Bon anniversaire ma cherie (in a red vest of certain death)

Oh my, this has been a long time coming.  2 months and 25 days to be exact.  October 3rd 2010 - where were you on that momentous Sunday evening?? It is a date truly burned into the consciousness of the theatrefairies because.............WE WERE THERE!!! 

Oh yes.  Up in the nosebleed section of the 02, oxygen required, binoculars optional, somewhat lightheaded, but WE WERE THERE!!!!!!!!!! 

We wanted to wait for the release of the DVD to get together and put a little something down for posterity.  Within the space of but a week, we had seen Total Mizery - the original Queens production, the tour at the Barbican (with Cammack LITERALLY LOOKING OVER OUR SHOULDERS and .....CRYING!!!! Oh yes, nothing gets past us Mr Mack you big softie!!) and the all singing, all dancing, all marching 02 partay spectacular.  So we had some mixed up Miz memories.  All good of course, it is the Miz after all.

Getting hold of the DVD should have been a foregone conclusion of course.  This being easily the most historic event either of us has ever attended, we were fully confident that our family & friends, having been bored to tears by our tales of joy from our Miz adventures, would come through with the goods and supply at least 3 copies in our stockings.  One for weekdays, one for Sunday best, and one for highdays & holidays.  BUT NO.   Do they not know us AT ALL????????  Thankfully, at least Karinas brother-in-laws emergency Christmas Eve "What shall I get her?" phonecall yielded the golden ticket.  Had that not been the case, this would be one very short blog entry.  In fact, we would be sulking until New Year at least.




 
But, thanks to brother Gordon we have just re-experienced the unadulterated joy, emotion and all round fabulousness of the concert of the century.  Oh oh ooooooh.  Aaaargh.  Lots of that.  Sadly we didn`t see ourselves in the crowd, despite our photogenic tears at the end, but watching again on TV afforded us other pleasures:  playing spot the cast member among the choir and ensemble, drinking in the unbelievable emotion of Lea Salonga`s performance, being stirred into revolution by Mr Karimloo, spotting Alfie Boes tears (real) at the end, the sleaze of Jeff Nicholson`s factory foreman, the cheekiness of Gavroche.  All close up and pausable/rewindable.  Handsomejavert.  Dentallychallengedthenardier.  So many highlights.  AND MICHAEL BALL.

Incidentally, Michael. It is past boxing day (see previous blog entry from October) and we assume our invite for boxing day fun and frolics got lost somewhere in the snowy ether. But not to worry. Any Sunday will do. We make a mean roast. And there's always New Years Eve...

Of course, we should probably be going into a bit more detail by now, but we are still reeling from the utter fantisticness of the entire production and find ourselves constantly starting sentences with "...oh, and do you remember when Ramin..." so we need to try and focus. Pour another glass of vodka and focus. Probably easiest to do this by what were the highlights for us, and believe us, there were many! A special mention to the smartest man at the O2, the happiest of conductors we have ever had the opportunity to bump into, David Charles Abell. Cheers!!!

The Atmosphere
Electrifying. From the minute we walked through the door and saw people being interviewed for posterity, to queuing up for our souvenir programmes (and keyrings) to having a drink in the pub before taking our seats in the auditorium, having failed to swipe a few choir passes from unsuspecting ensemble members (we would have been good too, trust us on this) and initially, being shocked at HOW HIGH UP we were. Would we see anything at all?? The answer is OH YES. We saw everything. Beautifully. In full technicolour  and with surround sound because WE WERE THERE. From the tuning up of the orchestra to the ticker tape ending we breathed in every moment and committed it to memory because we're like that and WE WERE THERE. Seriously, right there. And now on a DVD as well, our hollers and applause have been recorded. How proud are we!!! Actually, we are. We were so proud to be part of something that spectacular that will stay with us forever. Honest truth.

The Moooooooooosic
We love Les Mis, and we know every note by heart, but nothing - NOTHING - prepares you for hearing it truly soar with the aid of a full orchestra.  The first time we experienced this was at Earl`s garden party with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and added fireworks, Joy, sheer joy.  But this was bigger, better, louder, and brought us to sobbing.  Our favourite part is undoubtedly the post massacre sur le barricade scene -  the single oboe and poignant harp - building up to the strings (where Deadjolras is usually revealed in the white light of doom, hanging upside down from le barricade) is possibly one of the most beautiful melodies ever.  EVER.   And it will be played at Karinas wedding, inappropriate possibly, fact nonetheless.  The orchestration on the night was beyond-belief beautiful, and nothing quite prepares you for the full impact of this wonderful score, played by a full orchestra, with the backing of 300 singers from the West End.  (It needed an extra couple of altos, but hey....) It truly filled the cavernous O2 - and that takes some doing.  Those who spend their time and energy bemoaning changes in orchestration, or complaining that the celebrations are "too shiny" or "too commercial" simply need to shut the hell up.  This was one night, one amazing performance, and one huge celebration which did nothing but help us all remember how very special Les Mis is.  It takes nothing away from the smaller / original production - which is of course still wonderful, so we can feel nothing but pity for anyone who did not allow themselves to drink it in and appreciate it as a one off.  Just because you love jaffa cakes (and they will always be delicious) it doesn`t mean you can`t appreciate the occasional gateaux with extra cherries & cream on top.

