Les Miserables - The Staged Concert

I was referring to the details that I'm pretty sure came about from Earl's personal acting choices, as I'd never seen Michael do any of those before yesterday. Michael created the role of Marius, sure, and he may very well have had input in how a Javert should act overall, or even how Roger Allam interpreted the role. My issue was not with Michael doing standard Javert acting or Alfie finally doing standard Valjean acting (that's literally their one job), but with them adding certain physical movements or vocal emphases here and there that I only ever recognised coming from the other pair. I don't appreciate you dismissing what I personally observed and understood over the course of multiple shows these few months.

Also, I'm not criticising Alfie/Michael for the sake of putting them down- I simply wanted to describe their contrasts in more concrete terms rather than involve myself in the usual "he had a great voice and who are you to say he didn't act" argument. Will you more happily accept it if I used the term "inspired" instead of "lifted"? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all and I am glad at least some of the leads have learnt from their understudies and vice versa. I would gladly accept any criticism of John/Earl if you would provide any, instead of empty attacks on what is my personal opinion, or putting down my preferred actors for being simply "understudies" (and therefore no matter how good they are, they aren't the leads, end of discussion).

Just because the run has finished doesn't mean we have to stop comparing and analysing. Maybe that's our difference. I enjoy Les Mis as an art form to be praised at times and picked apart at other times, not a one-time spectacle for tweeting about seeing certain stars. Maybe this forum isn't the right place and audience for it but I do think this kind of discussion and constant re-examination is what will keep the show relevant and its acting fresh. 

This concert production has been a perfect venture for Cammack, I don't doubt it. It's tapped into today's celebrity worship culture and balanced it with an crowdpleaser MT production- who wouldn't flock to see it? But this approach won't last forever. The next time Boe/Ball/Lucas are absent together, there will probably be an actual revolt outside DMT's offices- now wouldn't that be poetic justice.

Alas, the genuine discussion and thought-provoking counterarguments I was hoping for did not appear, and my comments found "tiresome".

From comments I have seen on social media it seems one of the biggest winners of this run is Bradley Jaden, who seems to have gained a whole new army of fans/admirers!

shady23, I think it is absolutely fine not to be dissapointed by Alfe's JVJ. But what I, and a few others, would love to hear is a more detailed analysis or explanation of why you found his JVJ to be outstanding, other than just saying, "his voice is great". It is a genuine question to all of you out there who rate Alfie's portrayal of JVJ hightly. What do you think make Alfie's JVJ so great?

Personally, I have only seen him twice at the O2 and again twice at the Queens and will have to wait till Saturday to see his performance in the latest run. In the past, he always left me cold, but I will go with an open mind this Satruday and try to write my review here if anyone is interested.

I will not go on about JOJ's quality as a performer since 141920grm and Dave25 have already described it so very beautifully. But I will say this again that I believe being able to point out an actor's/show's/producer's shortcomings, when there are shortcomings, without being called names is very important on a forum like this one. At the end of the day, I presume we all want the theatre industry to keep thriving both commercially and artistically. I realise it could be a difficult balance to strike; commercial gain and/or artistic standards. But then again, that's why it's intersting to share all sorts of different opinions here.

Of course you or anyone else can have an opinion on an actors/shows shortcomings, but why not state your opinion once, instead of repeating it over and over. and over.

I believe this is what we call “debating”.

Miz asked a genuine question: can those who rate Alfie’s JVJ break down the reasons why, beyond “he has a great voice”? Maybe “he has a great voice” is enough for you. That’s totally fine. You could just say that.

And I know things often get heated around here, but probably we could all do with paying close attention to which posts we ‘like’. Sometimes a bullying tone can develop on this forum and ganging up on others isn’t a great look for a place where we can generally have robust but respectful debates.

As for shortcomings of this semi-staged version, I have stated my views in bits of bobs in this thread alreaday, but due to popular demand, I will repeat them before I go to see the screening tomorrow. 

I agree it is all a bit of a redundant argument isn’t it? Explaining why you like something, or one thing over another can be very hard. Sometimes it’s just a case of “I just liked it better”. And let’s face it no one is required to justify their personal preferences to anyone here.

I saw Alfie in it live, and wasn’t that fussed. Saw him at the cinema Monday and liked him much more. No idea if he had nicked anyone’s acting choices but it seems a tad unlikely. Maybe he was just feeling better after taking some time off? When I saw JOJ which was the 25 tour so a long time ago, he just stunned me. They’re both good, but different. Looking forward to seeing Dean Chisnall’s take on it next year!

Sorry to have posted a redundant argument above. It was in response to a post saying I had never expressed my own views. You can delete it if necessary.


But if you remember, this argument was rekindled when 141920grm gave a very honest answer to your qeustion "Genuine question, and honestly no snark intended at all, but why have you seen it 14 times? You don’t seem to rate any of the leads particularly highly?
" , wasn't it?

My question to 141920grm was about why they would go to see a show so many times when they weren’t keen on the leads and they answered that very clearly by saying they had preferences for certain performers/alternates and that was who they’d been going to see. 

I wasn’t rekindling any arguments. I asked a genuine question and got an answer.  I do think that asking people to justify a preference is redundant if they just happen to prefer one over the other because that genuinely is sometimes the only reason. If you want to have a technical discussion about the merits of one performer over another then you’re definitely in the right place, but I don’t think you can expect everyone who expresses a preference to be willing and/or able to explain it to you. 

I just watched a few scenes, Rob Houchen was a bit shouty during ECAET, wasn't he? Shame, he always sang it impeccably when I saw him live.