Les Miserables in NYC

We saw a couple (well, actually four) Broadway productions.  We tried to get NEWSIES, the Disney musical, but the best we could do was two seats at one end of a row and two at the other (so we picked MOTOWN, where we could all sit together instead). 

Anyone who reads my blogs is going to know that I love Les Miserables.  We had main floor center tickets months before we left for New York.  One of our main reasons for going to see it was that the star, playing Jean Valjean, would be Ramin Karimloo, who has become one of our favorite singers. 

The whole production was spectacular.  I put it at the top of all four that we saw last week, a bit ahead of Phantom (which I admit I enjoyed more on my second viewing than on my first - maybe if I get to twelve, I will put it up there with Les Mis) and solidly ahead of Motown and Mamma Mia (which we were seeing for about the fourth time). 

Ramin, in particular, was incredible.  The man has such a powerful voice and presence onstage.  His performance of BRING HIM HOME was especially wonderful.  You can see him  here on Katie Couric .  He sang the song on the show, but this clip doesn't include it.  I'm sure it will be on YouTube soon. 

He was also on CBS with Dana Tyler which you can see here.

The other cool thing was that as I reviewed the program, I found an actor playing some of the parts who I knew as a child and young man in my home town.  His name is Arbender J. Robinson, and I can recall talking to him and asking him if he was playing sports (because he was a good sized kid and I think his dad played), and him telling me that no, he was doing theater.  So it was with a lot of excitement and pride that I watched him performing a couple of decent roles in Les Mis.  He was terrific. 

Great shows, all of them, but Les Miserables was the tops.

*****

Les Miz at the O2 Concert - BluRay

Okay, so I'm nuts about Les Miz. I know it has nothing to do with Disney, but it's just such a powerful story that I keep coming back to it.

I mentioned that, in the same order as Building A Better Mouse and The Kingdom Keepers III - Disney In Shadows I got the BluRay disc of the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables, and I got around to watching some of it recently. I'd just like to point out a couple of standout performances.

• Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean - he steals the show with his performances of "Bring Him Home", "Who Am I?" and in the encore version of "Bring Him Home" with Colm Wilkinson and two other Valjean players.


• Samantha Barks as Eponine, who gives it her all in her solo "On My Own"


• Ramin Karimloo as Enjolras, whose strong voice gave me chills in "Red and Black" and in his parts of "One Day More"


• Nick Jonas as Marius (yes, Jonas as in Jonas Brothers) for his performance of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. Nick does not have the theatrical voice of his co-performers, not by a long shot, but he stays right on key and puts himself into the role. Much criticism was heaped on Jonas in various reviews of the DVD and of the concert itself, but I felt it was overdone. Yes, he's not as good at Broadway style songs as the others in this and many other productions, but he's not THAT bad. He hits the notes he needs to hit. And he actually does a very good job on the previously mentioned song.

There were other good performances also, such as that of Norm Lewis as Javert and Lea Salonga as Fantine. But he ones listed deserved special mention, I think.

*****

One more Les Miz - Disney connection

I have one more connection between Disney and Les Miz. British comic actor Matt Lucas performed as the evil innkeeper Thenardier (who also provides comic relief to the otherwise very serious story) in the O2 concert for the 25th anniversary. (He will be playing the role on stage, apparently, in England at the Queen's Theater for a limited run.)

Matt has a Disney connection. From the Facebook Les Miz page:

Matt Lucas is one of Britain’s most successful comic actors and writers. His TV credits include "Come Fly With Me" and the multi award-winning "Little Britain", both for the BBC. His other credits include "Shooting Stars", "Wind in the Willows" and most recently Tim Burton’s film "Alice in Wonderland".

I don't know what role he played in Alice In Wonderland. I have the movie on BluRay but haven't found the time to watch it. But there it is - another connection, however meaningless, between my favorite musical and my favorite company.

*****

Les Miz - Disney Connections

I've been in my Les Miserables bunker for a few weeks now. Besides seeing the stage production as it swings through Chicago, I've been watching the DVD of the 10th anniversary concert, and PBS showed the 25th anniversary concert on Saturday night.

As I mentioned in the previous post, it's my favorite musical, and as I was watching it, I mentioned to my wife and kids that it has a couple different connections to Disney. First, Cameron Mackintosh produces it, and he is also involved as producer for Disney's Mary Poppins stage musical.

But the Disney crossovers that I was pointing out to my family were two of the female leads in the 10th anniverary DVD. First, the role of Eponine is sung by actress/singer Lea Salonga. Ms. Salonga first came to attention in the title role of Miss Saigon, then went to play the role of Eponine on Broadway. Disney used her to supply the singing voice to Aladdin's Princess Jasmine. Then she also sang the on-screen songs for Fa Mulan in both Mulan and in the straight-to-video release Mulan 2. Her duet with Brad Kane on the song A Whole New World is one of the most powerful songs in Disney animation history, in my opinion.

The other tie-in is actress/singer Judy Kuhn, who voiced the role of Cosette on Broadway and in the 10th anniversary concert. Ms. Kuhn provided the singing voice to Pocahontas in the movies Pocahontas and Pocahontas 2 (also a straight-to-video release). Ms. Kuhn also had a cameo appearance in the recent film Enchanted, where she played a pregnant woman with kids.

Ms. Salonga went on to play the role of Fantine in the later New York production of Les Miserables. Ms. Kuhn replaced Ms. Salonga in that role, and played it until the show closed in 2008.

*****

Disney On Stage: Mary Poppins in New York

Yes, I know they're not very good pictures! I took them from the top of a double decker bus as we drove past. Hence the bad angles and the slight blurriness. (Of course, some of my other pictures are a little blurry too...so maybe I'm just sorta unsteady with the camera.)

But there it is anyway: The New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street, just a half block west of 7th Avenue, which is in the heart of Times Square, pretty much. And of course, the main attraction there: Mary Poppins.

We'd seen it before in Chicago, but we wanted to do a Broadway Show while in New York, and we needed one that was definitely appropriate for young (8 and almost 10) kids. And we knew we all liked it, and it had been almost a year since we saw it. So Disney got our vote for our Broadway experience.

If you're interested in what I thought about the musical, you can
read about that here. So what I'll say about this production is that the theater is really gorgeous. It's small, and we had excellent seats on the main floor, about 20 rows back. I could see everything. They supply booster seats for the kids (mine didn't need them, since we were able to position them behind small kids who were on booster seats) which is great since a lot of the audience members were small children who would have been blocked by a row of adults in front of them.

The production itself was similar - the sets were even more lavish in this theater but otherwise it was the same. The performances were all excellent. In Chicago we saw the original Broadway performers (I think), Ashley Brown as Mary and Gavin Lee as Bert. Here in New York we saw Laura Michelle Kelly, who was the London star and who sings on the CD you can buy at Borders. She was excellent and has a spectacular voice.

I wonder how long it will be till Disney remakes the movie using this plot instead of their Walt Disney plot? I think it might actually be worth remaking if they give us this story, which I'm led to believe is more like the book than the movie was. (P.L. Travers apparently signed off on this one, something she never really did with the movie.)

Anyway, it was a very good experience, worth every penny of the (rather expensive) ticket price!

*****

Disney Dining and other stuff...

*****

Our 180 day window for making our Disney dining reservations has opened. Actually we thought we would be able to book all of our reservations, but we are too early for the later days of the trip. So...we wanted to go to Le Cellier on our first night there. But alas, it is not to be. Le Cellier has no availability for that Saturday.

We're only about 2 or 3 days past the day when one could make such a reservation, but I guess it books up fast. We were actually sort of shocked. We've made reservations there before at less than 180 days (considerably less, actually) and while we might not get the exact time we wanted, we've generally been able to get in at some point on the DAY we've desired. I know it's small, and I know it's popular. But...wow!

So we're going to try Coral Reef on our first night. When we were last there, my wife got so sick that she doesn't remember much about it, and consequently, neither do I. What I do remember about it was that my food was pretty good and our service was outstanding that night. So we'll see how it is this time. We've also got reservations for California Grill and Boma (for breakfast). We'll be getting the other ones in line in the next couple of days.

*****

We're going to be traveling to New York City this summer, and we've booked one Broadway show. Bet you can't figure out which show it is.

Did you guess Mary Poppins? If so, you got it right. We've seen it in Chicago, but we needed something kid-friendly and we all loved it when we saw it at the Cadillac Theater in Chicago. I'm looking forward to seeing the theater that Disney renovated there. I'm sure it will be incredible!

*****

For my birthday my sister-in-law gave me two tickets to the musical Billy Elliot, which was playing at Chicago's Oriental Theater, another beautifully restored venue in the Second City. I didn't know what to expect, and I felt like it started off slow, but it turned into an engrossing story about a boy from a coal-mining family who has an aptitude for and a love of dance, specifically ballet. This is set against the historical backdrop of the coal-miners' strike in (I believe) the 1970's.

A young man from my hometown had one of the main parts. His name was Patrick Mulvey and I know his father and his aunt quite well, having gone to high school with them. I was glad to see Patrick (who I don't know) do so well.

I know this was a movie, but I had never seen it. It's hard to imagine it as anything but a musical. Elton John did a terrific job with the music.

*****

Last year I wrote a post about Kiddieland, one of the nation's oldest amusement parks, closing due to a dispute between two sides of the family. The owners of the park had wanted to sell the rides as a package, hoping that someone would see fit to open another incarnation of Kiddieland in some other location. I guess they were not successful in finding a buyer. But I heard recently, then saw an ad today, that Six Flags Great America had bought their old wooden roller coaster, called the Little Dipper. I don't know where they are putting it, but I'm sure it will look really nice with maybe a fresh coat of paint and some good maintenance.

