Les Miserables

Translated, Les Miserables means The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones or The Wretched Ones. This story was written by Victor Hugo back in the 1860’s and after so many thousands of performances over the years, it has a nickname of Les Mis. 

Max and I have been going to the theatre for many, many years together and neither one of us had seen Les Miserables since it opened back in the 80’s.  There has been a recent surge in Broadway revivals. Over the past year we’ve seen Mary Poppins, Dreamgirls, South Pacific and now Les Miserables.

I knew this was going to be a dramatic show when the orchestra started with the opening number with stirring drums and brass and accompanied by a wonderful chorus of singers.  The combination was a musical experience that could be felt within, not just heard.  The story opens as Valjean is released from prison after serving 19 years on the chain gang for stealing bread for his little nephew.  He becomes embittered as he tries to continue with his life, but is shunned, distrusted and mistreated.  Finally a Bishop takes him into his home, feeds and clothes him.  In turn, Valjean steals from the Bishop and runs away.  But he is soon caught and faces prison for the rest of his life.  The Bishop again shows him mercy by telling the police that the stolen loot were gifts and by the way, gives him two more silver candlesticks that he had forgotten to take with him.  The stunned look by Valjean by the goodness and mercy given by this man makes him turn his life around to live a good life.  Total tearjerker! 

Eight years later and Valjean has remained hidden from the law and is now a wealthy mayor of a town.  He takes pity on one of the unfortunate women of the town who has died leaving behind a daughter, Cosette.  He adopts Cosette as his own daughter and moves to Paris because he is still running away from the law, in particular a policeman, Javert. 

Life progresses in Javert's life and 9 years later, Cosette is a young woman who falls in love with Marius, a young student who takes part in a revolution.  Now, I’ve always thought Les Mis was about the French Revolution, but it is about the June Revolution, which was 50 years later, lasting about 2 days.   

Valjean knows Marius is in serious trouble and he wants Cosette to be happy.  He sings a song, which is a prayer to God to protect Marius.  The song, “Bring Him Home” is such a loving, heartfelt, touching song.  “He’s like the son I might have known, If God had granted me a son”.   I’m thinking of Damian as I remember the lyrics and I pray to God that He brings Damian home safe and sound as he returns from Iraq next week.

Valjean joins the fighting at the barricade manned by Marius and the other students of the revolution.   When Marius is seriously wounded and all the other students are killed, Valjean saves Marius by escaping into the Paris sewers.  Javert catches Valjean, but lets him go so that Valjean can take Marius to the hospital.  Faced with the conflict of the mercy and goodness of Valjean and his own commitment to justice, Javert commits suicide.  Marius marries Cosette, who in turns learns that Valjean is not her real father.  The couple goes to Valjean just before he dies to let him know how much they owe him and love him.

Now, I am trying to keep this review condensed, but I have to mention the innovative way they portrayed Javert’s suicide scene.  Instead of just showing him jumping off a bridge (mattress below), they had Javert held up on wires and the backdrop switched to the dark river waters of the Seine as he revolves towards the darkness.  Then there was the tearjerker ending as Valjean dies, he sees visions of characters who have perished previously throughout the play as they welcome him to his next journey. 

To me, this was a very compelling performance and I enjoyed it immensely.  This is a top notch show that was not only entertaining, but it was a lesson in history.  Now I know why the musical has been such a classic success over the many years. 

When I asked Max how he liked it he said, “Yeah, I liked it.”  Now think about it.  There is an enthusiastic, “Yeah!  I liked it!” versus a “Yeah, I liked it” accompanied with a shrug.  So I pursued it and he said, “It wasn’t La Boheme.  So we have a mixed review on this one. 

God of Carnage

First, it was a beeyootiful day.  We love going into L.A. to attend a theatre event.  It is always fun to watch tourists and fellow theatre-goers as we picnic near the Peace on Earth fountain.  Domestic and international tourists are drawn to the nearby Walt Disney Concert Hall and even though we’ve seen it dozens of times, it is always a wonder to see.  It was a warm day and I discovered that if I stand in a certain place in front of the Disney Concert Hall, I could feel significant heat radiating off the stainless steel exterior. 

When I first heard the title of the play was “God of Carnage”, I cringed and thought, “Oh great, a play about war or violence”.  Instead, this is a sophisticated laugh out loud comedy starring James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis.  On the Ahmanson web site, there is a video of the actors being interviewed.  So check it out. 

Even when I saw the interviews online, I was hoping it would not be a modern day “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” play.  Too be honest, I didn’t like the classic even though I am a fan of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  It was too visceral, raw and hateful. 

The play is advertised as “A comedy of manners…without the manners”.  In the opening scene, two well-to-do couples are calmly discussing a statement that will be submitted to the courts about a fight between their 11-12 year old sons at a local park.  They all agree on the carefully worded statement because of course, they are sophisticated and civilized, avoiding the ugly litigation scene.

