"Les Misérables" at Palikū Theatre: Sept. 20, 2013

Hey, all!

It's been quite a while since my last update, as life's been getting rather crazily busy, but I won't get into that quite yet. Instead, I'll be blogging on something I've meant to do for nearly a month now: I got to see a truly fantastic production of the musical Les Misérables at Palikū Theatre, which is quite close to where I live. This past May, I also got to see the national tour of the show with a few friends. This marks the second time I saw a Palikū production of a show shortly after seeing a national one, the previous time being when I saw The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas in 2011, and then saw it at Palikū later that year. You can check out the reviews I posted on my companion blog -- Vegas parts 1, 2, and 3, and Palikū 1 and 2. The Palikū reviews were quite an interesting thing for me in that the cast and crew members discovered my first review online and mentioned it to me when I went to see the show a second time; definitely wasn't expecting that. And a few of the people who worked on their production of Les Misérables still remembered me, as well!

Anyway, this post actually goes way, way back to June when I auditioned for the company. The audition process was really interesting, as it was set up more like a concert or gala than a typical audition. Everyone trying for a part got up on the stage of the theatre and sang before a full crowd -- the director and other higher-ups were in the front row, and the rest of the auditionees (along with their families and friends who were there for moral support) filled out the rest of the auditorium. I guess the showrunners wanted to be sure that everyone could handle the pressure of singing before a packed house. There was an impressive variety of people trying out and of songs being sung -- one girl trying for Cosette sang "I Saw Him Once," which was featured in the original London production of Les Misérables and hasn't been used in any production since. I didn't know the sheet music for that song was available anywhere! In any case, I sang "The Longer I Live" from Frank Wildhorn's Dracula: The Musical. Although I didn't get into the show, it was still a fantastic experience. The theatre staff were all incredibly well-prepared and supportive, and I'd gladly audition for one of their productions again in the future. Plus, hearing all the other superb performers singing gave me a lot of confidence that this production would be a fantastic one.

A couple months later, I saw a newspaper article talking about the two productions of Les Misérables going on in Hawai'i this year. Yes, two -- the other one happened on Maui about a month before Palikū's. The article was mostly about the Maui production, but it also revealed a bit of casting info from Palikū. What really excited me was that the article said Kip Wilborn would be playing Jean Valjean. I remembered Kip as Raoul and a fantastic understudy Phantom in Toronto's production of The Phantom of the Opera, and so I was really eager to see him as Valjean. The article also mentioned that Cliffton Hall would be playing Marius, a role he had previously played on Broadway and in the US Tour. I had seen him the previous December as Fiyero in the Wicked tour that came to Hawai'i, so I was confident that he'd be great as well. And after looking up Buz Tennent (who had been cast as Javert) on YouTube and stumbling upon a video of him singing "Some Enchanted Evening" at a charity event, I was really hyped for this cast. I bought a ticket for opening night, September 20th, and started counting down the days.

Well, now that I've seen the production, what did I think? Well, to start with, I got tickets to see it again on Wednesday, October 23rd! But yes, the production was superb. Kip Wilborn was a fantastic Valjean, and being in the front row made his portrayal come across incredibly well for me. Buz Tennent was a powerful Javert who might have seemed overly rigid, but his humanity came through at all the right moments; he didn't seem like a cartoon villain like some Javert portrayals I've seen, but was instead believable as a man following the path he thought was right. If the story were told differently, Javert could have been the tragic hero of Les Misérables, and that definitely came through in Tennent's portrayal. He flubbed one line, but it still worked pretty well. Jana Alcain was an incredible Fantine who delivered the perfect mix of strength and pathos. Cliffton Hall was a great Marius, although he occasionally came in a bit early in his first couple of scenes, and I believed that his character matured over the course of the show. Shawna Masuda was a superb Éponine (reprising the role from when she was in Diamond Head Theatre's production back in 2008), and Kim Anderson was a great Cosette (although she pulled very sharp at the end of "Every Day"; she was excellent otherwise). Scott and Zenia Moura, who are married in real life, played the Thénardiers and gave them an excellent mix of villainy and humor. I had seen Scott previously as Pirelli in Army Theatre's Sweeney Todd back in 2006. Michael Bright as Enjolras intrigued me since he looked and acted quite a bit like Ramin Karimloo in the role (though thankfully without the somewhat out-of-character moments Ramin displayed in the 25th anniversary concert of the show), but vocally was closer to Aaron Lazar from the 2006 Broadway revival cast. The ensemble was superb, particularly the 'Lovely Ladies' and the barricade boys -- aside from Gavroche forgetting his line at the start of "Look Down" (oddly, the same thing that happened at his audition), they were all spot-on. Though I did get a little confused since the actors playing Grantaire and Feuilly looked a bit similar; during "Do You Hear the People Sing?", I was wondering why Grantaire was singing Feuilly's lines in the song, but later realized that was Feuilly all along. (Eventually, I figured out that Grantaire had sideburns while Feuilly didn't.)

