UK Tour: Edinburgh 22/01/19

[laterrerayonnera]

First post ooo...

I saw the Edinburgh opening night of the tour yesterday! It was very distressing because we were of course viewing it as a glimpse into the future of the Queen’s Theatre rather than just as itself. In that regard, I have a lot of Opinions on the production/staging itself; but I don’t feel like writing about it just now, so here are some purely cast-based thoughts!

• COSETTE. Bronwen Hanson was so extremely cute. Her voice was nice, not particularly strong but mostly sweet and enjoyable, but her acting was ADORABLE. She also looked exactly Cosette’s age. She was bouncy and cheerful and very cute in her interactions with Valjean. I really loved her!!!
• speaking of Valjean, I don’t think I enjoyed Killian’s performance here as much as in London. eh. :/
• Nic Greenshields’ Javert was ok. His voice is reeeally good though. Very deep.
• Marius was also very cheerful a lot of the time. He was serious when necessary, though, and I liked him in ALFoR a lot; he looked really baffled and disturbed by her death rather than outright weeping like some do; there was no forehead kiss even. In general he was good and not my Fave Ever but interesting enough!
• This is not going in any sort of order.
• Katie Hall as Fantine was. idk. Fine. I wasn’t in love overall but some of that may be due to staging-related issues. I felt like she belted a bit much in IDaD and I ended up wishing she would use her own sweet voice a bit more. I did like her singing a lot more in everything after that, though. Acting-wise, okay but with some really nice bits, like a disbelieving laugh when Valjean is offering his help etc. Come To Me was very nice.
• ENJOLRAS. I honestly didn’t have much opinion of Will Richardson beforehand but he was impressive!!! His voice was good although a bit weak on some notes (noteably “free” but oh well). His acting was GREAT. Very occasionally he was smiling cheerily where it felt that he should be more serious, but in general I much preferred him smiling at all to certain Angry All The Time portrayals and it was usually a really genuine smile. It made him really likeable which. please. it’s important. He was also very tactile and there were SO many shoulder-clasps. So many. He was very supportive of Marius and firm but never aggressive. Red and Black was SO GOOD in my opinion. Rather than telling Marius off and treating him like a foolish baby he directed it more to everyone there in a sincere, “have you all thought seriously about this?” kind of way. It was nice. He had noticeable connections with at least Combeferre, Feuilly and Prouvaire and moments with others. His interaction with Grantaire was honestly some of the best I’ve seen I think? He very much Tolerated him and occasionally laughed along with him for approximately one second before being like okay, enough now. There were moments where I thought Oh No but then he would just help him up from the floor and then go back to business. He also has pretty hair. Basically I liked him a lot!
• The only reaction I didn’t enjoy of his was a weird awkward cry at Gavroche’s death. But Gavroche’s death was overall a very bizarre and awkward scene due in large part to. staging. so I forgive him for this.
• WAIT there was another thing which actually was garbage. A beggar woman approached him in Look Down when they’re distributing pamphlets and he purposefully did not give her money??? Again I’m sure that is directed but god it was bad.
• COMBEFERRE??? was Excellent??? Aaron Pryce-Lewis was genuinely wonderful. He had a nice interaction with Marius in his DYHtPS verse and many good exchanges with Enjolras. He was one of the last two or so left standing on the barricade; he was up next to Courfeyrac when Courfeyrac was killed, and dropped immediately and started like. frantically administering first aid and was trying to save him when he was shot himself. It was Very upsetting. I asked him about it at stage door and he said “Yeah, we put it in in rehearsals and then I realised on stage we’re fully in shadow at that point; I didn’t think even my mum would see it.”
• Also, he played Champmathieu and it is probably the first time ever I’ve seen a Champmathieu who could actually be mistaken for the Valjean. Nice.
• Nicholas Corre as Feuilly was wonderful!
• Brian James Leys was great as the bishop and in the ensemble in general. A Fave.
• Nobody was distractingly Bad or irritating which was a nice change; there is usually one at least. Overall it was a really nice cast.

I’m going again on Saturday, so I will update if I have any new thoughts o: