability to engage meaningfully--to connect with other people or even his own feelings--is massively affected. 

(under a cut for length and discussion of death and trauma)

I think it may be even worse after the Champmathieu affair; but even before then, post-Toulon Valjean seems to only really  feel connected to people he can feel like he has a personal duty to, and maybe even “only people he has a personal sense of guilt towards”.  He  personally wronged Petit Gervais, and he remembers that, and seeks out Savoyard children to help for years in remembrance of that. He personally wronged Fantine (or feels he did) , and that allows him to feel responsible for her, to care for her and bond with her, and extends to him feeling responsible--feeling entitled  to feel responsible-- for Cosette.  Valjean remembers and attaches to people he feels a particular duty towards, people he thinks he owes specifically because of his actions.

But when it comes to people he helps spontaneously, he forgets. Fauchelevent’s right; Valjean doesn’t remember the people he saves , or even the people he just makes happier.    Valjean shows no (outward) sign of grief or even remembrance towards Fauchelevent , who was maybe his only actual friend post-Toulon, someone he lived with and who helped raise Cosette. He doesn’t think about Simplice, or Perpetue, or his loyal old servant. He doesn’t seem to think anything of sending Toussaint away, and Toussaint adores him. 

The good  Valjean does isn’t important to Valjean; it’s never enough, it never matters. He agonizes over Champmathieu because Champmathieu is someone only  he can save, who is in danger particularly because of Valjean’s past actions and current secrecy, and the saving will cost him dearly, so he’s torn. But when that issue is resolved, Valjean doesn’t  worry about Champmathieu in particular any more, he doesn’t try to find out more about him or follow up on him later, even while he’s free. 

Valjean knows Javert almost entirely as a threatening force, but I don’t think that’s relevant to Valjean’s sense of responsibility and-thus-attachment; I think it’s a lot more relevant that Valjean, frankly, owes squat-all-nothing to Javert. He’s done Javert no real wrong (unless you count lying about his past in M-sur-M, and Valjean evidently and quite rightly IMO doesn’t).   He was as fair as he could be as mayor; he saved Javert’s life at the barricade. Javert  is an extremely competent , capable adult; he has societal power all OVER Valjean; Valjean’s not responsible for or to him in any particular way.  I think if Valjean had happened to be at the bridge that night, of course he’d have tried to save Javert’s life-- but then he’d have been just as likely to leave him with a lump of cash and a priest or something and wander away the next morning. 

Valjean is real, real bad at seeing himself as personally important to others; he even thinks Cosette  can just forget him as soon as she’s safely married!  It’s self-destructive, of course, but it also damages his ability to react  to  what happens to others. There’s no real reason he should feel any responsibility or great fondness to connect him to Javert , a man who , as far as Valjean knows, never saw him  as particularly important or more than Just Another Case. 

And as for mourning just a sheer basic loss of life--Valjean had just watched a lot  of people die. There’s no reason he should be more shaken by the death of Javert than that of the barricade fighters, or of Gavroche (one more poor child he couldn’t save--honestly, I’d expect that  to stick with him if anything did).  The fact that he’s also contemplating losing the one  person he’s managed to genuinely feel connected to for about the last forty years of his life can only increase his sense of separation from the rest of the world. 

TL, DR: I think Valjean’s reaction to Javert’s death is entirely consistent with the way we see his emotional trauma manifest throughout the novel--a trauma that has involved repeatedly becoming numb to the most brutal losses. I think it’s horribly sad that Valjean is like this , but I think it’s a consistent character line, and makes sense given his entire background of ongoing forced separation, isolation, and dissociation from society and most social connections. 

[thelibrarina]

(via https://open.spotify.com/user/thelibrarina/playlist/7pd1ugpfHh9fzuz4Beu04C?si=Nm0LEm6bQE6GLgi_VcOEng)

Scenes from a French Restaurant: A Billy Joel Les Mis playlist

With thanks (and maybe apologies) to @boopliette and @adorablecrab, because of this adorable art of Cosette and Grantaire.

Jean Valjean—An Innocent Man and although this is a fight I can lose, the accused is an innocent man

Javert—I Go to Extremes And if I stand or I fall, it’s all or nothing at all

Fantine—Goodnight, My Angel and dream how wonderful your life will be

Cosette—Only the Good Die Young the stained-glass curtain you’re hiding behind never lets in the sun

Marius—Tell Her About It you’re a big boy now and you’ll never let her go, but that’s just the kind of thing she ought to know

Enjolras—Vienna you’re gonna kick off before you even get halfway through

Grantaire—Angry Young Man I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view

Combeferre—Pressure you will come to a place where the only thing you feel are loaded guns in your face, and you’ll have to deal with pressure

Courfeyrac—Piano Man well we’re all in the mood for a melody, and you’ve got us feeling all right

Jehan—It’s Still Rock’n’Roll To Me how about a pair of pink sidewinders and a bright orange pair of pants?

Feuilly—Allentown every child had a pretty good shot to get at least as far as their old man got, but something happened on the way to that place

Bossuet—Worse Comes to Worst worse comes to worst, I’ll get along, I don’t know how, but sometimes I can be strong

Joly—We Didn’t Start the Fire no we didn’t light it, but we’re tryin’ to fight it

Bahorel—Goodnight Saigon and we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives

Eponine—And So It Goes so I would choose to be with you, that’s if the choice were mine to make

Musichetta—She’s Always a Woman oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants, she’s ahead of her time

Montparnasse—The Stranger though you drown in good intentions, you will never quench the fire, you’ll give into your desire when the stranger comes along

Gavroche—Why Should I Worry? I may not have a dime, but I got street savoir-faire

Bonus Track (for all the unrequited loves)—To Make You Feel My Love

[kainosite]

Les Misérables 2018, Episode 3

Les Mis fandom: Andrew Davies is a scoundrel.  What is he?

Me: ... Scoundwel.

The Good:

• I can’t believe the BBC actually filmed the “Now the people of this town can see you for what you really are” scene of a thousand Valvert fanfics.  They know what the people want.

• The Thénardiers are still fantastic.  Somehow the BBC has achieved the impossible feat of portraying them as loathsome abusers whom you hate with every fiber of your being, while simultaneously making them the fun comic relief you’re sort of rooting for in their capacity as the wacky crime duo.  On Christmas Eve I wanted the Seargeant of Waterloo to burn to the ground with everyone inside it, except for Cosette who was out getting water, Éponine and Azelma who were playing on the swings and Gavroche who was out back playing with Chou Chou or something.  I still grinned when Madame Thénardier cheerily reminded her husband to bring the pistol the next morning.  Striking this balance is a truly impressive achievement that I’ve only seen equalled by the Dallas production of the musical.

Their family dynamics are also coming across very well, sometimes through very subtle touches.  The differential treatment of Éponine and Azelma vs. Cosette and the way the Thénardier girls have been trained by all the adults around them to see Cosette’s abuse as a hilarious game, Gavroche being conscripted to fill Cosette’s role as household drudge once Valjean takes her, Mme. T slipping a bill out of Thénardier’s stash once he goes after Valjean – it’s all really good.

Their reactions to Valjean were good too.  Mme. Thénardier was thoroughly unimpressed with this roughly dressed man she’d decided was a hobo and only reacted with hostility when he was kind to her little whipping girl, but Thénardier as the criminal mastermind of the outfit decided the moment he noticed Valjean paying inordinate attention to Cosette that he must be a pedophile and they’d stumbled upon a lucrative financial opportunity.  I know some people don’t like this change, but honestly it makes a ton of sense.  Valjean’s interest in Cosette is strange, and considering the usual clientele of the inn cheer whenever Mme. T hits the kid with the strap, the Thénardiers aren’t used to seeing other people regard her plight with compassion.  Unlike in the Brick, this Cosette is a very pretty child, something discernible even beneath the dirt.  And it’s Thénardier, so of course he thinks the worst.  Valjean doesn’t volunteer that he’s representing Fantine (perhaps in this universe where he knows Javert is so fixated on him, he’s worried that would make him too easy to trace?), so really, what else is Thénardier meant to think?