The direction and blocking hit a neat balance between the original and 25th anniversary stagings of the show. The set pieces were the same in most scenes but were rotated to portray different locations in the story. There were also some neat decisions made in terms of musical direction, including sudden crescendos during key notes from the ensemble in "At the End of the Day." I really appreciated that the orchestra took its time here; much as I loved the US Tour back in May and as wonderful as the cast was, it often felt like the conductor was in a big hurry to be done with the show as quickly as possible and didn't give the performers much time to act their lines. Here, though, the orchestra took all the time it needed, and yet the performance never seemed to drag. Some bits in the score were vamped to allow more time for scene changes, but even those seemed to work to the show's advantage.

I'll go into much more detail about this production when I see it again next week (and thus, I'll do my best not to put off posting for quite as long)... but in any case, it was a magnificent production and I'm very glad I'll get to go one more time! Tickets sold out incredibly fast; all the originally scheduled performances were sold out before opening night, and the additional dates that were added also went very quickly. I'm really looking forward to seeing this production again; it's not every year that I get to see multiple awesome productions of a show in the same year, after all!

~ Toru771

Memories of Gotham City

Greetings once again!

It's been a while since my last post, it seems. But in any case, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today and thus decided to blog about some of my history with what I consider to be one of the greatest fictional universes of all time: the world inhabited by Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, as well his his many allies and enemies.

Happy Holidays! Please don't be offended.

Greetings, all!

The Christmas season is upon us once again, and just as it's been for many Christmases now, some people just can't celebrate and make merry knowing that there are heathens out there who dare to acknowledge other holidays at this time of year. This alleged "War on Christmas," claim pundits, is part of an atheist effort to purge all traces of Christianity from public life and is represented by seemingly innocuous things like store clerks wishing customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." This dastardly secular plot has even crawled up to the highest levels of the US government, with President Barack Obama supposedly calling the White House Christmas Tree a "Holiday Tree" instead. Oh, the horror!

Well, first off, the rumor that President Obama is calling it a "Holiday Tree" is completely false. It was a lie in 2009, a lie in 2010, a lie last year, and it's still a lie. It's nonsense brought to us by the same hysterical pundits who want you to think the Commander-in-Chief is simultaneously a Muslim and an atheist. No idea how that's supposed to work, but hey. I guess since "we don't like him because he's black" wouldn't play well in this day and age, this sort of outrage-mongering is what they've stooped to. But even if President Obama did call the tree in the White House by a different name, or even if he didn't put up a tree or celebrate Christmas at all, why should that matter to anyone? To be fair, there are atheists and atheist groups out there who take things way too far by insisting on, for instance, removal of crosses from gravesites; I'm glad to know that there are many atheists who believe as I do that this sort of act is wrong and unnecessary regardless of one's beliefs.

To quote a forum post I made last year about the so-called "War on Christmas:"

If any Christian is honestly offended when someone wishes them "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas," I think the problem is with that Christian, not the other person.

As the classic carol goes, "'tis the season to be jolly." It's not the season to get offended and bothered by what other people are doing this time of year.

Besides, there are a lot of other holidays being celebrated this time of year -- therefore, saying "Happy Holidays" is basically saying "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hannukah," "Happy Solstice," and all the other holidays of the season all at once. People who say "Happy Holidays" aren't ignoring Christmas; they're acknowledging it along with all the other holidays being celebrated. Besides, Christmas itself arose from a Christian appropriation of a pagan winter holiday called Saturnalia, and most traditions that we now associate with Christmas are actually pagan in origin. Many Christians, in fact, don't believe that Jesus was actually born on December 25th; and some celebrate Christmas at another time of year because of that. There are also some who don't celebrate Christmas in the typical way because of the pagan origins of many of its traditions, yet I don't hear any pundits complaining about those Christians.

