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accretion--disk · 7 years

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Les Mis Brasil - my review (LONG POST - MIGHT AS WELL BE THE BRICK)

So, about a month ago I went to São Paulo to watch the brazilian Les Mis. It’s the second time in sixteen years that the show is performed here and I was more than excited to watch it, since Les Mis was my first musical, and my favourite one as well. I wanted to make this post a while ago, but I got lazy, so why the hell not do it now.

As soon as I walked into the theatre I felt my knees getting weak and my heart beating faster. I swear I was about to cry even before it started. This was the third Broadway musical I ever watched live, and my expectations were really high. I wasn’t dissapointed - though I must admit that it was not perfect.

First of all, the song’s adaptation to portuguese was incredible. I was afraid they were going to screw up with the translations (like they did with Rocky Horror) but I was pleasently surprised to discover that the translations were actually pretty damn good. Some of them were more literal, and sticked to the original english lyrics (Look Down, for example, was very literal), and while others did change a bit from the original, their emotion and meaning was still the same (On My Own was one of those that had some parts distant from the original, but with the same intense feeling and meaning). Two songs I did not enjoy were Stars and Bring Him Home. Both of them were quite astray from the original, and in those cases, it did bother me a bit, because they became vague and not as impressive (those are probably two of the most meaningful songs of the musical, and loosing that did cause some damage - I’ll get to that in a minute). Specifically for Bring Him Home, I simply couldn’t understand what the actor was singing - and he was the brazilian actor, Leo Wagner and not Daniel Diges, the spanish actor who also plays Valjean here.

One of the things that this version brought to us and I don’t think was very clear on other editions of Les Mis was the parallels between Fantine (Kacau Gomes, who I believe was the best choice for the role. Her voice is soothing, pleasent, very maternal sounding) and Éponine (Laura Lobos, who played little Cosette at the first edition of the musical here). Both of them suffer from a frustrated love, in very different manners, didn’t live wealthy lives and also had a great attatchment to Cosette - willingly or not, both their deaths had to do with granting Cosette a happier life. And in the translations of their songs, there were some phrases or sentences that were repeated, and for me, as a fan of both the book and the musica, that was deeply satisfying and an interesting viewpoint. Also, both their ghosts greet Valjean when he dies, and I thought that was really nice - specially since Valjean and Éponine interact a bit. She is the one who delivers him Marius’s note from the barricade, and Valjean tells her to take care of herself.

Many things reminded me of the book. Marius (played by Filipe Bragança, who is only SIXTEEN years old) and Cosette (Clara Verdier) acted like very awkward teenagers when they first meet at the garden, and it was the cutest thing. Their chemistry was amazing, I almost forgot the actors weren’t actually a couple. Clara’s singing performance was a bit disappointing though. Her voice didn’t reach the high notes, that are very characteristic of her character, and that cause her to be off-key some times, which was noticed by many people I talked to.

The Thénardiers were the comic relief, as usual, but they were also the most constant villains - their evil side was very clear to us and it was quite scary how much we could actually sympathize with Mr. Thérnardier, due to the actor’s witty and amusing performance. He kinda reminded me of the hyenas from The Lion King, who were always afraid of Mufasa - whenever Valjean would speak his mind, Mr. Thénardier hided behind his wife. All their scenes were funny but also had a more serious, deep tone beneath it, and that’s the whole point of their characters in the book.

Now, focus on our favourite so called villain: Javert. Javert is the character we love to hate, and for me, he just didn’t do it in this version. He could sing very well, but his perfomance seemed kinda rushed at some moments. It happened very quick and we didn’t have time to appreciate his character’s purpose. “Stars”, which is the song in which we start to care and understand him a bit better, wasn’t very good as I already mentioned, and because of that his character just became sort of one-dimentioned and flat. The Confrontation scene was interesting, as were his other physical confronts with Valjean, because the actors would get very physically agressive and we could feel the tension. At times, they were yelling at each other and the whole theatre went silent. Those were certainly powerful moments I enjoyed. Javert’s suicide was a good scene/song too, because the actor expressed his emotions very passionately and it almost fixed the lack of empathy and interest during the previous scenes.

Let me please, highlight one of my favourite parts of the whole thing: The revolution. That has always been my favourite part of any Les Mis adaptation. And of course, my favourite character is Enjolras, and I was extremely excited to watch what they were going to do with my sweetheart.

Enjolras. Was. Fucking. Awesome.