• There are some priceless interactions between the protagonists and Thénardier: when he’s trying to haggle and Valjean keeps ignoring him and just repeating “How much?”; Javert’s baffled “Nothing!” when he asks Javert what Javert is planning to do for him.

• Javert and Gavroche’s preliminary encounter over the coffee cup was a nice, subtle touch.

• A+ hair analogy between Fantine last week and Valjean this week.  A+ removal of the godawful ponytail.  That prison barber in Toulon deserves the Légion d'Honneur.

• I’m enjoying Javert’s meteoric rise at the Prefecture and I love Rivette.  “But Kainosite, you love every long-suffering lieutenant.”  Yes, what’s your point?  Javert deserves a long-suffering lieutenant and so do I.  Although it’s hilarious how much Oyelowovert is Fanfic Javert, in his relationship with his subordinates as much as in everything else.

I also enjoyed Javert’s phrenology skull, which I hope he sometimes monologues at Hamlet-style.  A black Javert might hesitate a little before going all-in on phrenology, but I do appreciate his commitment to cutting-edge criminology research.

• LMAO at Javert’s fanart commission.

• Valjean and little Cosette are adorable together, and I really appreciate how much time Davies devoted to just depicting them interacting and letting the relationship breathe.  The strength of their bond is going to be very important later on, especially to Valjean, so it’s worthwhile to establish it now.  And they were suuuuper cute.  This adaptation tends to cut out Hugo’s humor sections, so it was nice to get a bit of relief from the grimness with endearing family time.

• I rather like Cosette calling people “nosy bitches”.  I mean, who socialized this kid?  The Thénardiers, that’s who.  It makes her seem more like a real child and less like a perfect little doll designed to reward first Valjean and then Marius for fulfilling their roles as protagonists.

It’s also an early hint at Valjean and Cosette’s unhealthy isolation and codependency.  The principal tenant is actually fulfilling her duty of care here in a society without any proper system for child safeguarding.  Cosette never seems to leave the apartment, certainly not to attend school or to learn a trade.  There’s no family resemblance between herself and her guardian.  (Incidentally, I’m impressed by how much Mailow Defoy really does look like the child of Lily Collins and Johnny Flynn.  All the matching between the kids and their “parents” has been superb.)  They give inconsistent stories about their relationship.  And Cosette is, as previously mentioned, an exceptionally pretty child.  The principal tenant should be worried - she doesn’t want Hector Hulot taking up residence in her building, and this pair are deeply suspicious.  But they can’t perceive her attention as legitimate concern, just as an unwarranted and unwanted intrusion into their little idyl.

• Similarly, Valjean’s early worries that he’s isolating Cosette too much by denying her all contact with the outside world or other children her own age are a nice piece of foreshadowing, as is her blithe answer that the only friends she needs are Valjean and Catherine.  Of course she’s content: she has food and warmth and security and the undivided attention of a loving adult.  To a child whose previous experience of the world has been so traumatic, their isolation must seem like paradise.  But this isn’t healthy and it isn’t sustainable, and the show is flagging that up early.  In many adaptations Valjean’s Cosette Issues seem to come out of nowhere, so it’s great that they’re laying the groundwork here.

• The whole “For a dark hunt, a silent pack” sequence is very well done.  There’s a nice piece of foreshadowing with the lamplighter hoisting up a candle as Valjean and Cosette are coming into Paris.  (Most of the Parisian lamps are nice flickery ones, although you do occasionally see those peculiar white ones we saw in Montreuil.)

I also appreciate Davies cutting Valjean’s canonical “Be quiet or Mme. Thénardier will catch you and take you back” line to Cosette from the Brick, which was an awful thing to say to a traumatized child.

• Things continue to look right.  The courtroom setup was really quite good.

The Meh:

• After watching the episode twice I think I finally understand what was going on with Javert at the trial.

His plan to entrap Valjean is no less incredibly stupid and risky than it was last week, but at least Javert has finally realized this.  He looks increasingly worried as each convict gives his testimony and identifies Champmathieu because they’re getting closer and closer to the end of the trial and Valjean still hasn’t acted.  Unlike Étienne in the 1952 movie, Oyelowovert has already testified and perjured himself, so he has no failsafe – if Valjean refuses to take the bait then Champmathieu is condemned in his place, the real Valjean is protected from legal pursuit forever, Javert’s perjury has real, long-term, perverse consequences, and Javert needs to find a new career.  The shock we see on his face when Valjean finally confesses is relief and the shock of seeing a scenario he must have played out a hundred times in his dreams becoming a reality before his eyes, or possibly a consequence of him coming in his pants, not shock at the revelation that Madeleine is Valjean.

But there are few members of the audience who are keener observers of Javert’s face than I am.  Most of those people are probably in the Valvert Discord chat, and none of them could figure out this scene on their first viewing either.  We should not have to analyze Javert’s microexpressions to determine the answer to a question as fundamental as “Did Javert sincerely believe Champmathieu was Valjean?”

• On the whole the trial was bad but I did appreciate Brevet just yanking out his suspender to show the court.  Although @prudencepaccard​ is gonna be mad it wasn’t checkered.

• The amount of time it takes Valjean to escape from Toulon is really of no great importance to anything.  Maybe this Javert gave them specific instructions to search him with care so his files kept getting confiscated and it took him longer to file through his chains.  We know the Orion incident never happened in this universe, so maybe it took two years for Valjean to spot a good escape opportunity.  Who knows?  Who cares?  It has zero impact on the plot.

People concerned about the extra time Cosette was left languishing with the Thénardiers should direct their complaints to Brick Valjean, who faffed around in Montreuil for a month while her mother lay on her deathbed constantly asking for her, and only decided to go pick her up once he was under arrest and it would obviously be impossible.  Davies’ sins pale in comparison to Hugo’s in this regard.  At least Westjean tried to send someone to retrieve her.

• ‘Rosalie’?  Okay, fine, but I’m not sure why this adaptation feels compelled to give everyone first and last names.  Thénardier could just call her ‘Darling’.

• I know they also abandon Catherine in the Brick, but in the Brick Valjean doesn’t pause in their flight to pack the candlesticks, the objects that are precious to him, and Cosette doesn’t specifically ask about bringing her.  Put the pillow under the blankets to fake out Javert like a normal person and let your child keep the one toy she’s ever had, what the fuck is wrong with you, Valjean?

On the other hand, the doll is made of dead people and it may be possessed, so perhaps this was just responsible parenting.  I’m calling it a draw.

• It’s not that I have any great objections to giving Simplice more screen time or letting the Mother Superior of the Petit-Picpus convent decide to shelter a convict, but there was no particular reason not to use Fauchelevent for the Fauchelevent plotline.  It’s a small instance of a good deed being paid forward that underlines the main theme of the book, as does Simplice’s act of self-sacrifice in lying to Javert to protect Valjean.  All of that has been lost and nothing has been gained in its place.  (Also is Cosette just... “Cosette Valjean” in this adaptation?  “Cosette Thibault”?)

The Bad:

• If Javert perjures himself to trap Valjean that is an incredibly big deal and we should see it.  I accept that this Javert might do it: Oyelowovert cares about his career and about ruining the lives of criminals, not about the rules.  If he can trap Valjean, superb.  If Champmathieu ends up in the galleys because of it, well, he’s a filthy apple thief and he deserves it.  Javert is subverting the course of justice in the service of a greater social justice.  But this monumental deviation from his Brick characterization, this enormously consequential lie, should not occur off-camera, for fuck’s sake!

Also it’s not clear what reason a Javert who is happy to lie under oath would ever have to throw himself into the Seine.

• Why the hell was Valjean so hostile to the other convicts?  He assumes they’ve been paid off, but... by whom, and to what purpose?  By Javert, to entrap him?  We the viewers at least know that can’t be true – Javert only found out about Champmathieu from the Prefecture, after Champmathieu had already been identified as Valjean.  By the public prosecutor at Arras, who is desperate to close the case of a minor highway robbery that happened almost a decade ago on the other side of the country completely outside his jurisdiction?  By the many enemies of Champmathieu the random hobo, who really want to see him go down for a felony?  It makes absolutely no sense.

