Reevaluating Pradon

A good 10 years ago or so, I became obsessed with the most recent Jesus Christ Superstar, the one recorded for DVD. Glenn Carter was Jesus; Jérôme Pradon was Judas. I found Pradon captivating, but I wasn't blown away by his voice. And by that, I mean that I liked his performance despite his voice. (Witness his performance of "Superstar," which perfectly illustrates my point. The moments that he interacts with Jesus are very layered.)

Recently, I found out that he played Javert in Les Mis in the West End back in the early 2000s. I knew that he had been in the show in France, and he was in the 10th anniversary concert (as one of the students).

(Side note: He was in Assassins in France?! WHAT? What role? Wikipedia, help a girl out! He has the charisma to pull off Booth, but I need this information!)

(Huh. Czolgosz. Interesting.)

I was intrigued immediately. Thank God for YouTube, because I immediately pulled up clips of him in the role. And I was really pleasantly surprised. Here he performs "Javert's Suicide":



I'm impressed. He's not the best Javert I've heard, but he definitely pulls it off. Watching "The Confrontation", I think it's that Javert is much more suited to Pradon's voice than Judas is. Judas is too high; clearly, Pradon excels in a lower register.

It's always fun to find somewhat random actors to follow. Apparently Pradon is currently performing in Mamma Mia, as Sam. It would be interesting to hear him do ABBA.