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....

Les Misérables: Beautiful.

I guess this counts as a period film so here goes my first review in the Period Reviews Challenge! Warning: may contain spoilers.

Les Misérables well exceeded my expectations. I knew it was going to be a gorgeous film, but the locations, sets, costumes, acting... everything was just amazing.
Anne Hathaway as Fantine was one of my favourite things in the film. I remember when everyone heard she was playing Fantine, there were some people who grumbled. Even I was a bit skeptical. However, she played it wonderfully, and I was sobbing as soon as she began to sing 'There was a time when men were kind...'. Fantine's death scene was so emotional. In the stage version, she says she can see Cosette, but in the film, she actually did. 
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean was well cast, and well performed. He sang brilliantly, and his acting was believable. Russell Crowe's Javert was in tune but possibly a bit blandly acted, however I heard that one of the parts that made me cry the most was a moment suggested by Crowe himself to be added. If you've seen it, you know the moment I mean! Amanda Seyfried's Cosette was sweet and prettily sung, and her acting at the end was probably what made me start to cry rather loudly (it didn't matter, I wasn't the only one by then). Marius, played by Eddie Redmayne, was acted VERY well by Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Marius as a faithful rebel, whilst also being completely love-struck by Cosette, and he showed his obliviousness to Éponine's feelings very realistically. Aaron Tveit was a fantastic Enjolras. In my opinion, he captured Enjolras' revolutionary, rebellious spirit near to perfectly, and his singing was very, very good. Samantha Bark's feature film debut was perfection. She has always been my favourite Éponine (25th Anniversary Concert) however she adapted to film acting smoothly and her singing was full of raw emotion. Colm Wilkinson, the Original London Cast Jean Valjean, played the Bishop of Digne, and of course his singing was top-notch. Isabelle Allen was an adorable Young Cosette, her acting was wonderful and her singing was a delight to listen to. She has of course also been in the part on the West End, but like Sam Barks, made the transition to film smoothly. Daniel Huttlestone's Gavroche was funny at the right parts, and his death was well done. His singing was brilliant.
The set was lovely to look at. Having seen the behind-the-scenes featurettes on Youtube, I knew that a lot of it was just a set, but I completely forgot whilst watching the film. The streets of Paris came alive on screen, at least for me they did. The locations chosen for the rest of the filming were beautiful and fitting. The docks at the beginning were dramatic and added to he music's effect. 
The film was put together brilliantly. The dates were shown every time there was a time skip. The editing really added to it - a lot of solos were filmed for most of the song looking at the actor's/actress' face. The barricade shots were wonderful - the barricade scenes in general were moving, and the end of the barricade section of the film in general was heartbreaking.

Now onto the costumes! Oh man, the costumes. There was a featurette on the costumes but I'm going to give my opinions anyway. 
Fantine's pink dress stood out from the rest of the factory workers once they'd taken their blue aprons and caps off. The prostitutes scenes showed her stripped down to her undergarments, and she looked vulnerable. The change from white undergarments to red showed, for me, her transition from someone who has life problems but had been getting by, into someone who was ruined. This transition happened after 'Dreamed a Dream' - no coincidence there, then! When in the hospital she was back in a plain white dress, showing that she would be at peace soon, and when her spirit returned at the end, when Valjean was dying, she was still in this plain white dress, but looked happy, as if she had been at peace for a long time.

Valjean's convict clothes at the beginning were rough and harsh looking, and changing into the smart early 19th century clothing was such a transition that my friend didn't realise who he was until the same time Javert thought he was like Valjean... what can I say? Then in the end scene, his blanket looked cosy, but he looked very uncomfortable at the same time, making it even sadder to watch.


Javert's police uniform changed with his rank and time period, keeping to a colour palette of blues and black. What he wore when spying looked a tad modern to me, however I know very little about fashions of those times - all I can say is that he also looked like a very suspicious character in those clothes and I certainly wouldn't have trusted him to 'spy' for my side of the Barricade! I was unsure of what his red medal was for as I am a tad unacquainted with that sort of thing, however his placing it on Gavroche's lifeless body sent me into a crying frenzy - was that him honouring the little urchin with his own medal of what I assume is honour, and the first sign of his breaking down? I am unsure but it struck me nonetheless.

Éponine's costumes showed her harsh life very well. Her first costume showed her as being rough but her thin shawl was soaked threw as it rained during "On My Own", emphasising her fragile emotions. You then saw her binding herself up to wear boy's clothes and join the barricade, which I think was very effective, as in the musical she wears the same blouse under her coat with trousers and her hair stuffed into a hat - the blouse always ruins it for me! She was wearing full male clothing and I think that showed how far she was willing to go to join Marius at the barricade.



The costumes designed for Cosette were wonderful. The large 1830s dress and bonnet at the beginning showed her social status - quite well off, showing the change in positions between Éponine and Cosette even more clearly. Her white nightgown and dressing gown were pure and pretty, and made the romanticism of "In my Life/A Heart Full of Love" into the innocent and sweet love that the scene displays. The rest of her dresses were very pretty, and I loved the wedding gown.
Marius and Enjolras had lovely looking costumes. The costume featurette says that the blue of Eddie Redmayne's trousers matches his eyes. The red jacket worn by Enjolras matched the red flag and emphasised that he was the main rebel in the uprising. The students' cockades added to the revolutionary sense (I actually made one and pinned it onto my jacket to wear to cinema!).


