Les Misérables in the West End

After buying tickets months ago, Wednesday night was the night when I got to see Les Misérables at Queen's Theatre in London! For anyone unknowing (which cannot be a large number anymore), the London production of Les Misérables follows the original designs for costume, staging, orchestrations and set.
Queen's Theatre is a much smaller than I expected. Even though it has a lot of seats, in width and length the auditorium feels smaller than in my local theatre. However, the size of the stage and the grandeur of the theatre was overwhelming after such a long time of only ever seeing shows at the O2 Arena and my local theatre. The show was wonderful, as expected, yet all my specific expectations were well exceeded.

Seeing the costumes live was so exciting for me as someone interested in costume! This is of course the bit that is most relevant to my blog - I felt the need to add the rest to make the review feel more complete and to tell more of my experience! The designs and colour schemes worked together perfectly, as all costumers aim to achieve in their designs. Andreane Neofitou's original designs, obviously still being used, are complemented well by the lighting and match the scenery as needed. I don't know what comments to give on most costumes other than: they work! Fantine's first costume, an empire line dress, matched the blue factory apron and cap. Cosette's black dress does not match her book clothing, but works well in the musical, and I always think how well the line 'So dark, so dark and deep, the secrets that you keep' in 'In My Life' goes with the dress, almost making me think the costume may represent her life sheltered from her and Valjean's pasts. Valjean's costumes show his change from convict to respectable man. Javert's costumes may show the change in his status as a police officer.

Jean Valjean was played by Gerónimo Rauch. His voice reflected the acting, and like many members of the cast, he had such a stage presence that is one of the things I knew I would see in the West End, and makes the performance so much more enjoyable to watch.
Tam Mutu was in the role of Javert, and like Gerónimo Rauch, he had a fantastic singing voice and his acting was wonderful.
Celinde Schoenmaker has had the part of Fantine for a little over a month, and if her performance last night was anything like her other performances then I hope people will think of her as one of the best Fantines! Her singing was filled with emotion whilst still sounding great technically, and her acting did bring me to tears - she performed her death scene very well, showing Fantine's declined health perfectly.
Thénardier played by Cameron Blakely along with Vicky Entwistle as Madame Thénardier gave the comical touch we expect to see in the Thénardiers, keeping in character even when Madame Thénardier's dress at the wedding accidentally swished a fork into the orchestra pit. Cameron Blakely sung well, and Vicky Entwistle seemed to embrace the character of Madame Thénardier very well, and although at times it felt a little too much as her voice was slightly raspy and it she didn't quite reach a few notes, the performance was still hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable.
Samantha Dorsey played Cosette beautifully: her voice was sweet and she gave the character an energy I didn't expect to see, and she made Cosette sparkle.
Marius was played by Jamie Ward who played the character very well - like Celine Schoenmaker's Fantine, I hope fans notice Jamie Ward's Marius and add it to their list of favourites. In my opinion, somehow during 'A Heart Full of Love', he showed the nervousness I think Marius feels at the beginning of that point whilst maintaining a stage presence (I'm sure many actors and actresses can do this perfectly well but I will always wonder how someone can act nervous and still have their acting carry so largely).
Danielle Hope's Éponine was a nice surprise for me. I remember seeing her on the BBC show 'Over the Rainbow' and disliking her. However she removed the Disney-princess feel I think some people expect of Éponine, and added in the slightly crazy and obsessive side of Éponine usually only seen when reading the book. Her singing was fantastic and I obviously enjoyed her acting very much!
Christopher Jacobsen sung and acted well as Enjolras, giving the charisma needed in the role. The students all showed an admiration for his Enjolras, and they also performed wonderfully. The rest of the ensemble worked well, and all looked and sounded perfect. I got to see Isabelle Allen, the recent film's Young Cosette, as Young Cosette live! It was amazing to see how well she has adapted from stage, to screen, to stage. My 9 year old self was massively jealous of how talented she is. I regret to say I did not catch who was playing Gavroche in the performance I saw, however whoever it was, they were brilliant!

After the show finished, my friends and I decided we'd like to go to the stage door to get photos with our favourites from the cast - some must have slipped away before we managed to get there, but we did get photos with Gerónimo Rauch and Jamie Ward, however, which I was really pleased about! They were so pleasant about it - they seemed quite flattered! I was worried they'd think it a bit odd as not as many people go to the stage door afterwards as I previously thought (bleurgh, misconceptions!). I was thrilled that I got to do that and it certainly added to the theatre experience!

I feel very lucky in the next part of my Les Misérables obsession. Many of the current cast have their final performances on Saturday 15th June - two days after my birthday! So my mother and sister have agreed that we can make that my birthday 'celebration' this year (other than me meeting up with a few friends) and we booked tickets for it! Ah, now I'll get overexcited about that, bother.

Hopefully in my next blog post I'll be doing a continuation of Old-Fashioned Charm's Period Drama Challenge, which I have been unable to do any more reviews for due to GCSE Textiles coursework. My first deadline is in one week....