25th Anniversary Concert (Well, the First Bit)

Although I wasn’t aiming to watch any of this until I finished the book, I capitulated over the weekend and watched the first part up to the point where I am in the book, then watched a background documentary on the film. Here are some of my thoughts:

• All comments about acting are with the caveats that this is the first time I’ve seen it, I am aware that the musical moves at an incredibly fast pace with a number of staging issues to consider such as the size of the O2. Gestures that may seem too extreme for a film version would be necessary in such a large space. There are going to be things that have to be changed or left out from the book. I was surprised at the staging, I suppose I expected it to be more like a traditional play type musical with backdrops and props, but it worked very well the way that it was done with the stage in two ‘layers’ and the large screens above.  I imagine it is exhausting for the actors.

• Valjean and Cosette were excellent. Alfie can really act; his facial expressions were a wonder to behold, he could convey emotion with the merest twitch. I was afraid Cosette would be way too ‘drama school’ but she had such a sweet pitiful expression when she sang.

• I liked the casting of a PoC to play Javert, I thought it made a statement about the character and his status within the society that is still relevant today. I thought Norm was a bit wooden during Cosette’s arrest, but he was suitably emotional when he realised who Madeleine was and I loved the duet with Valjean.

• I was not that much of a fan of Lea Solanga as Fantine, I found the obvious singer ‘I am annunciating this very carefully’ mouth movements distracting. I wasn’t that affected by her performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, I thought the interpretation was a bit off. Comparing this with Anne Hathaway looking all pathetic and singing it like she was truly broken-hearted, well, clips of Anne make me want to cry whereas Lea made me go ‘meh’. Not that keen on her voice either.  Having now seen the way that the musical is staged, the pictures of lady Fantine/dollymop Fantine make a bit more sense, here Lea had a pretty white dress with two patches on it, then she changed into her shroud-like death dress after Valjean and Javert had their confrontation.  The transformation from grisette to prostitute was accomplished during the one song, there was no time for her to change and even though part of the song was her selling her hair she didn’t actually lose it. There was a brief moment where she seemed to go off stage during ‘Lovely Girls’ which would give the dollymop school time to stick a mob cap and some slap on her if they were so inclined, otherwise they would have to have her dressed as a prostitute the whole way through.

• The Thernadiers were amusing and larger than life; I particularly liked Madame Thernadier’s nasty sarcastic edge.  I saw a picture of Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thernadiers today; I have to say they looked quite sinister in comparison, although I don’t think Helena plays anything else much anymore. Long gone are the days of seeing her in a long white dress playing a Merchant Ivory heroine, now it’s all creepy evil people and Miss Havisham (who I can’t really take as evil probably since reading Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next novels).

The film looks amazing. I’d seen the trailer before but this was a documentary on the way that it has been filmed in a completely different way to other musicals and it looks like it’s going to be great.  I’m looking forward to seeing it and to seeing the rest of the 25^th Anniversary Concert.