The Thénardier's costumes were extravagant and added to the comedy. They were always changing what they were wearing to match the situations, but never blended with the crowds. I thought this worked VERY well. 
The poor and Gavroche's clothes looked just right to me. They seemed to fit in with the time period and the situations. The extras blended into the scenes well with their costumes, and their costumes added to the grimey looking streets of Paris really made the sense of how poor these people were more realistic to me.

I'm sure there are plenty more things I could talk about - other actors, different settings, situations, costumes - but I simply cannot form my thoughts into written words, there are so many whirling around my head! But I can say that Les Misérables was the best film I have seen for a long time, and even though I had to wait until today to see it (damn being British!) it was well worth the wait. The amount I cried expressed just how happy I was to watch it, I think!

Other Reviews: The Young Victoria (2009); The Phantom of the Opera (2004); Marie Antoinette (2006)

Les Misérables fangirling

Update!
Look what I got:

Us UK'ers may have to wait until this Friday to see it (eep!) but they published a "Collector's Booklet" in a Sunday newspaper. I actually woke up before noon to go out and get it from the local supermarket. Gasp.

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As much as I'm looking forward to Les Misérables for the costumes, I am a massive fan of both the book and musical so I'm mainly looking forward to it just because of what it is! Not to mention the cast. Samantha Barks as Éponine - if you don't know who she is, you need to watch the 25th Anniversary Concert, as she's the Éponine in that as well.  I know plenty of people who are excited about Hugh Jackman taking the lead role of Jean Valjean but I can't really comment as I've never watched anything he's been in. However in the featurettes and clips on Youtube it certainly looks like he's going to be brilliant. Then Eddie Redmayne as Marius, and from watching the 'A Heart Full Of Love' clip on Youtube, I think he'll be amazing (and rather lovely to look at....).

I haven't read any of the reviews for it yet because if I want to see something (and I really want to see this), sometimes bad reviews can put me off and I don't enjoy watching it as much, as I'm trying to work out which parts of it that the reviews were saying weren't so good. I've heard from lots of people that there aren't great reviews. My aunt said she'd read a review for it which said that it's great doing this and making a big deal out of it and everything, but it would have worked better if the actors could actually sing. I found that a bit ridiculous because I highly doubt the director (Tom Hooper) would have chosen a cast that couldn't sing for this. 
I'm very fortunate this week as I have GCSE mock exams for school, and my last on the Friday is art. My teacher has set me a very easy picture to do as I'm known for taking my time completing tasks, despite the fact we have 10 hours altogether. I'm certain I'm going to have finished before the Friday exam session, so I'm going to take advantage of my study leave and go to my nearest cinema to watch their first screening of Les Misérables with a friend at 3.30pm! I'm hoping the first screening is going to be full of Les Misérables crazy fans like myself. Just to embarrass my friend, I'm going to be using my breaks between revision whilst on study leave to make a musical-style Enjolras waistcoat to wear to the screening!

25th Anniversary Concert Enjolras

Finally, I'd like to mention something that I read about here. There's a possibility of an extended edition of Les Misérables (I'm guessing on the DVD)! Read about why on the page I've linked. Mention this on anything you can - Twitter (#lesmisextended), in a blog post (like I have here!), I guess even things like art on deviantART (as well as dA journals!) and Youtube videos. Spread the word, show the fan support, and as they said on the deviantART group journal I linked - join the crusade! There's also a petition to sign!

I promise I'll try not to do any more blog posts with only 2-day gaps - I was just too excited about all things Les Misérables to contain myself after reading about the possibility of an extended edition. 

Costume Christmas!

On Saturday I returned from visiting my relatives in Shropshire! I had an amazing Christmas and received so many costume-related presents. Two things I'll need to take photos of to be able to explain, so I will do that later on in the week (I need to find my camera charger, grrr).
Here's a list of the costume related books I received:



-Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold. If you're into costuming and haven't heard of this book, you really ought to look it up! I've known about it for a while and I've been told multiple times that it's a necessity. A couple of patterns in it have cuaght my attention and I know that I'm going to have to make them soon.
-Costume: 1066 to the Present by John Peacock. It's an absolutely beautiful book. There's very little writing, however the illustrations are clear and wonderful to look at. I know it'll be both a useful book and a source of inspiration of any costumes I may make in the future.

-Costume 101 by Richard La Motte. I've had a read through some of the chapters and it explains the role of a costumier, what details are needed in costume designs, and other things like that. It's an interesting read!

As I mentioned above, I had two other costuming-related presents for Christmas, which I will make a blog post about at some point over the next week.

For Christmas I was also given the two les Misérables concerts - 10th at the Royal Albert Hall, and 25th at the O2 - on DVDs. I've already watched them online but now that I have them on DVD I can watch them more easily, plus I can watch all the special features!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and if you haven't welcomed in the New Year yet (here in the UK we haven't!) I hope you have a fantastic New Year, and if you're already in 2013 I hope it's already shaping up to be brilliant! See you all in 2013 for my next blog post!



Too Excited!

I'm so excited for Les Misérables! I decided to make a countdown clock for myself and any readers who are Les Misérables fans in the UK. Enjoy!

COUNTINGDOWNTO.COM

Oh, and Merry Christmas, as I will not be here next Sunday, and possibly not the Sunday after either! I'll be in Shropshire, where I hope it will snow for Christmas day! I also hope I'll get lots of sewing patterns to practice my sewing skills and learn more about clothing constrtuction, plus I have asked for a lot of books on historical fashion and costuming, of which I am bound to get a couple at least!

See you in a couple of weeks!


My favourite official Les Mis movie still - from the official film website