Possibilities that make more sense: a) the convicts are sincerely mistaken about the appearance of a guy they’ve not seen in eight years, b) they just wanted to get out of Toulon for a month and they’re willing to say anything to do it because Toulon is a hellhole, as the first episode made exceedingly clear, c) they know perfectly well Champmathieu is not Valjean and they’re lying to protect the liberty of their old comrade by condemning a stranger in his place.  The whole dynamic of this scene – Madeleine, the respected mayor and factory owner, who’s been clean and well-fed and safe for years, yelling at these filthy men in their convict uniforms, Chenildieu with some kind of open wound across his forehead, quite possibly a lash mark – is deeply unpleasant.  It makes Valjean look like a complete asshole and sets a sour tone for the whole episode.

• The entire trial is just off.  Valjean’s off-putting and inexplicable hostility to his fellow convicts, Javert’s mystifying facial expressions, the audience who keep laughing at unfunny lines – the scene just doesn’t work, it doesn’t come together.  It was at something of a disadvantage because I came into it having just watched the 1952 trial scene for the previous episode’s review post, which is the best ever adaptation of the Champmathieu trial, and any other version was likely to pale by comparison.  But this one was particularly poor.

• I said last week we’d have to see what the series made of Valjean’s externalization of his emotions.  Well, what it has made is an awful lot of shouting at everyone, starting with the poor convicts and continuing from there, and also an excess of violence.  Valjean charges into the soldiers in Montreuil-sur-Mer and bowls them over, he threatens to knock Thénardier down and then to blow his head off, he gets Thénardier into a headlock and grapples with him.  Even when Westjean is coming into the convent he has to practically break down the doors.  Everything is violent action with him.  It’s OOC to the point where it’s becoming a problem rather than merely a different interpretation of the character.

All this aggression isn’t even effective at making him seem dangerous!  The thing he does in 1978 where he gently removes Javert’s hand from his collar is vastly more intimidating because it showcases his superhuman strength.  He should have just plucked the gun out of Thénardier’s hand like he was taking it away from a child instead of all this undignified scuffling.

• Tumblr, a humble reviewer has failed in accuracy, and I have come to bring this matter to your attention, as is my duty.

I argued last week that Westjean is not a misogynist: he yells at everyone in his vicinity regardless of gender.  Well, you were right and I was wrong.  That menacing lunge he takes towards Victurnien while screaming at her, calling Mme. Thénardier “woman” and shouting at her to bring his supper, the way he bursts in on the nuns at the end – it all adds up to something pretty unpleasant.

• I have never in my life seen an adaptation that makes Fantine’s death so much about Jean Valjean’s manpain.

If you look a 1978, an adaptation that gives if possible negative fucks about Fantine, it still manages to make the confrontation over her deathbed a conversation between three people, in which she has agency and reacts to what people are saying and is present in some capacity other than that of an object to make Valjean sad.  Someone compared Collinstine to a substitute Coin of Shame, and I think that’s really apt: Valjean is distressed and guilty because he’s failed to rescue Cosette, so he goes to Fantine’s bedside to sear the image of her despairing face onto his retinas in the same way he seared the imprint of Petit Gervais’s forty sous onto his palm.  He’s punishing himself by deliberately upsetting her.  For both Valjean and the camera, this scene is all about Valjean’s feelings and not about Fantine’s.

The person in this room with the biggest problems is not Jean Valjean, for pity’s sake.  I like to see the man cry as much as the next fangirl, but this was vile.

• Valjean’s visit to Fantine on her deathbed is a stupid, irresponsible thing to do and a direct cause of her unhappy death in the Brick and in every adaptation where she survives long enough for Javert to turn up. Valjean knows he has no good news to give her, he knows that the criminal justice system will be after him sooner or later, he knows that having Fantine and Javert together in the same room is a phenomenally bad idea, and he has urgent business in Montfermeil, or if he’s resolved to stay in Montreuil-sur-Mer to await arrest then he urgently needs to designate some representative to go and pick up Cosette in his place.  Instead he loiters by a sick woman’s bedside until Javert shows up and predictably traumatizes her to death.  As a result, Fantine dies in misery and Cosette suffers under the Thénardiers for another year.

But in the Brick it was at least not an insane thing to do.  When he left Arras he was not being pursued, and he reached Montreuil well ahead of the news about the trial.  The magistrates in Arras were in two minds about how to handle the situation.  Given Madeleine’s status, the widespread affection and admiration for him in the region, and the fact that he turned himself in, it’s not inconceivable that had it not been for his little Bonapartist slip in the courtroom, they wouldn’t have issued a warrant for his arrest at all and would simply have sent him a summons to appear at the Var Assizes to stand trial, or directed him to surrender himself at the prison in Montreuil rather than sending Javert after him.  I’m not sure it’s likely, given that he’s a known flight risk and parole violator illegally occupying a public office and they seem keen to get their hands on his fortune, but it’s not inconceivable.

In this adaptation Valjean breaks away from the police in the street and leads them straight to Fantine’s deathbed.  There is no fucking excuse for this.  NONE.  Brick Valjean was a fool to come at all and a bigger fool to stage a massive confrontation with Javert while he was still in the infirmary, but his mistakes were those of a man under immense stress who never bothered to think about Javert long enough to construct a working psychological profile of him.  Westjean’s mistakes were the mistakes of a selfish asshole too caught up in his own feelings of guilt and shame to have any regard for the people he allegedly cares about and wants to help.  Valjean is an extreme deontologist and his actions are always self-absorbed to a certain degree, because they’re fundamentally more about whether he can feel he’s done the right thing than about the actual effects of his actions on other people.  (He and Brickvert have that in common.)  But it should never get to the point where he’s actively harming people to this extent.

• Brickvert doesn’t seem to care for firearms much, and Oyelowovert looks like a jackass waving his two giant pistols around, but he’s a different character and if he’s decided they make him look cool then fine, I guess.  But in that case he should not be intimidated by Valjean’s strength in the infirmary.  You have guns, idiot!  If he threatens you just shoot him in the leg!

Guns completely change the dynamics of this scene, as the Dallas staging of the musical conveys very well.  The BBC handed Javert some pistols and then forgot he had them.

• In 1862 people would probably have found the implication that Catherine has Fantine’s hair to be sweet and charming, because the Victorians loved toting bits of their dead relatives around and hair mementos were so common that no one would have considered it weird.  In 2019 it is CREEPY AND GROSS.  I know there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism but we did not need to know that Cosette’s doll was made from the body parts of desperately impoverished and now dead women, really.

• Oh, so we’re flipping over beds when we fail to catch our favorite fugitive convict now, are we?  Great, now everyone is yelling.  FFS, Javert, I thought you were supposed to be the emotionally continent one.

• Where was Marius this week???  If Davies was happy to cut that leg of the stool out of whole episodes then why the fuck not just let Georges die when he’s supposed to and let Marius have a coherent character arc?  It makes no sense whatsoever.

I’ve got to be honest, I was not a fan of this episode.  But it did get Valjean and Cosette’s relationship right, and that is the most important relationship in the story.

[centrifuge-politics]

Brick Club 4.6.1, 4.6.2

Mme. Thenardier “had disembarrassed herself” of her two youngest boys, which is a fancy way of saying ‘got rid of.’ “Her hatred of the human race began with her boys.” I’d say it’s more like she hates her husband which becomes a hatred of anything that reminds her of him. Her daughters are distanced by merit of gender, but her sons are not so lucky. It’s twisted, but I can understand the psychology that led her to this. Now I’m spinning an entire alternate story where Cosette was born a boy and what that might look like. I have no doubt Fantine wouldn’t act differently either way, but so much of Cosette’s story relies heavily on her characterization as a sweet, innocent young girl.

Magnon pops back up again, she’s an underrated recurring character. She loses her two boys, which is a shame because “these children were precious to their mother; they represented eighty francs a month…the children dead, the income was buried.” Luckily, it really is a buyers market on children in early 19th century France, and the Thenardiers are like 3/4ths of that market.

“At a certain depth of misery, men are possessed by a sort of spectral indifference.” Pssst, it’s alienation. You already know it. Gotta rep my brand.