But everyone has their foibles and Jeff Daniels pushes his wife to the brink as he interrupts the conversations with his incessant business cell phone calls.  People, don’t you just hate that?  Suddenly, his wife portrayed by Hope Davis isn’t feeling well.  Then shockingly she literally hurls as she splashes the rug, coffee table and the precious art books on it.  That scene was simply hilarious as everyone is horrified being splashed with puke and rushes around to clean up.  I cracked up when James Gandolfini gently tries to hold her hair out of the puke bucket as he turns red and gags.

As Marcia and James take a hair dryer to the damaged art book, Max and I looked at each other knowingly.  Max treasures his art books, one of which is on our coffee table.  He said if anyone hurls on his art books, the culprit will be hurled out of the house…well he shudders to even think about it.

That scene is the “civility ice breaker” as each person attacks or is attacked by others.  Behind the façade of manners and civility, they all bemoan the human frailties of their partners and the troubles around the world. 

Now the tone of this play is so opposite of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe”, so when I say “attack”, it isn’t done in the same manner as the classic.  The audience was entertained and the play was funny.  The writing is good, but the actors made it even more successful through the nuances of their delivery.  Marcia won the Tony Award for Best Actress for her part in this play.  James Gandolfini was so funny with his comedic timing and reminds us of Ken, a dear friend of ours because of his expressions.  But at the same time, James is the type of person you do not want to piss off as he verbally fights back, aka Tony Soprano style. 

What did I get out of it?  Well, in my real life, people will continue to be civilized or if someone gets out of hand, I will walk away.  That is nowadays, whereas a few years ago, I would be nose to nose with an a**hole.  What this play does is bring to light what people would like to say out loud, short of coming to blows. 

I would say this would be a play we would see again, but I don’t know if it would have the same affect of being laugh out loud shocked during the hurling scene.  But there were so many other funny dialogs and memorable scenes such as Hope dunking her husband’s cell phone in a flower vase or in a fit, throws all the flower lilies across the stage.   At the end of the play, we gave them our standing ovation. Yes, yes, yes….we would see it again.

Burn This

I am catching up on all the plays and shows that we’ve seen.  It has been over a year since we’ve seen this play and to be honest, I could not remember it.  So thank goodness for Google and I found reviews of this play and it all comes back to me.

Anna is a dance-choreographer who lives in a loft in Greenwich Village with two gay men, Larry and Robbie.  The play starts with Anna and Larry grieving after hearing that Robbie died suddenly in a boating accident.

Later that evening, Barton, Robbie’s brother bulldozes and staggers into their loft, drunk.  To me, Barton is not good enough for Anna, but there is this underlying attraction for one another.  They finally get together and Barton straightens out, but I still don’t think he was good enough for her.

It was okay and not memorable.

Opera-Il Turco in Italia

The title means, “The Turk in Italy”, written by Gioachino Rossini.  It was performed for the first time in 1814 in our Bucket List Opera House, La Scala.  From what I’ve read, the Milanese turned up their noses at it. 

For this performance the costumes and setting is set in the 1950’s.  There are a lot of twists and turns as I try to keep track of who is who.  But surprisingly, no one dies at the end because if is an enjoyable Opera buffa, a comedy. 

The first scene takes place in a gypsy camp where Zaida talks about her escape from Turkey. She is in love with the Prince Selim, but false rumors about her infidelity forces her to flee to Italy.  Also in the camp is Don Geronio who wants his fortune told.  He laments about his frivolous wife, Fiorilla.

Selim arrives in Italy and meets Fiorilla who falls in love with him.  Despite the fact that she is a married woman, she invites Prince Selim to her home where there is a confrontation with Geronio. 

There is a costume party and with masks, where Fiorilla forces Selim to choose between her or Zaida.  At the end, Selim and Zaida are back together and they sail back to Turkey.  Geronio decides to punish Fiorilla by throwing her out of the house.  As she leaves to live with her parents in shame, Geronio pardons her.

It was a fun opera and like most operas, we will probably see it again and again.  The different singers, costumes and settings always make it seem new. 

33 Variations

I lost my notes on this play and I loved it.  Let’s see if I can remember the core of the play.  First, let me say that we were not looking forward to Jane Fonda’s performance because in her heyday, she looked good but lacked depth in her performances.  Well, like wine, aging has added depth.  We were so pleasantly surprised.

Jane portrays a music professor who travels to Europe to research the background of Beethoven’s composition.  First, this is an entirely different world.  In this play, people can read music compositions and immediately envision the musicality that can come out of the composition.  I struggle reading music, but I can equate this ability with reading a book and in partnership with the author, let my mind envision the characters, scenery and emotions the author is trying to convey. 

