Deserving of two Best Actor nods

I just got back from seeing Frost/Nixon. I had been intrigued by the play, but never saw it, and by the time it came to DC, the movie was so close to opening that I decided to save myself a bunch of money and just see the movie. Plus, Michael Sheen. Also, I saw it for free because my dad paid for it. Win win!

The movie was very good. Gripping story, excellent acting all around (just watch their eyebrows; it's phenomenal). It's amazing how tense I get watching movies like this. I mean, I know what Nixon will ultimately say, but I still become convinced that maybe he won't! The odds are against it. It's like with 1776. Obviously, the Congress declares independence from Great Britain and passes the Declaration of Independence. But I watch it every year and every year I'm like, "It doesn't look like it'll work!" I'm going to say that that smacks of good storytelling, not that I'm gullible. Though I'm not ruling that out.

What was annoying was the woman who, when Nixon gave his "I'm saying that when the President does it, it's not illegal" line, immediately said "George W. Bush!" very loudly. Completely ruined the moment, which was just incredibly well done. I mean, lady, I think everyone in the theater could see the parallels to the current administration, and it's not like I totally disagree, but shut up. It was made even more annoying by the fact that she was obviously just waiting for that moment. Give it a rest, lady.

So that's an unqualified recommendation. Also, Slumdog Millionaire was quite good as well. Darker than you'd expect, but somehow manages to leave you very happy.

"I'm one of them."

So I was thinking about why I'm so interested in the Grantaire-Enjolras-Marius relationship in Les Mis. There are a few reasons.

One is that at this point, I've seen the show [Mr. Rooney voice]nine times[/Mr. Rooney voice]. It's one of more dynamic elements in the show; it varies greatly from performance to performance.

Another is that at the height of my obsession, I subscribed to a zine about the show, called The Barricade, which was done by Sharon Taylor who is awesome and sent me tapes of Michael Ball and Anthony Warlow. I think I still have some of those issues. Anyway. I read a bunch of analyses of this relationship in there, and now I can't help but look for it myself.

The third I realized the other night, when I was flipping through my copy of the novel. It's all about Enjolras's death scene...which follows. Keep in mind while reading this that Grantaire has spent pretty much the entire battle passed out, drunk, in the cafe.

Relegated, as he was, to one corner, and sheltered behind the billiard-table, the soldiers whose eyes were fixed on Enjolras, had not even noticed Grantaire, and the sergeant was preparing to repeat his order: "Take aim!" when all at once, they heard a strong voice shout beside them:

"Long live the Republic! I'm one of them."

Grantaire had risen. The immense gleam of the whole combat which he had missed, and in which he had had no part, appeared in the brilliant glance of the transfigured drunken man.

He repeated: "Long live the Republic!" crossed the room with a firm stride and placed himself in front of the guns beside Enjolras.

"Finish both of us at one blow," said he.

And turning gently to Enjolras, he said to him: "Do you permit it?"

Enjolras pressed his hand with a smile.

This smile was not ended when the report resounded.

Enjolras, pierced by eight bullets, remained leaning against the wall, as though the balls had nailed him there. Only, his head was bowed.

Grantaire fell at his feet, as though struck by a thunderbolt.

Beautiful. How can you not want to watch these guys after reading that?

Broadway and the economy

Sad article in the Post the other day about how the economy is affecting Broadway. A whole bunch of shows are closing in early 2009--Hairspray, Spamalot, Spring Awakening, Boeing Boeing, Gypsy, Grease. Now, Hairspray had a good run; it's been around 6 years. A bunch of the others were in the 1- to 2-year range. It's interesting, though, that we now expect shows to run forever (e.g., Cats: "Now and Forever"), whereas before, it was respectable for a show to only run for a couple years. Now that seems like a fairly short run.

The problem, of course, is the economy, and the fact that Broadway relies heavily on tourists for its audience. The happy flip side to this is that Washington theater doesn't rely on tourism, and business around here has been pretty steady. The run of West Side Story currently at the National--before it goes to Broadway, actually--is selling well. (And it's cool that they're doing it here, because WSS played DC before it originally opened in New York.)