Another utterly gorgeous illustration paired with a mind-bogglingly bad chapter title translation. I’ve got “In Which Little Gavroche Takes Advantage of Napoleon the Great.” Please, Wraxall, why are you doing this?

People are, wow, consistently really awful to children in clear and desperate need in this book. It falls to Gavroche to be the only helpful adult adjacent figure in all of Paris, “and the two children followed him as they would have followed an archbishop.” Some highlights from the Gavroche variety show:

“The bureau is closed, I receive no more complaints.”

“It rains again! Good God, if this continues, I withdraw my subscription.”

“Ah! we have lost our authors. We don’t know now what we have done with them.”

I really like the translation conundrum of Gavroche’s text-language speech. Wilbour translates “Keksekça?” as “Whossachuav?” whereas Hapgood and Wraxall don’t bother to translate it at all. Leaving the original text is probably the right call but I enjoy the linguistic gymnastics of trying to translate and also explain the joke. Weirdly, Hapgood translates all the argot to English while Wilbour leaves it in French.

“All three placed end to end would hardly have made a fathom.” God, that’s kind of the most adorable thing ever. Please someone draw the three Thenardier boys stacked on top of each other wearing a trench coat and still being comically shorter than Montparnasse.

Gavorche and Montparnasse conduct quite the amiable conversation. Their dynamic is pretty interesting, and not what I would expect just from knowing their characters. Montparnasse seems to take Gavroche quite seriously and might even be impressed at some of his remarks. We know Gavroche isn’t so endeared with Montparnasse as to not rob him, and that he’s comfortable enough with the murderer to insult his vanity.

Ok, I want to talk about the elephant, which is a goldmine of symbolism, both for Hugo writing and for us reading. On the first level, the elephant is emblematic of the crumbling of Napoleon’s empire, left to be forgotten and eroded away over time, rats swarming all through the inner workings. “It partook, to some extent of a filth soon to be swept away, and, to some extent, of a majesty soon to be decapitated.” It also represents the transition from empire to, if not a republic, something more domestic, “leaving a peaceable reign to the kind of gigantic stove, adorned with its stove-pipe, which has taken the place of the forbidding nine-towered fortress.” This replacement, and the replacing of feudalist lords with the bourgeoisie is framed as the violent and barbarous past softening into a more civilized society. Although, there is still discontent running fiercely below the domestic facade, “an epoch of which a tea-kettle contains the power.” There is underestimated power in what seems unremarkable. Gavroche uses the elephant to save these two lost boys, when no one else would even let them in their shop.

This takes us neatly into the next layer of symbolism, the disparate utility of the elephant. The elephant is isolated, an eyesore, disdained by the bourgeoisie for being useless. But by falling to this ruin, this “colossal beggar…had taken pity itself on this other beggar, the poor pigmy.” The elephant finds itself on the level of the poor and, in turn, provides for them, just as Gavroche, despite having nothing, provides for those he comes across. Napoleon sought to immortalize his greatness, “he desired to incarnate the people. God had done a grander thing with it, he lodged a child.” This calls all the way back to literally 1.1.1 when Bienvenu tells Napoleon, “You behold a good man, and I a great man.” The bourgeoisie have no use for goodness, they can no longer comprehend the utility of the most basic needs, they only think about usefulness in terms of abstract ideas of greatness. For the gamin who doesn’t have a home or food, the world looks very different; Gavroche doesn’t care about the symbolic might of Napoleon, he cares that the elephant has a roof.

Having said this, I want to take care not to deify the idea of the elephant. It’s easy to get caught up in Hugo’s words here, “This idea of Napoleon…had been taken up by God,” but this is like those “heartwarming” news stories in which a kid sells lemonade to pay for their parent’s medical procedures. Our ire shouldn’t be that the bourgeoisie are so ignorant as to find the elephant useless, it should be that the gamins are in such a desperate situation that they look at a rotting frame of plaster and wood and think “home.”

Related, this is probably why Gavroche is so tough on these kids, while also being incredibly generous. He knows it’s best to get them to adjust quickly to this life, but that doesn’t mean throwing them to the wolves. It’s really painful to watch him have to do this.

[moviestorian]

Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

[spacetrashpile]

Hi. I was very lucky to see the National Tour of Les Mis tonight and HOLLLLYYY SHIT. It was beautiful and I loved it and I have to talk about it a bit. This is gonna be a long post so buckle up.

Okay so to start: Everyone killed it, every performer was amazing, and the children in the show were so good.

Act 1

The staging for Look Down was really cool, and all the different prisoners killed their solos. Valjean and Javert’s interactions were great to watch throughout the show, and this was just the beginning.

The ensemble in this show was just *chef’s kiss*. They were always entertaining to watch, and they did everything so well.

Who Am I? KILLED me. I may have ascended during that song, it was so amazing. The blocking was so simple and yet so striking, and there were a million different parallels in that blocking to the blocking in Stars and Javert’s Suicide, even in the directions the actors faced at different times. Amazing.

The Foreman in At The End of the Day was as disgusting and horrible as he always is and FANTINE. This is just a side note, but the woman playing Fantine needs to be Anastasia some time, she’d kill it. 

I Dreamed A Dream, lovely and simple. 10/10

Lovely Ladies was,,, interesting to watch with my mother. I tried not to look at her the whole time but WHO BOY. It was well done and the Foreman being the first person to solicit Fantine after she became a prostitute? That killed me, I did not know that was gonna happen.

The scene with Valjean and Javert after the cart incident was so stressful. I knew Valjean wasn’t going to get arrested there and yet I felt so terrified that Javert would know, props to those actors.

Come to Me, first time of many times I cried during this show. Fantine was such a beautiful singer and her displays of emotions killed me. When she called out to Cosette,,, :( She died hugging Valjean and he placed her really gently back on the bed and I was holding back tears.

Confrontation was GREAT but for the first minute I couldn’t see Javert at all because he was standing right on the end of the stage where my vision was obscured and I just kept internally going “Sir,,, sir please move to the middle of the stage, please”

Young Cosette, my baby. Castle on a Cloud was adorable but at the same time I almost cried, I love her. One side thing that was super weird, Young Eponine was white but adult Eponine was a WOC?? And I don’t know why?? I don’t know, just a bit strange.

Madame Thernardier! She stole every scene she was in my GOD. She had such a powerful voice and stage presence that you couldn’t help but watch her every move, she was great. Monsieur Thernardier was funny and crude and he did a very good job, Master of the House had the whole theater dying laughing.

Young Cosette and Valjean’s interactions were genuinely some of my favorite moments of the show. They were very few, of course, but they were lovely.

Stars SLAPPED. Every parallel to Who Am I? was really cool, and the set was very beautiful. They had Javert bless himself a LOT during the show, and most of it was of course during Stars. Javert was one of the best performers in the show, hands down. 

Gavroche was adorable, and all eyes were on him the second he came on stage because he owned it. He knew what he wanted to do and he did it. 

Marius was adorable and also Latino which was really nice. His first meeting with Cosette was so adorable and I think this might just be bias towards those two on my part, but God every interaction they had with each other was so good.

The Les Amis de L’ABC. Oh my God. They were all so amazing and watching them do anything was wild, even just in their first scene in the streets.

Cosette was so good, those high notes could just kill me. Marius jumped the wall into the garden after she went inside, and then he threw a pebble at her window to get her attention, classic and adorable. When she came out on the little balcony he started the song and he purposely voice cracked on the first line and it was so endearing. Cosette then came down and they did the rest of the song face to face and Marius did the song really well, I loved his performance in the whole show, but especially here.

I know I just talked about the Les Amis but I’m gonna talk about them again. All of them were so great, but my eyes were constantly drawn to Combferre. He had such good interactions with the other Les Amis and he had really great reactions to everything that was happening, props to him. Red and Black was just overall good, after Grantaire taunted Marius (during which he climbed on one of the tables), Marius took his bottle from him and the Les Amis started throwing it around with each other before Enjorlas took it, sang a bit, and gave it back. Grantaire and Gavroche also had really good interactions throughout the whole show, they had this really deep bond, and you could tell just from how they worked with each other. Do You Hear the People Sing? was so beautiful, I just loved it a whole lot.