The actor who plays him, Pedro Caetano, is basically what book-Enjolras should be: passionate, intense, idealistic, charismatic. As soon as he walked on stage, he caught everyone’s attention and he stole my poor heart. His voice fits the character perfectly and, should Hamilton for some miracle reason ever be translated and acted in Brazil, I want Pedro Caetano as Laurens. Not only does he look like Anthony Ramos, but his voice also resembles his. It’s like Aaron Tveit, Anthony Ramos and Daveed Diggs had a beautiful son. That was our Enjolras. He was not only the cold asshole that leads the revolution, he was also a friend to his fellows barricade boys. He seemed to care about every single one of them, and was basically restless during the whole thing. During Bring Him Home, while Valjean is singing, Enjolras could be seen sleeping standing up. He picked Gavroche up during Red and Black, and in his death, his body was put next to Gavroche’s in a wagon.

Also, GRANTAIRE. He is also one of my favourite character, and brazillian Grantaire was simply sad. There’s no other way of describing this portrayal of our drunk revolutionary: Grantaire was sad, depressed even. His skepticism was clear throughout all the songs, he just sat in a corner, drank and made annoyed/sarcastic faces while Enjolras talked (also- Grantaire standed very close to Enjolras during the entire Red and Black, quietly hoping for his attention). Drink With Me is one hell of a song, and Bruno Girst (the actor who was performing Grantaire the day I saw it) did a great job making me cry like a baby. He sang his lines not as someone who was in love and realised he was going to loose his muse in a few hours. No, he was angry at Enjolras, but yet hated himself for not being able to disobey him. I could have sworn they were going to start a fist fight during that song, because as Grantaire is singing “Will the world remember you as you fall/Could it be your death means nothing at all?”, Enjolras approaches him looking pissed and three guys have to hold them so that they don’t punch each other. Right after that, Enjolras goes to talk to Grantaire, calmer and worried, but Grantaire just runs to the corner of the stage and fucking weaps. And you know what’s best? Gavroche is the one holding Grantaire and comforting him.

Also, kudos for Gavroche! That kid was AMAZING! He showed his middle finger to Javert, Grantaire and Enjolras basically act like his dads during the entire play. When Éponine dies, he stands beside her with Grantaire. He takes her little hat and gives it to Marius. The revolutionaries sing “We’ll fight for Éponine”, and that’s when I started crying and I didn’t stop until I was inside the taxi going back to my hotel. Gavroche’s death was pretty impactful, as usual, specially beacause it was Grantaire who cared for him, and Taire just holds Gavroche’s body during half of the battle scene, before laying him down, still weeping, and going back to fight.

As I mentioned, the actor who plays Marius is sixteen. He does look older, and his voice is very deep for a 16 year old, but he was great in the role. It somehow made the whole thing sadder - during Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, we can see how hurt he is, yet he is very young. It’s the very impact we get from his character in the book and it was heartbreaking. Also, in the translation, he sings “My friends, don’t fade away”, as the ghosts of the revolutionaries blow out their candles (I couldn’t stop thinking about Rent during that scene, but that’s off topic).

Well, that’s basically what I have to say in the more technical/deep analysis of the play. Now, some random notes:

- Master of the House was downright dirty. Lots of cursing and bad words that made me laugh like an idiot. Madame Thénardier makes lots of dick jokes and says that Mr Thénardier has a “butthole brain”. Classic Thénardier.

- Éponine kicks Montparnasse in the balls. Twice. Great hommage to book Éponine.

- Cosette and Éponine quickly interact at the garden.

- One Day More gave me the chills. I thought I was going to faint, it was SOOO GOOD.

- A weird/questionable translation during Drink With Me was right at the first verses. The boys sang “Here’s a toast to the lips I’ve kissed/ Here’s a toast to the breasts I’ve touched” and I was almost laughing because that’s SO RANDOM AND YET WEIRDLY ACCURATE. Though I can’t imagine Prouvaire grabbing a girl’s boobs.

- Do You Hear The People Sing was split between all of the ABC’s friends, not focused only on Enjolras, and it was quite awesome.

- “Grantaire, put the bottle down” changed to “Grantaire, STOP DRINKING!”

- Honestly, Pedro Caetano is one of my favourite Enjolras. I reccomend you follow his instagram because he is a beautiful guy and very talanted too.

- Actually, the whole cast is adorable. They hang out together and are basically the Modern AU I dreamed of.

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