I do wish I could get up to New York more and see shows there. But it is a hassle, and an expensive one to boot. And with the DC theater scene so dynamic, at times it seems silly to go up there when there's so much here to see.

One thing that particularly jumped out at me in the article was that Avenue Q has one of the lowest running costs of a Broadway show--about $250K a week. Dang.

Yes, a couple more thoughts

Somehow, I forgot a few quick things in my last post about Les Mis. (You wouldn't think that possible from the length, right?)

• Would it really be that hard to give Eponine pants for the second act? It's hard to buy people calling her "boy" when she's wearing a skirt.
• I saw this with a friend who didn't know the show, and only knew the "One Day More" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the Obama videos. She really enjoyed it.
• When you're sitting that close, it's kind of intimidating to have actors about a foot away from you singing "At the End of the Day" and "Look Down."
• There was a minor technical problem (some of the mics stopped working) in the middle of Act Two, but it was handled very smoothly. Of course, given the small space, this isn't a huge surprise. But well done to the actors.

I think that's it. For now.

Yes, I have many thoughts about Les Mis

I saw Les Mis at the Signature last night. And wow. It was awesome. It's one of the first productions done with its own staging, i.e., not the West End/Broadway staging. If you don't want to know any of the changes, stop reading. But you should definitely go see it. And maybe I'll go with you. Asking me to see Les Mis is like asking me to go to a baseball game--it doesn't take much convincing. (Though the tickets are a bit more spendy.)

Anyway, my thoughts? In detail? So glad you asked!

Things I Didn't Like So Much

• The end of "Who Am I?" was a bit weak. They didn't do the brief courtroom scene, so it was Valjean saying it to Javert. Who...just stood there. I suppose he could've been flabbergasted to the point of not being able to move, but it was like, "Dude, go get him!"
• I didn't quite feel the zing at the end of "One Day More." I read an article that said that contractually, the Sig couldn't use some elements of the original staging (starting ~1:10), specifically mentioning the formation during that song. I'd bet dollars to donuts that the waving reg flag was also verboten. [Side note: The article also explains why the show wasn't announced until this fall: The Sig legally couldn't until the production that ran at Wolf Trap at the end of the summer had closed.] Anyway, the students standing around, waving their red armbands...just didn't quite do it for me as much. Still a fab song, but it was a teensy bit lacking.
• The ensemble all took off in "Beggars at the Feast," seemingly much earlier than I remember it. It just felt like the Thenardiers were up there alone for a long time. It was just kind of weird.
• The Bishop's candlesticks didn't show up again at the end, which did really bother me. We did see Valjean packing them during "One Day More," but...nothing at the end. They're just such a potent symbol of who Valjean is, I was disappointed not to see them at the end.
• Thenardier's wig. Just no.

Things I Liked a Lot

• The cast. Seriously. Just awesome, all around, really.
• Felicia Day as Eponine. Holy crap. It's almost hard for me to listen to "On My Own" at this point in my life, just because it is so associated with stupid high school angst. But she just hit it out of the park. Crazy awesome.
• Chris Sizemore's voice. He plays Enjolras and looks pocket-sized (a lot of the cast seemed short, but I'm not sure whether that's because I was so close--I was in the front row), but his voice is insanely powerful. Like, "Oh, that's why the people would follow you."
• Andrew Call's "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." He's no Michael Ball (but then, who is?), and this is a song that can be kind of blah. But dude totally brought it. And he was crying after "A Little Fall of Rain" and completely won my heart.
• Javert (Tom Zemon) was kind of hot. There were leather pants involved. It probably helped that they didn't really try to age Javert and Valjean, but yeah. Then I looked at Zemon's credits. He was Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel (three words: "Where's. The. Girl.") and, yep, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. Sigh. He was also good with the acting and singing and such. This is eerily reminiscent of when I totally started liking the Judas in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
• Actually, a lot of people were wearing leather pants. (Judas in that production? Also wore leather pants. I don't know of a Booth in leather pants, though, so there's that.)
• The orchestra. Sounded phenomenal.
• Fantine's death. I liked it way better than the traditional staging, which I always found somewhat mockable.
• Greg Stone as Valjean was really expressive. Again, maybe it's just that I was so close, but I loved watching his face.