Les Valjeans
The main man of the night appeared to be Alfie Boe, and it was a tour de force from him - if not really to our discerning taste.  On the DVD he has been put most definitely centre stage, where the real star is the score - but there is no denying he can sing.  His voice is effortless, and soared above the orchestra at times - which was a feat in itself.  We have only 2 quibbles with Mr Boe: (1.) his Italian operatic annunciation leading him to cut his vowels short and leap to the vibrato a touch too soon for our liking, and (2.) technically perfect, but in being so perfect the rawness of Valjean is lost - 2 4 6 0 .........oooooooooone - should be a yell of bitterness, anger, emotion, anguish - not a lesson in how to hit a note with perfect breathing.  But we liked him.  He was good.  And if Mr Mack wouldn`t let us have Drew Sarich, we have to take what we are given.
The other boys - Colm Wilkinson, Simon Bowman, and John Owen-Jones joined Mr Boe for the finale in a kind of Valjean remixed presentation of Bring Him Home.  We loved it - and were sooooo glad WE WERE THERE but the arrangement highlighted Alfie Boe again, where we would have loved a bit more Welsh Valjean.  But there you go, twas still good.  Brought a tear or two, even up in the Gods - and much as Colm is not our Valjean, he is a legend and to have seen him sing this live should satisfy our musical theatre souls.



 Fantine
As you might have already gathered, we are somewhat fangirlish about Lea Salonga and her frankly bloody amazing vocal chords. Not only does she sing beautifully, she has so much control it's almost unbelievable. she could give masterclasses to budding musical actresses. We often struggle to find female singers that are to our liking; female stage voices are frequently screechy/nasal (Think Denise van Outen) or a bit thin and reedy. Lea has such a perfectly rounded voice, you understand every word she says. Added to that is a superb acting ability. She 'feels' every single song, every word. For goodness' sake, she CRIES while she sings, if the role requires it, and it doesn't look artificial, but heartbreaking! Seriously, we have nothing but admiration for this woman and her performance. Her Fantine in this concert was, if possible, even better than her Eponine in the TAC. Atta girl. We like her a lot!!!!!





 
Enjolras
We thought we might miss David Thaxton a lot. Granted; he was shown quite a bit on the big screen and our hearts silently wept as we both knew his voice and stage presence would have had the 30 000 marching straight out of the O2 towards the Rue de Villette. It wasn't to be, as he was busy being passionate with a stalker, poor boy. But we got the feeling Cammack has plenty of warm fuzzy memories of his flaxen haired hell raiser! So, on to the other choice who turned out to be a thing of revolutionary, rifle waving joy. Ramin Karimloo, a raven haired Phantomic presence stood tall (?) amongst the harmoniously rebellious amis. A quick pointer for the casting directors of the future Les Mis movie; OI!!!! The camera ADORES Ramin Karimloo. Seriously, throughout the dvd, every time the camera pans across the stage, his chiseled features ramp up the sex appeal of the entire cast (which wasn't exactly lacking!) by about 50%. And it can't all be the vest and the wristbands, can it. No, Ramin just has it. Yes, we love a pretty theatre boy. But even more than that, we love to sit back in the knowledge that whatever sound leaves a performers throat will be solid, exciting and spine-tinglingly spectacular. And when Ramin lets rip he ties our stomachs in knots and sets the butterflies loose. David Thaxton does this as well, but he has a different tone to his voice. Ramin is a belter,  David slightly more  operatic baritone (hence he'd make a superb Javert of the future). having said all of this, anyone putting on the red and gold 'shoot me' vest of certain death is pretty much always a winner in our eyes, but we have been proper spoiled by seeing two of the very best of the vest. Jon Robyns, bless him, deserves a mention as the Enjolras we would be most likely to send home and stop being silly at the barricade. We like Jon but he was miscast...Killian Donnelly we have yet to witness in this part, but judging by his Courfeyrac on the night, we think he will do a splendid job. And his twitters make us smile a lot.

The original 1985 cast
Almost missed due to Karina's almost uncontrollable screaming at the sight of Michael Ball. No she isn't dangerous. Or on medication. Just passionate. Moving on. How completely amazing it was to see them. We were too young in those days to have been able to take in the show and witness these spectacular performances. How many of them seem to have discovered the elixir of youth (yes, Frances Ruffelle and Rebecca Caine, we are thinking about you!) and sound note perfectly wonderful. Michael Ball will always be our middle aged Marius. By his own admission he is built for comfort, however his place WAS THERE and he FIGHTS WITH US. Never was a line more diva-ishly delivered or more truly spoken!!! He was the ANTI JONAS. What? What could we possibly mean? Well. Nick Jonas. Bless him. Looks the part. can hold a tune at a whisper. But he is at least five years of theatrical stage experience away from being able to do this part full justice. He gave it his best but he was woefully miscast and he knew it; it was written all over his face. We felt his fellow performers were incredibly generous and supportive of him but there was no disguising the comparison between trained and experienced performers and this poor boy who was very much out of his depth. We wish Nick all the luck in the world but wish to God Cammack had kept him out of this production as through no fault of his own he became the talking point for all the wrong reasons.


It would be easy but far too time consuming to go through every aspect of every performance. we could go on forever. We very nearly nearly didn't go as we were playing hard to get and practical for the first time in a long time, but decided at the last minute to remortgage our houses, sell our children and possessions and live on the never never and pot noodles for a few years. Yes it was overpriced. Yes it was hyped. Yes it was star studded. Yes it was crowded. Yes there was a tube strike on. Yes it was a Sunday night and a school night and we both had work in the morning. Yes we were tired. But was it worth it?

YES.
Because, quite simply, we can say WE WERE THERE. So there.

And for those who weren`t and have yet to get the DVD......

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