Bonjour, smut-monchichis! Just reporting back on the events of the weekend. Well, the Pam Ann show was OFF DA HOOK in the laughs department. It definitely kept the gals and the gays rollin' in stitches in the aisles. Watching the show from the front row was extra special, especially since she dubbed the first two rows as "first class". Hehe. But definitely, if Pam arrives in your city, you definitely need to purchase a ticket to fly aboard her AirBus of laughs.
But TODAY, I got to check out the regional production of
Les Miserables put on by the
Arts Club Theatre at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage... a production that I affectionately call "
Les Miz Lite". LOL. But all joking aside, they did an amazing job of this Broadway juggernaut on such a small stage... The production value was
top notch high. The actors were well casted. Two standouts though: the dudes who play Inspector Javert and Enjolras... AMAZING. And the guy who played Mr. 24601, aka. Jean Valjean, had nice vocals... he definitely brought it home with his rendition of, you guessed it,
Bring Him Home.
Now all positivity aside, you know I'm gonna hone in on the flaws... Shut up, you LOVE it, smutlings! LOL. But to tell you the truth, I only have two major ones... well, maybe two and a half. ;-) One gripe I really had with the production was that due to space constraints, the music was piped in over the loudspeakers from the orchestra musicians making sweet, sweet muziks in an unused store room in the back of the theatre. I remember having this problem when they did the same thing with their previous staging of the other Schonberg/Boublil mega-musical,
Miss Saigon, a few years back. The sound was very tin-can sounding, like it was playing from
those cheap, white iPod earbuds an AM radio somewhere backstage, and at times it competed with the miked vocals, which made it hard to hear what the actors were sing-speaking. Not so great when you need HUGE sounding orchestrations highlighting the dramatic moments of the show. But the rousing ensemble performances, with their voices soaring to great heights during the more dramatic showstopping moments, made up for the craptacular acoustics of the piped-in orchestrations.
The other mini-fail is what I like to refer as the "Arts Club requisite End of Act Two cheesy special effect moment". If any of y'all saw their mounting of
Disney's Beauty and the Beast and recall the transformation scene, you know what I'm talking about... yeah, absolute fromage that REEKED! PEEEEEEE UUUUUU, that was bad! Now without spoiling what it was in this show... let's just say it involves Javert somehow... and like Javert's fate, you know it ain't pretty...
(The half gripe I had was with Eponine. She could hit the notes, but she was a bit too squeaky for my taste. As in mouse-squeaky. Now Cosette, on the other hand... her voice was IMMACULATE! GORGEOUS! Now gurls, based on pristine vocal ability, you can see why Marius picked Cosette over Eponine... well, besides being
a hotter piece of ass prettier than Eponine. Plus Cosette had money, whereas Eponine was broke-ass. Yep, you do the math. You know it's true.)
But yeah, go see the show. See it to support a great cast, and to support local theatre. See it cuz you'll actually hear that f*cking overplayed Susan Boyle song that has been smeared all over the interweb in its theatrical context, and you may shed a tear or two. Or you might just laugh at the cheesetastic end-of-Act-Two special effect moment (I know we all did! HAHA!) or at the musical meloDRAMA-lama that only Schonberg and Boublil can dish out on stage! Much fun for all!
Click
HERE to buy tickets for Les Miz, or for any of the Arts Club shows!
Alas, how I wish my life were a musical... But life has killed the dream I dreamed. Ugh.
Adieu for now, mes amis!
Master(of the house)Jay