One Day More, I almost gave them a standing ovation. They deserved it. The blocking was lovely and it was so beautiful.

Act 2

This Eponine, I genuinely think she could rival if not best some of the greatest Eponines, INCLUDING Lea Salonga. She killed On My Own and there was some guy in the audience who yelled “bravo” really loudly when everyone was applauding, which is great because she deserved it.

Valjean had a limp in act two, which was super interesting. I don’t know if that’s a consistent in every production or not, but I really liked it. When he read the “Now that I know you love me too” part of Marius’s letter, he kinda slowed down as he read it and paused after the “love” as though he was confused about it, which was great, very funny

Gavroche revealing Javert on the barricade is always one of my favorite parts of the show, if only because I love Gavroche so much. This was actually one of the few times where he’s not right next to Grantaire during the show which I thought was interesting. After he reveals Javert, Combferre pulls a gun on him and Gavroche just walks in between them and puts the gun down like a whole adult, it was great. At the end of the song, he straight up gave Javert the finger and I was crying laughing because that small child SOLD IT. 

A Little Fall of Rain, oh boy. Eponine and Marius’s voices complimented each other so well but still, I don’t want this scene to happen. The first person (other than Marius of course) to notice Eponine was dying was Gavroche which HURT because he reaches out for her but one of the Les Amis pulls him back. When she’s carried off stage after the song her hat falls off, and Gavroche picked it up and then very solemnly handed it to Marius and I SOBBED.

The scene where Valjean lets Javert go was really good (Javert’s acting man, like I said, one of the best performers in the show). As Javert went off stage, Valjean kept the gun aimed at him for a few moments before turning and firing at the sky. Also the gun actually went off? Like sparks and everything, it was so jarring I was NOT ready for it.

Drink With Me was really nice, everyone’s voices blended super well and it was really pretty. Grantaire’s solo (which I am always happy to hear) was really good, and so was the Grantaire. They didn’t go as far out with Grantaire and Enjorlas as I might have liked (no hug at the end of his solo, which I know some productions do), but when he went off stage afterwards, Gavroche went and tried to pull him back on which I thought was really nice.

Bring Him Home OH MY GOD. I was halfway through standing up at the end of the song before I realized we weren’t giving that man a standing ovation, he was EVERYTHING. Bring Him Home is a really special song for me overall and it was just so beautiful.

Gavroche’s death killed me as it always does. He climbed over the barricade and sang almost his whole song over there. After the first shot (the one that doesn’t kill him) there was this super long silence and even though I knew he wasn’t meant to die there, I was freaked out, it was so horrible. He was climbing up the top of the barricade as the song ended, and he threw the bag of ammunition over there before he finished climbing, actually. He got right in the middle of the barricade as the song was ending (”So you better run for cover”) and he stood up tall RIGHT in front of Enjorlas who was ready to help him over, and that’s when he got shot. He fell right into Enjorlas’s arms and it was awful. Enjorlas turned around, all back lit from the lights, and he handed him to Grantaire who was right below him. Grantaire brought him over to stage right and laid him down, and he stayed with him for most of the scene.

The deaths of the Les Amis, oh my god. It was painful, and loud; the guns were firing constantly, and every death was worse than the last. I think Claquesous was the first I saw die, although I don’t know if he actually died first. Both Combferre and Courfreyec were at the top of their barricade, and the shots fired them back it was awful. There were a lot of people lying dead on the barricade. Enjorlas died almost in the main gap where Gavroche was shot, right next to it, and then Grantaire, who’d been at Gavroche’s side the whole time, ran all the way up the barricade, right in the main gap next to Enjorlas and he put his fist in the air and was shot like that. It was just, oof. It was sad but they did it very, very well.

They also had a small scene after the barricade was cleared away that just twisted the knife in further. Javert and two other soldiers came out, and the two soldiers were leading a cart. Javert prayed over Gavroche’s body, which was nice, but the cart killed me. The only body in the cart was Enjorlas, and he had his hand dangling out, still barely hanging on to the red flag. After Javert prayed over Gavroche, he picked him up and placed him in the cart next to Enjorlas. I died. Just, my God.

Dog Eats Dog was gross because ew the sewers but ya know. I felt so bad for Marius and the guy Thernardier was dragging around because there was SO MUCH FOG on stage and I know how hard it is to breathe in that stuff. The scene looked cool as hell though, so pros and cons.

Javert’s Suicide, holy shit. As Valjean went off stage with Marius, Javert had a gun aimed at him the whole time before he ripped it away and aimed at the sky, although he didn’t shoot, and it was basically a perfect mirror of when Valjean let him go. The first half or so of the song he actually wasn’t on the bridge, and I straight up thought they were going to have him shoot himself, which would’ve been wild. But as he started to spiral more he backed up and the bridge set came down. Something I noticed almost immediately was that the back side of the bridge was the same set as during Stars and I was YELLING. He didn’t technically jump off the bridge, but he climbed up on the front and then at the end of the song the sides and back of the bridge pulled away and the part he was standing on backed up into the spiraling water backdrop and it looked so, so cool. 

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. I cried HARD, this Marius killed the song, and really sold his guilt. During Turning the women had brought out candles and left them in different places on the stage, so it gave the scene really nice lighting. About halfway through Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I noticed something. I can’t say for sure, but from what I could tell, each of the candles was placed in the spot where one of the Les Amis died, as well as one where Marius lay when he was injured, and just: holy shit. The Les Amis came ON STAGE during the song (also the sign for the cafe de L’ABC was in the background the whole time too, oof). They each picked up their candles, and Marius picked up his as well, and they all held them out to Marius as he sang “Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me/That I live and you are gone”. At the end of the song Marius raised his candle like a glass and then blew it out and like. Damn.

Just a small thing I noticed, Marius and Valjean were mirrored entirely during Who Am I? Reprise, they were both dressed in all black and they both were limping on the same leg. Idk I just thought that was cool.

Marius and Cosette’s wedding was really nice and I loved it but then I realized as I was watching that all the male wedding guests were Les Amis de L’ABC and I started crying again. At least Cosette’s wedding dress was pretty, and at least Marius punched Thernardier in the face.

Oh the Finale. OHHHH the Finale. I was sobbing the whole way through, everyone was amazing. They had Fantine with her long hair, and she was in an all white dress too. When Valjean died, he stood up and Fantine ripped off the shawl he was wearing to reveal his pure white shirt which was REAL nice. I thought that they had given Eponine an all white costume too, but I realized near the end that she was still in the costume she died in, hat and all, except her coat was now pure white. All of the ensemble came in first, but then the bishop came onstage and hugged Valjean which was really, really nice. The Finale was beautiful as always.

Okay, that’s all. I know it was a lot but I just loved the show so much and really wanted to talk about it. Props if you got here.

[ao3feed-lesmiserables]

done with having dreams

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2uqH6rO

by loyaulte_me_lie

"“We’re going to the park.” “Do I have to?” “Sunshine is good for you, vampire child. We can go climb some trees or something.” “I climb trees all the time back in Lourdes.” “Well then. We’ll have to have a competition. Come on, shoes on. Maybe we’ll get takeout on the way back if you’re really lucky.” “You’re the best babysitter ever,” Marianne declares, and Grantaire wants to deny it, wants to snark back that the only ‘best’ he’s ever been is murdering people, but you don’t tell anyone that, especially seven year old children. " // Or the one in which assassins meet mages meet adorable seven-year-olds, Grantaire and Enjolras suck at communicating, and all the cliches are fulfilled.