Complicating this story is that Jane’s character is suffering from a degenerative disease.  Jane’s daughter resists the travel to Europe, but this is what Jane wants to do.  So this beautiful, sophisticated, elegant genius of a woman slowly deteriorates in front of us.  It is awesomely scary and Jane does a beautiful job portraying the slow degeneration and emotionally, I struggled with the frustration she faced with a body that could not respond to her mind. 

Yet, she achieves the answer to the puzzle of the answer behind Beethoven’s variations in his composition.  I would see this again and again.  I would join Jane in her struggle and the newfound respect and love her daughter discovers in the end.

Stories by Heart

This play at the Mark Taper is a one-man show starring John Lithgow.  For this performance, Don, Lisa, Alex and Alyssa came with us.  We bought them tickets for the same show as our season seats as a Christmas present.  (I'm guessing on the date we saw this play because I don't have the tickets.  The production was from January 4 - February 13, 2011).

All Alex and Alyssa know about John Lithgow was that he portrayed The Trinity Killer on Dexter, and he scares them. We didn’t tell Alex and Alyssa who was starring in this production because we wanted to surprise them.  Also, we gave them our 2^nd row seats while we sat with Don and Lisa in the seats further back.

John is a great storyteller and it is amazing to me whenever someone can recite on and on.  Having such a memory is wondrous to me.  Both Max and I wish we could tell stories in such a manner to capture an audience’s attention. 

John’s father passed away and in remembrance to him, John reads a favorite book that his father would read to him as a boy.  He starts to read, but then he gets up, puts the book away and enacts the story with his words and actions.  His facial expressions are so vivid and entertaining.

The stories were not that great, but he was able to pull it off due to his abilities.  I would give it a B and I’m not sure I would see it again.  I would see another performance by John Lithgow though.  I am such a fan of his.  He can be a comedian such as his alien character in 3^rd Rock from the Sun or his scary character in Dexter. 

Next to Normal

This is a hard rock musical hitting raw emotions, so different from the light-hearted and feel good Sound of Music type of musical.  The staging included a framed, 2 story quadrant so that all four major characters could sing their frustrations in their own rooms, yet to the audience, sang together as a chorus.

It takes place in modern times and Alice Ripley plays Diana, a mother who is having a nervous breakdown. It starts as she gets her family ready for the start of the day.  Her favorite child, her teenage son Gabe, is lighthearted, playful and loving.  Her teenage daughter, Natalie, is focused on her musical studies in almost a geeky way and she sees herself as the “invisible girl” because no one pays attention to her.  As the morning progresses, Diana begins to flip out as the stress of the morning begins to overcome her.  She tries to make sandwiches out of a whole loaf of bread, laying them on the table, on the chairs and across the floor.  Her husband and children look on, horrified.

Her husband Dan is such a sad character because he loves his wife so much and watches helplessly as she progresses further into a nervous breakdown.  He stands by her, but he has to make the difficult decision on her treatments, which includes shock therapy.  After months of psychotherapy and shock treatments, she resumes her life to near normalcy, but she is still fighting her demons.  Pills are also part of her treatment, which deaden her feelings.  She sings, “I miss the mountains, I miss my life, I even miss the pain because I feel nothing” or “You don’t know when you die when living like this”.

It isn’t until later in the play that we discover Gabe is actually the demon she is trying to overcome.  He died as a baby and she has never overcome that loss.  She sees him as he grows up, but to become normal again, she has to convince herself that what she sees is not real.  After taking her medication regularly, she does not see her son or if she does, she can tell that he is not real.  But because she hates how she feels when she takes the pills, she stops.  Then she begins to see her son more vividly than ever.  She tries to send her son away so that she can recover and Gabe pleads with her not to let him go.  That was a heart-wrenching scene.  Yikes…tears.  But she remains strong and reluctantly, sends him away.

Eventually, she leaves her husband and daughter so that she can concentrate on getting better.  Life goes on and they seem to get better, accepting the situation.  Maybe later when the time is right, they will be all together again.  In the last scene, Dan sees Gabe and apparently he has always seen his dead son.  They sing a painful duet as Gabe pleads to stay and Dan reluctantly acquiesces.  He knows it isn’t right, but he doesn’t want to send him away. 

I love performances that can pull emotions from the audience as they empathize with the characters.  The mother who struggles to regain her sanity, a daughter who seeks validation wanting to mean something to someone else, a father who wants to bear the pain for those he loves and even the dead son who doesn’t want to be forgotten.  My gosh, I was tapping my toes while brushing aside a tear.  For me, this heart-wrenching, hard rocking musical passed our test of, Yes, we would see this again.  For me, I’ve learned that everyone has difficulties, but over time troubles end and life goes on.  Yes, other troubles can be on the horizon, but we’ve been made stronger by those experiences.