*****

We're going to visit Michigan's Adventure soon, with their collections of smaller coasters and other rides. I'll post something about how that park looks this year after our visit.

*****

Have a great Memorial Day!

******

Shoulda Been Disney...

I experienced two things this weekend that made me immediately wonder why Disney didn't get involved with either of them...

The first was The Lightning Thief movie, from the popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. My 9 and 7 year old sons have been reading this series, and I've been reading it right along with them. It's pretty darned good, in my opinion...the book series, that is. The movie - not quite as good. But not bad, either.

I thought, as I watched the movie, that this series would have been a perfect property for Disney development. When I went into the theater, I was struck by the number of boys my son's age and a little older and younger than them, who were there to see it. It has everything a boy could want - adventure, cool settings, swordplay, monsters, Greek gods and myths come to life - it would have made a good addition to the Disney film library.

And it would have made an interesting subject to develop part of a theme park around - ala The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. The Underworld, Olympus, the Labyrinth (of the fourth book), and even perhaps Camp Half-Blood, where the demigods like Percy Jackson train and learn about their world...all these different locations might even have made for a richer land than Harry Potter will provide. I'm not saying that they would have seriously considered adding something like this, but it would have been a good property to have in their pocket should they want to develop an area of a theme park in this direction.

On Sunday, we went to see a stage production - The 101 Dalmations Musical - which apparently has no involvement from Disney that I could find in the credits. This was a pretty good musical production, well done in how they portray the dogs against the humans, with good songs and very good sets. Dennis DeYoung, of Chicago rock band Styx fame, was the composer for the music and wrote quite a few lyrics also, and he does have some talent in this direction. (I've always been a Styx fan since I was young, but I didn't hear anything in this music that reminded me of that band.)

The story was actually based on the book by Dodie Smith (by the same title), which is more "English" in feel. There are many of the same characters as in the Disney movie, but presented in different ways. If you've read the book, you know that Pongo's "wife" is Missus (as in Missus Pongo), not Perdita. Mr. Dearly is an accountant of sorts, not a songwriter. Cruella's husband is part of the story, as is their business of manufacturing and selling furs. And more puppies are named. In the movie I can only think of Lucky, Patch and Roly Poly, but a little puppy named Cadpig is in the book also. These are the characters of the stage play, not the Disney characters at all.

And unlike Mary Poppins, no songs from the Disney movie are used at all. One of my favorite Disney tunes is Cruella DeVil, and I was disappointed to see that it wasn't used. But not too disappointed, because the songs that ARE present are pretty good and tell the story well.

At the end of the play (and the book), we are left with the realization that there are only 100 dalmations - 97 puppies, Pongo, Missus, and Perdita, the liver spotted dalmation who is brought in to help nurse Missus' litter. Who is the 101st dalmation? (I guess you'll have to read the book to find out...or see the play.)

This is another property that I was surprised that Disney had no involvement in. With their experience in putting on stage productions, by now pretty extensive, I wondered why they chose not to be involved in this one. It would have done them proud, had they done so.

So...two missed opportunities...Olympians and Dalmations.

Mary Poppins - The Musical

We went to see the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh presentation of Mary Poppins at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theater last week, and it was a resounding hit with all members of my family. My two boys, Disney nuts both, were entranced by the music and the action, and my wife thought it was one of the best musicals she's ever seen.

I have to agree with my family members. It was a triumph! Spectacular scenery and effects, wonderful performers and a familiar story made for a really entertaining afternoon. It features the stars of the Broadway version, Ashley Brown as Poppins herself, and Gavin Lee as Bert. Almost all of the familiar songs from the Disney movie (except "I Love To Laugh") were part of the show, though reworked into the story in slightly different order and to slightly different purposes.

The story itself is different than the one told in the movie. I've not read the P.L. Travers book, so I can't say how closely it follows that story. But as most Disneyphiles know, Walt and Ms. Travers didn't see eye to eye on the version that Disney brought to the screen, and she hated the final product. When she was approached about bringing the story to the stage, she allowed it on the condition that no one from Disney would be involved in the creative process. I don't know how strictly this was interpreted, but it did apparently preclude the Sherman Brothers from writing new songs for the musical (though they were still writing in the nineties when this began to be conceived, according to the Wikipedia article).

Anyway, the story they've come up with is in fact better, deeper, darker, and more emotional than the Disney version. There is more about George Banks' own problems and how they reflect on the Banks household. There is the undercurrent of marital discord, however understated it might be. And there is a more realistic, believable reason for Mr. Banks' concerns about his job at the bank.

The sets were outstanding. The Banks house opens to the audience like a lifesized dollhouse, and the park and the bank sets were really well done. I wondered how they would handle "Jolly Holiday" without animation, but they did it with color, and it was a very effective number.

And when Mary Poppins flies off into the sky, it connects you right back to the beloved movie.

I don't know if we'll get the chance, but I'd love to go see it before it leaves Chicago.