Words: 17790, Chapters: 1/3, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of the heart is a muscle

Fandoms: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M

Characters: Enjolras (Les Misérables), Grantaire (Les Misérables), Combeferre (Les Misérables), Éponine Thénardier, Original Child Character(s), Joly (Les Misérables), Musichetta (Les Misérables), Bossuet Laigle, Cosette Fauchelevent, Marius Pontmercy, Feuilly (Les Misérables), Courfeyrac (Les Misérables), Jean "Jehan" Prouvaire, Bahorel (Les Misérables), Gavroche Thénardier, Azelma Thénardier

Relationships: Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables), Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Kid Fic, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Les Amis de l'ABC Shenanigans

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2uqH6rO

[cometomecosette]

“Les Mis” review: US Tour, San Francisco, August 25, 2018

When I heard that the Les Mis tour was coming to San Francisco, I knew right away that I had to make the 2-hour drive and see it. I hadn’t seen the show onstage in three years and I’m always eager to see a new performance – only time and money limits stop me from traveling to see every professional production.

The current US tour is, of course, Laurence Conner’s 25th Anniversary production, which has been sweeping the world since 2009. The sets, costumes and basic staging were familiar and my feelings about them haven’t changed a bit. I could nitpick about all the details that feel inferior to the classic Trevor Nunn/John Caird production (the lack of any chairs or tables in Empty Chairs, the excessive slapstick in the Thénardiers’ scenes, the awkwardness of some scenes that were clearly written to be staged on a turntable, etc.), but overall, it’s a beautiful way to experience the musical. The impressionistic imagery derived from Victor Hugo’s drawings is both Romantically beautiful and appropriately somber and gritty, and for the most part, the staging excellently serves the story. So many little details enhanced the action’s moving effect: for example, in the Well Scene, Valjean found an exhausted Young Cosette collapsed in tears over her heavy bucket, and he gently approached her from behind and helped her to her feet, perfectly mirroring the moment when the Bishop first found him sleeping on his doorstep.

Believe it or not, this was my first time seeing the 25th Ann. production since 2012, before the movie was released. Since then I’ve only seen non-replica regional productions; I missed the 2014 Broadway revival and have never been anywhere near the International Tour either. So I noticed a fair amount of changes that have been made to the production since the original 2009-13 tours. Some of these changes I had already read about in other people’s reviews, but others were surprises. Here are all the differences I noticed:

*All projections that used to tell us when and where the action takes place have been cut. Maybe this was already the case in 2009-13, but I don’t remember. This must make the time skips confusing for first-time audience members who haven’t read the synopsis.

*In the Prologue, during the farm scene’s instrumental passage, two little girls run across the stage playing tag. One trips and falls, and Valjean approaches to make sure she’s all right, but her parents hurry protectively to her side and glare him away from her.

*Petit Gervais is included. Valjean takes his coin during “Now every door is closed to me…” I know this bit of staging has been in and out of this production since 2009 (it was present in the UK tour, then absent in the 2010 US tour, then reinstated in Toronto…), but for now it’s back. I think the placement is awkward, though, since it comes just on the heels of Valjean showing compassion to another child. I personally would have placed Gervais after the inn scene during “And now I know how freedom feels…” to show that Valjean’s increasing mistreatment has made him even more bitter and ruthless than when he was first released from prison. (Future directors, take note.)

*Fantine’s dress is now a solid turquoise in place of the stripe-and-flower pattern from the 2009-13 tours. I already knew this from the 2014 Broadway photos of Caissie Levy, though.

*In “At the End of the Day,” the Factory Girl now has a “girl posse” of two other women. They’re the ones who initially snatch Fantine’s letter and sing “And what have we here, little innocent sister?” then pass the letter to their queen bee, who reads it.

*Fantine’s first customer in “Lovely Ladies” is now the Factory Foreman. (This may have been the case back in 2009-13, but I don’t remember; it was the case in the 2006-07 Broadway production, though.) We get a long, horrible moment where they stand and stare at each other, Fantine appalled while the Foreman leers back at her, before she finally gives him her hand.

*Same scene: Fantine doesn’t sing “Come on, captain, you can wear your shoes…” anymore. Instead, she and the Foreman emerge from their “transaction” and two other whores ask the departing Foreman “Tell me, captain, did you wear your shoes?” “Don’t it make a change… etc.” while Fantine stands still and traumatized. She only starts singing at “Easy money, lying on a bed…”

*Fantine’s cause of death is once again TB, as Hugo wrote it. Back in the 2009-13 tours she wasn’t portrayed as sick; instead Bamatabois gave her a powerful kick in the side, which apparently broke her ribs, punctured a lung and killed her. But now she’s coughing before Bamatabois ever sets eyes on her. I suppose after Anne Hathaway’s dramatic weight loss and oh-so-believable illness in the movie, Laurence Connor decided he couldn’t kill his Fantine differently.

*In “Master of the House,” we get a more elaborate variation on the movie’s quick “watering the wine” bit. Halfway through the song, a man desperately needs to go to the bathroom; Thénardier directs him to Mme. Thénardier, who holds a chamber pot while he uses it. At the end of the song, she secretly pours out the chamber pot into the wine jug, then brings the jug to her husband, who drinks, then gags.

*I remember that the first time I saw the 2010 US tour, Mme. Thénardier tried to seduce Valjean during “The Bargain,” but later in the run, that bit of comedy was cut. Well, now it’s back. She “treats” him to some dramatic leg- and cleavage-flaunting and sprays herself with much too much perfume, making him cough when she comes near him. A little excessive, if you ask me.

*Gavroche’s costume seems to have been tweaked. Instead of the all-brown outfit of the 2009-13 tours, as seen on Robert Madge in the 25th Ann. Concert, he now wears a light blue shirt with a tan vest. Also, instead of “This is my school, my high society…” in “Look Down,” he now sings his more political lyrics from the movie, starting with, “This is the land that fought for liberty…”

*The street fight between the two women in “Look Down” has been cut. Why that vignette wasn’t cut to begin with when the show was first trimmed down in the early 2000s, yet actual characterization material from major characters was cut, I’ll never know.

*Enjolras and Marius’s lines in “Look Down” are now a public speech to the beggars, delivered on soapboxes with one or two other Amis (I don’t remember which ones) present too.

*In “Attack on Rue Plumet,” Éponine now snatches a knife from a gang member (I don’t remember who, though I don’t think it was Montparnasse – either Babet or Claquesous) and threatens all the men with it as she sings “I know this house, I tell you…”

*When Éponine delivers Marius’s letter, she doesn’t run straight up to Valjean and announce her purpose anymore. Instead the scene is staged more like the original Nunn/Caird version; she creeps into the garden and looks up at Cosette’s balcony, trying to determine how to get the letter to her, but then Valjean catches her and she gives him the letter out of fear. She also takes down her hair and reveals her gender on “He said to give it to Cosette,” though I’m not sure why.

*Gavroche flips off Javert the end of “Little People.” Not the Arm, which other Gavroches have done. The Finger. My friend who saw the show with me was disturbed that they let a child do that.

*Éponine’s death is now a self-sacrifice. When she enters over the barricade, she almost makes it to safety, but Marius, in his eagerness to talk to her, jumps up from cover while bullets are still flying and is almost shot. Éponine pushes him out of the way and takes the bullet instead, though she doesn’t let him realize she’s been hit until after they climb down to the ground.

*Gavroche’s death is no longer offstage, but now handled in the style that seems to be near ubiquitous in productions with no turntable. Gavroche makes it back to the top of the barricade, but is shot at the last moment and falls into Enjolras’s arms. Then Enjolras hands him down to Grantaire, who mournfully carries him from the barricade.

*Post-Final Battle, Javert now has a movie-esque moment of sympathy over Gavroche’s body. He finds the boy on the ground, kneels and contemplates him, then does a sign of the cross before lifting him up onto the cart next to Enjolras.

*Likewise, Javert now has a gun in his last meeting with Vajean. This has seemingly become ubiquitous in post-movie productions.

*In the wedding scene, midway through the Thénardiers’ exchange with Marius, the majordomo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, the cake!” A gorgeous wedding cake is wheeled onstage – and Mme. Thénardier promptly grabs the knife, cuts a piece and stuffs it into her mouth with her bare hands, much to the shock of the onlookers. In disgust, the majordomo orders the cake removed. I’m not sure whether I think this is funny or fatphobic.

*When the Bishop appears among the spirits in the finale, he and Valjean hug, rather than just bowing to each other as in 2009-13.

