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Les Miserables 2010
Jul. 23rd, 2012 08:34 pm3/5. Do we really need another recording of Les Miserables? WHY YES. YES WE DO. Um. Okay. Really we don't. But quite frankly if they recorded it every month I'd probably listen to it, as long as I could listen to it for free. (Hi, Spotify!)
Lots of little bits that were cut from the original to, I guess, make the whole thing shorter -- mostly snippets of dialogue that would presumably not be missed by anyone by me (as a result of listening to the Complete Symphonic Recording (CSR) constantly as a child, I did notice all of them), although I feel like the Javert-Valjean dialogue cut right before "Who am I" makes it likely no one can understand what's going on unless she's read the book -- and I laughed when I found "Little People" had mostly been cut -- and why would you cut the intro to Valjean's confession to Marius? This way it makes no sense!
Although I definitely like the Broadway and CSR actors better in general (Terrence Mann will always be Javert to me, and Anthony Warlow will always always be Enjolras, and Michael Ball will always and forever be Marius), I felt that in general the actors were just fine here. Eponine might even have been better (I must confess that none of the previous Eponines have really gelled with me). Although Cosette and Marius seem to be in a battle to make this as OMG DRAMATIC as humanly possible, perhaps they wish they'd been cast in the Ring cycle or something, and drag down as many of their fellow actors as possible (Valjean seems totally fine -- both his Bring Him Home and the reprise are pretty fantastic -- until either Cosette and Marius shows up, at which point he suddenly BECOMES ALL DRAMATIC; same with Eponine).
So, not worth buying I'd say, but worth listening to once on Spotify if you're batty about Les Miz like I am, just to see a different interpretation (and in the case of Cosette and Marius, ZOMG HOW DRAMATIC can it get), and maybe as preparation for the movie ;)
Lots of little bits that were cut from the original to, I guess, make the whole thing shorter -- mostly snippets of dialogue that would presumably not be missed by anyone by me (as a result of listening to the Complete Symphonic Recording (CSR) constantly as a child, I did notice all of them), although I feel like the Javert-Valjean dialogue cut right before "Who am I" makes it likely no one can understand what's going on unless she's read the book -- and I laughed when I found "Little People" had mostly been cut -- and why would you cut the intro to Valjean's confession to Marius? This way it makes no sense!
Although I definitely like the Broadway and CSR actors better in general (Terrence Mann will always be Javert to me, and Anthony Warlow will always always be Enjolras, and Michael Ball will always and forever be Marius), I felt that in general the actors were just fine here. Eponine might even have been better (I must confess that none of the previous Eponines have really gelled with me). Although Cosette and Marius seem to be in a battle to make this as OMG DRAMATIC as humanly possible, perhaps they wish they'd been cast in the Ring cycle or something, and drag down as many of their fellow actors as possible (Valjean seems totally fine -- both his Bring Him Home and the reprise are pretty fantastic -- until either Cosette and Marius shows up, at which point he suddenly BECOMES ALL DRAMATIC; same with Eponine).
So, not worth buying I'd say, but worth listening to once on Spotify if you're batty about Les Miz like I am, just to see a different interpretation (and in the case of Cosette and Marius, ZOMG HOW DRAMATIC can it get), and maybe as preparation for the movie ;)
