Les Miserables
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Astonishingly, I'd never been to Les Miserables, possibly the most successful musical ever.

Ages ago, over a breakfast with my young friend Carrie Hope Fletcher, who had appeared in Alex Day's Lady Godiva video and subsequently become his girlfriend, she revealed her ambition was to be in the cast of the London stage show. I'd urged her to attend the next auditions, which she did and won the role of Eponine.

So I went to see it last night.

It's terrific and she is brilliant in it; great singing, tremendous acting, loads of charisma.

I enjoyed the show except - I really do not like Light Opera (which it is - NOT a musical, but in the tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan, everything sung, no dialogue which, for me, tends to mean simplistic plot and characters).

Some good points - one of the great moments in entertainment is the number Bring Him Home. You could have heard a pin drop in the Queens Theatre. Splendid song superbly sung by Daniel Koek. Worth going to the show for that three minutes alone.

Great staging, ensemble... (another of the cast, Melanie Bright, turns out to be the partner of the son of one of my Angelettes!).

The production and company is fantastic (Negatives) - with the exception of Na-Young Jeon who plays Fantine without warmth and sings I Dreamed A Dream only adequately.

Another particularly good performance from Anton Zetterholm as Enjolras, and young newcomer Rob Houchen has a great future ahead of him.

I took Carrie for dinner at Balthazar afterwards and congratulated her on her superb performance.