Last night I had the privilege of seeing my favorite musical, Les Miserables (edited to fit in the time alloted), at Community Players. It was the student version, which surprisingly left in all of the bad words and racy bits, and cut out some of the more repetitive and annoying parts. I was impressed. Jean Valjean was reasonably well-acted and well-voiced, though I could tell where his natural range stopped and his falsetto started. However, "Bring Him Home" hit me with a resonance I had not anticipated; it felt natural, even to someone like me who knows how very out of character that song actually is. Javert was a very good actor, with excellent facial expressions and powerful nonverbals. His singing voice was... not entirely unpleasant... but it wasn't all that full or powerful, which is what Javert's singing part really requires. Fantine was very good indeed. Her "I Dreamed a Dream" certainly sounded good, and it was very sad, but it wasn't exactly heartbreaking. Although her verse in "Lovely Ladies" was tragic and, in fact, heartbreaking. I liked the way she acted out the hallucinations in her death song, too. Eponine was quite good as well. "On My Own" was very good, both dreamily uplifting and sweetly sad. Her acting was also very good, with a roguish grin plastered on her face at all times, just as an Eponine should have. (Although her hat was gray. Eponine's hat is always, always brown. What the heck.) Erik Lehmkuhl's younger sister Laura was playing the Thenardiess (Madame Thenardier to some), and did so admirably. She was very funny and had a very nice voice, and I thought she made a lot of the scenes she was in. Thenardier was also very, very good, sounding very much like Alun Armstrong, whom you can hear as Thenardier on the Original London Cast and Tenth Anniversary Cast recordings. I was very glad they left in the part where Thenardier gets Cosette's name wrong; it was one of the things I liked best about the performance I saw at U of I back in high school. Little Cosette was very cute, with adorable blonde hair and a pretty smile. Her "Castle on a Cloud" was shorter than usual (due to the cuts), but this didn't bother me; I don't like "Castle on a Cloud" much. The production used the long version of "Little People," Gavroche's song. This surprised and pleased me greatly; I love the long version, and it has not been in common use to my knowledge since the Original London Cast back in 1985. Gavroche was really cute, too. His voice had to reach a little to hit those high notes, but he was really cute and enthusiastic. The actor playing Marius was none other than Kyle Holliday, the golden boy of Tri-Valley Talent Shows past. (Although he does look rather older than he did when I saw him singing "Wonderful" from Wicked.) He had a nice tenor, though rather nasal. This is actually quite typical of actors portraying Marius; I have no idea why. Cosette had a nice, lilting soprano. Oddly enough, she too was a bit nasal. This is also typical of actresses portraying Cosette. (On this note, please refrain from mentioning the name Tracey Shayne in my presence; I am likely to dig my nails into something or someone.) Quite possibly my favorite of the actors was Enjolras, the leader of the revolutionary students. Most productions give him an ugly black wig, though in the book he was blond, but this actor was a redhead, which made me smile. And he was excellent. Better by far than some of the actors on the recordings. The production made me cry a grand total of five, possibly six times. I cried when Fantine died. I cried when Eponine died. I cried when Gavroche died. I cried when the revolutionaries died (especially that amazing Enjolras). I cried when Valjean died. I can't remember whether or not I cried when Javert died, but I have a suspicion that I did. A roaring success. | 