 Now for the cast…

Nick Cartell (Jean Valjean)

Both musically and dramatically, this man commanded the stage. His bright, ringing tenor was capable of all the magnificent power and magnificent gentleness an ideal Valjean should display; his only possible vocal flaw was that he sounded a bit too young. (The same could be said about his looks.) His acting was spot-on too. From the angry convict of the beginning, to the gentlemanly Monsieur Madeleine, to Javert’s fierce nemesis, to Cosette’s loving father, to the dying old man of the finale, he embodied each of Valjean’s identities. One worthwhile touch he added that I’ve never seen from any other musical Valjean was the limp Hugo ascribes to the character, as a result of living for years with his leg chained: at first it was barely noticeable, but as he aged it became painfully pronounced. Another, adorable touch to his performance was this: he took the popular detail of Valjean gently booping Cosette’s nose, and instead of only doing it once or twice, he expanded it into a special gesture of affection for her throughout their years together. Repeatedly he touched his own nose, then touched hers: first when he adopted her, then in “In My Life,” then at the beginning of “Valjean’s Confession,” and finally as he was dying. During the final curtain calls, the audience’s wild applause for him was well deserved.

Josh Davis (Javert)

I’m afraid he was my least favorite of the lead performers. Not in terms of his singing: he had a rich, powerful baritone voice that was just right for the part. But his diction tended to sound strange and his whole characterization was a bit too growly, aggressive and “cartoon villain”-like for my taste. I’m sure this was partly direction: Laurence Connor’s concept of Javert has always seemed more aggressive and neurotic than the novel’s or Trevor Nunn’s, regardless of the actor. But it still didn’t ring quite right for me. I agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that his delivery recalled William Shatner … particularly at the end of “Who Am I?” when he charged after Valjean yelling “CON!” which of course sounded just like “KHAN!” I literally asked myself “Did he just make a Star Trek joke?” (Though maybe it was one, since this was a matinee performance; I know it’s a tradition in the London production to add little jokes in the matinees.) Still, there were moments of his performance I liked a lot: for example, his unique, utterly broken, weary delivery of the line “This man has killed me even so!” I’ve definitely seen worse Javerts in the past. I’ve just seen better ones too.

Mary Kate Moore (Fantine)

A lovely, delicate Fantine with a beautiful mezzo voice and a poignant, pain-filled characterization. I just wish I could have seen more anger, pride and inner strength from her. Maybe part of the problem was my far-away seat, because I’ve read another fan’s review of her performance that praised her strength and anger. But personally, I never felt the complexity of the novel’s Fantine from her. Still, without question, her singing and acting were high in quality. I think my main issue was with the staging, which highlighted Fantine’s victimhood and reduced her agency. The factory “fight” consisted only of the Factory Girl beating her up, rather than letting her make a fierce effort to get the letter back, and the reassignment of lines in “Lovely Ladies” left her standing in mute, broken shock where past Fantines have made active, tough-talking advances to potential customers. She was a good Fantine, but might have done better in a different production.

J. Anthony Crane (Thénardier)

Scraggly, slimy, funny and slightly larger than life but never too hammy, dark and sinister in “Dog Eats Dog”… in short, he was just what Thénardier should be. His marriage to his wife seemed to be one where “pots and pans and underwear fly”: they bickered ferociously, but worked together effortlessly, and at the end of the Waltz of Treachery they “celebrated” their 1500 francs with his head under her skirt. Predictably, the audience loved them both.

Allison Guinn (Mme. Thénardier)

Good, but over the top. Her voice was powerful and strident, which is right for the role, but she made it a little too strident and annoying for my taste. The same can be said for her acting: just as brash, funny and nasty as it should be, but a little too slapstick and cartoonish. Of course she’s far from the only cartoonish Mme. T. I’ve ever seen, and while she didn’t perfectly embody the brute Hugo created, she was still a solid source of comic relief.

Robert Ariza (u/s Marius)

A very likeable Marius: cute and small (he was slightly shorter than Éponine!), with fluffy black hair and a warm, sweet tenor voice. He was adorably passionate and lovesick in the early scenes; I adored the moment in “A Heart Full of Love” when he thought he had scared Cosette away after she ran from her balcony, and was groaning “I do not even know your name!” to the wall of her house (such an INFP!) when he suddenly realized she was standing behind him. He also offered a warm friendship with Éponine and touching grief and tears at her death. His “Empty Chairs” was appropriately poignant too, with its outpouring of grief and anger. Knowing that first-time Les Mis viewers so often react to Marius in less than complimentary way, it’s a testament to his performance that afterwards, my first-timer friend praised the character’s coming-of-age journey and his romance with Cosette. Everything about his performance was more-or-less just right.

Paige Smallwood (Éponine)

A good, strong Éponine, with a beautiful, powerful voice and a solid, affecting characterization. She was a genuine street rat, never cutesy or ingénue-like, yet not too harsh either, but struck just the right balance of toughness, playfulness, anger, heartache and warmth. I especially liked a few of her small yet unique acting choices. On the line “I like the way you grow your hair,” for example, she started to reach out to touch Marius’s hair, but then pulled herself back, and distracted him from what she had almost done by throwing his book onto the ground. I also loved her grimly determined expression at the end of “On My Own,” when she set off to rejoin Marius at the barricade; other Éponines I’ve known have paused in uncertainty at that point, torn between love and fear, but this one strode to her fate with hard, unwavering resolve. Her death was excellent too, with the perfect balance between pain, vocal beauty and tenderness. The audience understandably loved her.

Matt Shingledecker (Enjolras)

I should have known to expect good things from this Enjolras, since his performance as Tony in the 2009 West Side Story revival (he replaced Matt Cavanaugh) was highly praised by the late Arthur Laurents in his last memoire. His bright, ringing tenor voice was just right both for Tony and for Enjolras, and his looks were ideal too: tall, strong and handsome, with a long mane of sunny blond hair. His acting was also spot on, with an excellent balance between stately dignity and rabble-rousing fire. I only wish I had been sitting closer, so I could see his expressions more closely and have more insight into this Enjolras’s relationships with his friends, especially Grantaire. But I have nothing but positive feelings about his performance.

Jillian Butler (Cosette)

A sweet, charming Cosette; not one of the most outstanding I’ve seen, per se, but very good. As with Robert’s Marius, it’s a testament to her talent that my first-timer friend loved their love story. Her voice was a bright, crystalline soprano, slightly thin, but never wispy or squeaky. Her acting was spot-on too; she was just as innocent, lovesick and tender as she should be, angry about Valjean’s secret keeping without being bratty, and appropriately distraught by his death. I do wish Connor’s staging let her show him more affection instead of highlighting their conflict, but of course this wasn’t her fault at all.

John Ambrosino (u/s Grantaire)

Effective, though I wish I had been sitting closer to see the nuances of the various looks he exchanged with Enjolras. They were subtle, but I have no doubt they were emotionally charged. Still, he was convincing as the wild and funny drunkard, as the sad cynic, and as Gavroche’s devoted big brother figure. I was especially struck by his private, despairing collapse against a wall after Enjolras glared at him at the end of his “Drink With Me” verse, and though his “NO!” at Gavroche’s death was slightly underwhelming, his staggering, open-mouthed anguish as he carried the boy’s body and quiet weeping into his chest on the ground were heartbreaking. Overall, an excellent performance.

Sam Middleton (Gavroche)

A first-rate Gavroche, old enough to be convincing and commanding onstage yet young enough to be poignant, with a strong, clear voice and good acting throughout. Besides the usual cheek and feistiness, I loved that this production made Gavroche’s compassionate side clear. He was the one who comforted Marius after Éponine’s death, and when Grantaire collapsed in despair after his “Drink With Me” solo, he gave him the sweetest consoling hug. The characters onstage weren’t the only ones distraught by his death, that’s for sure.

Elsa Avery Dees (Young Cosette)

A delicate, sweet-voiced little thing, just as any Young Cosette should be.

 My friend who had never seen Les Mis before was completely bowled over by this performance. She had endless praise for it our way home (though even she thought the slapstick in the Thénardiers’ scenes was overdone) and right away got tickets to see again with her family. Personally, I wouldn’t want to see the same cast back-to-back, but I am hoping to see the tour again when it comes to LA in the spring. This production might not be perfect, but still, both for first-timers and for longtime Les Mis lovers, it has no shortage of great things to offer.

