OKAY I finished!!!! Les Misérables!! The musical, the 10th anniversary rendition!!!
Obviously it was great!! I liked it a lot sldkfjgh I'm glad I actually sat down and watched the musical, I might give the 25th a shot when I next get a break so I can see how I feel with a little more context for some scenes?
But I liked it!!! Like a lot, I had a really good time watching it and I'm really glad I finally, watched it through ;w; 💙
I adored Philip Quast as Javert, I loved this cast so much omg
Like everyone knocked it out of the park but I just loved how much he put into his performance
I wasn't initially sold on Wilkinson as Valjean but the way he can hit and hold those high notes, like in Bring Him Home??? Is incredible
But golly, I really enjoyed it still, aside from my gripes with the handling of Éponine and Marius' characters,
Which like btw the two who played them?? Lea Salonga as Éponine and Michael Ball as Marius?? Did FANTASTIC
Like I hate to be so redundant about like "omg they sounded so good" BUT LIKE THEY ALL SOUNDED SO GOOD I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH DFKJGHL
But BESIDES that gripe with the story!! It was really good!! And really emotional dksfjlg
Fantine's Death honestly made me feel really emotional. Fantine in general made me just, upset. I think her whole character, the arc she goes through, what she does for Cosette, I think it hit a really personal note. Ruthie Henshall killed it, she was SO good ;w;
That and Michael Ball singing Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, those were the ones that, honestly got me the most emotional ;;;
Honestly the entire thing was like! Super depressing!!!! Which like, yeah, about what it says on the tin!! But the catharsis was nice!! I'm not sure there's much more I can add to anything about Les Misérables that hasn't already been said tbh sdgkh
Something about going into it and seeing Enjorlas and the ABC all singing about The Glorious Revolution and surely France is on our side, surely the poor will stand with us!
and just kinda knowing brings a special kind of pain, doubly when they all die for nothing and you see the poor left even more downtrodden than before
Which speaking of, I've listened to a few of the other productions' renditions, but I think this one has my favorite rendition of Red and Black
I think that one might be my favorite Les Mis track, honestly ;w;
Michael Maguire as Enjorlas, Anthony Crivello as Grantaire, and again Michael Ball as Marius, they just carry their voices so well?? I wish I could stress the ways they individually did well but admittedly I'm starting to crash ;w; The three of them are just perfect for their roles, nothing can compare aaaaa
OH AND I LOVED MASTER OF THE HOUSE DFKLJGH
Honestly I loved every second the Thénardiers were on stage, I loved the way that like everyone, even the audience would get involved like in Beggars at the Feast. Just everyone singing and dancing and clapping along to these two shitheads singing about how terrible they are dsfkghl
They had Alun Armstrong as Monsieur Thénardier and Jenny Galloway has Madame Thénardier, and like, Alun just embodied that sleezy sort of personality so well, you could tell he was
I mean, you could tell that everyone was having such a fun time with it sdfjklgh ITS A FUN SONG!!!
But I LOVED Galloway's performances especially, I think she was having the most fun out of everyone in the room and it was GREAT she was so good, I loved her dfklgh she stole it for me
I still can't get over Hannah Chick as little Cosette,
the way I flew out of my fucking chair when whatever the hell that was went off
but she just KEPT GOING with her song like it was nothing, I really hope she kept up in theatre ;w;
And I loved Adam Searles as Gavroche, I wish we got to see more of him outside Little People and Look Down but
well,
alas, ;w; Can't have shit in Paris, I suppose
I'm like struggling to put my thoughts together and honestly I need to like, get ready for bed
but
heck, I'm just glad I gave the actual musical a watch, awoo ;w;
EDIT: Actually no I think it's really weird that a musical like this would play the love at first sight trope completely straight but like, it did???? IG??? Which like. Whatever, IG