Marius, Enjolras, and Grantaire

I'm a big dork, I know. I could almost start the show with the Paris, 1832 section, and love watching the interactions among Marius, Enjolras, and Grantaire. It's great because it's not explicitly in the script and it varies wildly from cast to cast. And there really wasn't much there in this production--no accusing looks from Grantaire, no apologetic glances from Enjolras, no mediation from Marius. All three guys were great, don't get me wrong, though I would love to talk to the actor who played Grantaire (who kind of looked like Seth Rogen); he seemed way more into the revolution than most Grantaires. So it was interesting. And I loved everyone's reactions to Gavroche's death--Enjolras totally took it personally, even without Grantaire's accusatory looks.

Other Thoughts

• The Gavroche and Young Cosette and Eponine were all really little. They seemed very young. (And it was kind of bizarre that the Young Cosette didn't also do Young Eponine and vice versa.)
• They had Madame Thenardier hanging around during "Dog Eats Dog." I'm not sure why. She didn't really do anything. Did they think the audience wouldn't recognize Thenardier if he was alone?
• The biggest change was Javert's suicide. Instead of jumping off the bridge, they ditched the book and had him shoot himself. Which made sense, because dude had been stroking that gun the entire show. But it caught me 100% off-guard. "There is no way to go-" BANG. Holy crap. I liked it.
• I was bummed that Eponine didn't kiss Marius at the end of "A Little Fall of Rain." I love it when they go for it.

To Sum Up

I didn't really miss the turntable. The barricade was less impressive, but still worked. And this show...I can't resist it. The students die? I bawl. Eponine shows up at the end? Tears. Seriously, I was sitting there, like, "Oh, I'm not crying this time," and then BAM. Blubbering. This show is my kryptonite.

And watching it, I didn't sit there comparing it to the original staging. I mean, sure, I haven't seen the original staging since 2003, but the eight times I've seen it (and the six souvenir programs--like, was I made of money at some point? Why do I have that many?) have pretty much ingrained it in my mind. And the Signature's production totally stands up to it. Go see it.

R.I.P.

I was reading Entertainment Weekly when I saw that Beverly Garland had died. It listed My Three Sons as her major work, but I immediately recognized the name as Dottie, Amanda's mother, from Scarecrow & Mrs. King (which tragically is still not available on DVD). She was so spunky. At least, on the show.



I also saw that Van Johnson had died, and I recognized his picture and the name, and was like, "How do I know him?" Naturally it wasn't any of the big things he'd done, like The Caine Mutiny. Nope. Scrolling through his IMDb listing, I realized that I knew him as Jeff from Brigadoon (with Gene Kelly). (Best quote? "Frank, put it on the bill." "The bill, sir, is very high." "So am I!")

It's really impressive, looking at their careers. Garland has credits dating back to 1950; Johnson, to 1940. I bet they had some awesome stories to tell.

I hope someday you'll join us

I think my iTunes is psychic. Or it knows what day it is. When I opened it, it played "Watching the Wheels," and now it's playing "Not a Second Time." Why is that significant? One's a John Lennon song, the others a Beatles song. And today is December 8, the 28th anniversary of John's death.

I've spent the past 20 years or so in love with the Beatles. John's never been my favorite, but man, the guy is fascinating. And I always like to stop and remember him today.

One of my favorite memories is when some friends and I went to New York City in December of 2001--7 years ago today, in fact. I insisted on dragging my friends to Central Park, to the Imagine mosaic in Strawberry Fields. And, since it was both the anniversary of John's death and just after George's death, there was a large group there, standing, singing. It was fantastic. So moving. And so something John would want.