[ijustreallylovezebras]

The Mum Friend

Pairing: Modern!Enjolras x Reader

Summary: The reader is the mum friend of her friendship group and so gets very excited when she finds out about one of her friends dates.

“Courf! Taire! I’m home!” I call as I unlock the door to our apartment, holding a couple of bags of shopping.

“Hey, Y/N!” The two of the chant to me from the living room.

“Hey Princess,” my boyfriend says, walking into the kitchen and wrapping his arms around me. I feel him place a kiss on the back of my head and I turn around in his arms after putting my shopping onto the counter.

“Hey Enj,” I smile, letting my arms hang loosely around his waist, “I didn’t realise you were here too,”

“R and Courf invited me over because they think that it makes it more likely for you to cook them dinner,” Enjolras tells me and leans forwards to kiss me. I grin and peck his lips.

“I always make them dinner,” I laugh and he nods, his eyes crinkling adorably as he smiles back.

“You have some flour on your nose,” Enjolras tells me and lifts up a hand, wiping it off. I groan and bury my face in his chest, “you’re so cute,” he tells me and I feel myself blushing and refuse to look up at him. “My little baker’s girl,” he says lovingly and kisses the top of my head again.

“Did you bring any food back from work?” I turn around to look at Courfeyrac and nod.

“Yeah, it’s in that bag. Though my boss does keep on questioning why I ask for all of the rejects every day,” I tell him, smiling and leaning back into my boyfriend’s chest.

“Just tell them it’s because you live with your two kids and see what she says,” Grantaire suggests, sitting on one of the bar stools at the breakfast bar and pulling the box towards him, taking out a brownie.

“Taire, you’re joking but I am pretty much your mother,” I say, laughing and Grantaire shrugs.

“You’re the mum friend. It’s an honour,”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t be alive without you,” Courfeyrac agrees, which makes me laugh, untangling myself from Enjolras’ arms and beginning to put the shopping away.

“Do you guys want anything to drink?” I ask, putting on the kettle.

“Did I see a new pack of beer in one of the bags?” Grantaire asks and I fix him with a look.

“Taire, remember what we agreed.”

“Fine. Can I have a coffee then?” He asks, slouching back on his chair, still staring at the fridge with a forlorn expression that is most commonly found on a puppy.

“Courf?” I ask, turning to the man. However, as soon as my back is turned to Grantaire he had run to the fridge and retrieved a beer. I glare at him but he just smiles back innocently.

“I don’t need a coffee anymore, Y/N,” he tells me, opening his beer. I sigh and turn away.

“Courf, Enj?” I ask as I get a mug out of the cupboard for myself.

“Tea, please,” Courfeyrac responds and Enjolras murmurs a noise of agreement.

“Are there any plans for this evening?” Grantaire asks.

“I don’t think there are any collective plans,” Enjolras hums, thinking. “I thought that we could watch a couple of films though, Y/N?” He offers and I grin at him, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

“That sounds lovely, Enj,” I smile, pouring the water.

“Can we join?” Grantaire asks, giving the two of us a beaming smile.

“No,” Enjolras says straight away and I laugh.

“Please? Courf has plans,” Grantaire says, trying to convince me.

“You have plans?” I ask, looking at Courfeyrac, who blushes a little. “Do you have a date?” I gasp, bringing him his tea and sitting at the table next to him. Grantaire moves from the breakfast bar to sit next to Courfeyrac who’s scarlet by this point.

Enjolras sits on the chair next to me but pulls me onto his lap so that I’m curled up into a ball with my back pressed against his chest.

“It’s not a date,” Courfeyrac says, playing with the handle of his mug.

“Come on, Courf, just tell us. Please?” I ask and Courfeyrac looks up to smile at me.

“I’m just going out with Combeferre. It’s nothing really, we just both wanted to see the new Star Wars film and so he asked if I wanted to go with him and then we’re going to get food afterwards,” my flatmate says blushing.

“Just admit that you love him,” Grantaire groans loudly.

“Who does Couf love?” Another voice comes from our hallway.

“Shoes, Gav!” I call and I hear the child groan.

“Fine!” The kid calls. He emerges into the kitchen. “Can I stay here tonight?” He asks.

“Yeah, you can keep R company,” Enjolras says, the beginnings of a smile forming on his face.

“Help yourself to the stuff that isn’t beer that’s in the fridge by the way, Gav,”

“Thanks, Y/N” he grins, opening the fridge door and grabbing a bottle of orange juice, “can I finish this?” he holds it up and we nod. “Anyway, who does Courf love?” Gavroche asks, sitting on the seat next to me.

“He loves-”

“Shut up, Grantaire!” Courfeyrac shouts and Grantaire laughs, taking another drink from his beer. “I don’t love anyone, Gav,” he says to the young boy who shrugs.

“Whatever. If you’re not here tonight can I have your bed?” Gavroche asks and Courfeyrac shrugs.

“Probably. If I come back I can take the sofa,”

“Ferre’ll probably let you stay overnight if Enj is staying here,” I say and look at my boyfriend who nods in confirmation.

“But where’ll Enjolras sleep?” Gav asks and the four of us look at each other uncomfortably, unsure of how to respond to the boys question and we laugh awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it, Gav,” Enjolras says and smiles at the kid.

“When do you have to leave, Courf?” I ask.

“Ferre said that he’d come over and pick me up at five,”

“You’ve only got ten minutes!” I exclaim and Courfeyrac laughs.

“Well I’m changed aren’t I?” He says and I scowl.

“Did you shower today?” I ask and he nods, rolling his eyes slightly.

“I didn’t!” Grantaire announces.

“I did,” Enjolras murmurs into my neck and I chuckle, relaxing back into him even more.

“You smell nice,” I tell him.

“I had to use Ferre’s shower gel because I forgot to buy my own.”

“You left yours here actually, I’ve been using it,” Grantaire announces.

“But you don’t shower, R,” Gavroche points out and Grantaire pulls a face at him, the two of the starting to bicker over Grantaire’s hygiene habits.

“Well even if you did shower you should probably put some deodorant again,” I say, “you don’t want to smell bad,” Courfeyrac grins at me before lunging across the table at me and pulling me into a bear hug.

“Do I smell bad, Y/N?” He asks, shoving my head into his armpit. “Is that what you’re saying?” He laughs. We’re cut off by a knock at the door and Courfeyrac immediately lets go, standing up. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” he says and leaves the kitchen. We hear him greeting Combeferre and leaving, shouting a quick farewell to us.

“Should we go and start watching films?” Enjolras says and I nod, standing up.

“There’s some pizza in the fridge, I’m sure even you can manage to cook that, R,” I say and the two boys nod.

“What are you going to eat?” Gavroche asks and I shrug.

“We’ll probably eat your leftover pizza,” Enjoras says, “night guys,”

“Night Enji!” Grantaire laughs at Enjolras’ face of disgust and I kiss the two boys on their cheeks before leading Enjolras back to my room and the two of us flop down on my bed, grabbing my laptop and logging onto Netflix.

I nestle myself under Enjolras’ arm as he browses through.

“I love you, Enj,” I mutter to him. He stops scrolling and looks down at me, placing a kiss on my lips.

“I love you more, Princess,” he says, clicking on a film and running his hands through my hair as I rest against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and feeling the comfort of his fingers drawing shapes on my back.

“I hope Courf’s date goes well,” I say quietly and Enjolras nods.

“I hope so too, for both of their sakes,”

“I just know that Courf has been waiting on this for ages and I just want him to be happy, Enj,”

“I know you do, darling, and he is,”

“I know, I just worry sometimes,”

“It will be fine Princess, trust me. I live with Ferre, I know that he’s been looking forward to this as much as Courf has,”

“I just want both of them to be happy. I don’t want another Eponine situation,” I say and Enjolras nods, hugging me tighter.

“It will be fine, love,”

“I hope you’re right, Enj,”

“I’m always right,” he grins before leaning down and kissing me again.