Another Opening.. Another Show
Tomorrow night is Opening night... but....For me ... Les Mis isn't just another show....Its the Mother of all mega musicals. My experience on the 95 bus and truck tour is part of my top 10 list of show experiences. The cast keeps asking me in various moments how it is, looks etc. Or I find myself far more open to telling performers I've worked with before about ( hints ) Things they did on the Touring show that made the moment... for me.
( There was this great moment for me... back in 95 of standing at the far upstage portion of the revolve.. Waiting for the midstage scrim to go out... Right after fantine dies, in her convent bed of some disease, inflicted apon her, by the act of having been a prostitute. So that she can send money to the captors of her little 7 year old girl Cosette.
As the scrim flew out, the revolve turned into the next scene. A lone, tiny figure in a spotlight. Cosette her little 7 year old daughter, who 's been forced and abused by the Thenardier's into being a scullery maid in some dark, dank tavern. sweeping the floors, setting up chairs and tables much too big for her little frame.
Every night on that run... during that particular sequence of the show I would look out at the audience from the darkness of the far backstage. 3900 people strong.. Would begin to weep as fantine died. And the shining of thier eyes continued as they watched this little girl lay out these huge tables and chairs, singing about a lady in the sky... in a castle on a cloud... that holds her...watches over her and sings her to sleep. To feel 3900 hundred people tear and cry...yearn for Cosette's rescue - it's one of the most moving moments of my life to watch a theatre full of people sob. To sense the best of humanity... in the middle of what's a moment of mass entertainement.)
I feel like the brain in the dinosaur's tail sometimes. i don't want to critique but, I can't help it. The 95 version played to a minimum of 1600 people a night ( max 3900 in L.A. ) It was your quinticential big, stupid, vulger British West End American Broadway mega musical event. The show pulled every emotional cord and stunt. Like the one above. And it worked, brilliantly. While it had to to play out in the boonies, where broadway stars are unknown, to every last seat in the last balcony.
Broadway musicals at their best are like heavy metal theatre. And in this case... Les Mis is like....The Metallica of musical theatre.
Watching/working this local version of Les Mis after the broadway event is like say seeing metallica live in 91 at the monsters of rock tour in Moscow... and then years later watching a cover band version in a medium size club.
I believe, If you go over the top... then the people can pretend they're in the front row.
Sadly the youtube clip of them in thier prime at that concert was unembedable... so you'll have to check it out...
Tomorrow night is Opening night... but....For me ... Les Mis isn't just another show....Its the Mother of all mega musicals. My experience on the 95 bus and truck tour is part of my top 10 list of show experiences. The cast keeps asking me in various moments how it is, looks etc. Or I find myself far more open to telling performers I've worked with before about ( hints ) Things they did on the Touring show that made the moment... for me.
( There was this great moment for me... back in 95 of standing at the far upstage portion of the revolve.. Waiting for the midstage scrim to go out... Right after fantine dies, in her convent bed of some disease, inflicted apon her, by the act of having been a prostitute. So that she can send money to the captors of her little 7 year old girl Cosette.
As the scrim flew out, the revolve turned into the next scene. A lone, tiny figure in a spotlight. Cosette her little 7 year old daughter, who 's been forced and abused by the Thenardier's into being a scullery maid in some dark, dank tavern. sweeping the floors, setting up chairs and tables much too big for her little frame.
Every night on that run... during that particular sequence of the show I would look out at the audience from the darkness of the far backstage. 3900 people strong.. Would begin to weep as fantine died. And the shining of thier eyes continued as they watched this little girl lay out these huge tables and chairs, singing about a lady in the sky... in a castle on a cloud... that holds her...watches over her and sings her to sleep. To feel 3900 hundred people tear and cry...yearn for Cosette's rescue - it's one of the most moving moments of my life to watch a theatre full of people sob. To sense the best of humanity... in the middle of what's a moment of mass entertainement.)
I feel like the brain in the dinosaur's tail sometimes. i don't want to critique but, I can't help it. The 95 version played to a minimum of 1600 people a night ( max 3900 in L.A. ) It was your quinticential big, stupid, vulger British West End American Broadway mega musical event. The show pulled every emotional cord and stunt. Like the one above. And it worked, brilliantly. While it had to to play out in the boonies, where broadway stars are unknown, to every last seat in the last balcony.
Broadway musicals at their best are like heavy metal theatre. And in this case... Les Mis is like....The Metallica of musical theatre.
Watching/working this local version of Les Mis after the broadway event is like say seeing metallica live in 91 at the monsters of rock tour in Moscow... and then years later watching a cover band version in a medium size club.
I believe, If you go over the top... then the people can pretend they're in the front row.
Sadly the youtube clip of them in thier prime at that concert was unembedable... so you'll have to check it out...
bedwelld:
That is a view very few people have ever had. Sounds pretty damn awesome!