In any case, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all! No matter what traditions you practice at this time of year, enjoy them and don't be bothered by what other people are doing to celebrate the season.
~ Toru771

The Bechdel Test: Questions on how to improve it

Greetings once again, and happy December!

I've been negligent in my blogging, I know -- the end-of-semester crunch will do that to you. But I have been mulling over some interesting topics to post about, and hopefully I'll get to a few of them now that school and work have begun to get a bit less hectic on my end.

This past spring, I took a literature class where we read many examples of different types of literature. One of those was Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alyson Bechdel. The book was a graphic memoir -- a memoir written as a graphic novel -- and contained many references to other literary works that dealt with gender issues and sexuality. Our main goal in studying Fun Home was to look at the literary works referenced in the story (be they classic novels, films, comic books, or other media) and see what parallels we could draw between the content and themes of those works and Bechdel's story. Along the way, my professor mentioned Bechdel's idea about criteria that would indicate fair representation of women in fiction. While randomly surfing around TVTropes (as has been a hobby of mine for the past few years), I happened across a page indicating that the criteria my professor mentioned were actually quite well-known among those who analyze literature.

Remember, remember...

Today's the fifth of November, which (as all you Brits and V for Vendetta fans know) means it's Guy Fawkes Day. It also happens to be the day before Election Day here in the US, so that lends a bit of delicious subtext or irony, depending on your point of view, to the whole event, considering what Fawkes was known for and what the popular interpretation of V for Vendetta has been.

In any case, I think it's tremendously important that everyone get out and vote tomorrow. No matter where you live, what candidates you support, or what issues matter to you, it's important to back that up by casting your ballot. I know that particularly for my fellow Hawai'i residents, it might seem pointless; we're a small state and we only get four electoral votes in the race for the White House. However, there was an interesting column in yesterday's edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser pointing out that if the race is extremely close in the rest of the country, our four votes might end up meaning the difference between whether we'll have Barack Obama or Mitt Romney leading the country for the next four years. I personally doubt it'll be anywhere near that close, but hey, you never know until all the votes have been counted.

This election is about much more than the presidential race, though. In Hawai'i, we're also going to decide on who will succeed Daniel Akaka in the US Senate for the next six years, and who will represent our two districts in the House. My fellow O'ahu residents will also be choosing their next mayor, and so will voters on Hawai'i Island. As with the presidential election, unfortunately, there has been a lot of corporate money flowing into our local races, resulting in TV ads high in negativity and low on facts. The lie-filled attack ads against candidates Ben Cayetano and Mazie Hirono are some of the most disgusting I've seen in our state (though I'm told there are worse ones elsewhere, so in that sense, I'm glad I live in Hawai'i). In any case, though, don't let all the bile discourage you. There are lots of important issues for our island, state, and country, so get informed, figure out which candidates best represent you, and vote! Unless you already voted early, in which case good on you.

Incidentally, there's one big qualm I've had relating to the rail issue on O'ahu. For those who aren't aware, our island faces a contentious issue as to whether or not to build a rail transit system to help alleviate traffic. Some insist it will help get people off the roads and result in less pollution, while others say it will harm the environment, be too expensive, and ultimately not serve or be used by enough people to be an effective solution. The problem I have is that in my area (and some other parts of the island), some anti-rail folks have adopted the mantra that people there shouldn't support it because their taxes will be used to pay for it even though it won't serve their area. To me, that's a rather selfish reason and flies in the face of the Hawaiian idea of kokua -- helping others without the thought of personal benefit. I personally think whether rail is built or whether a different transit plan is put in place, it won't solve all our traffic and transit problems on its own. But "what's in it for me" should never be our benchmark for whether or not to support a plan that's important for the whole community.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for listening to me rant. And remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain! Have a great Nov. 5th and Election Day, and enjoy the end of political ads... at least, until the next cycle.
~ Toru771

A Fearfully Fun Introduction

Welcome, all!

I suppose it's only fitting that my first blog post here should be on All Hallow's Eve; after all, I'm an October kid, and so Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. For those who don't know me, I'm James, though I also go by several pseudonyms -- you may have seen me on other blogs, message boards, or miscellaneous websites as "IamErik771," "JokesOnYou771," "DarkMark771," "NapoleonOfCrime771," "LordAndMaster771," or some other username that includes that number at the end. As you can see, I also tend to side with the villains or antiheroes rather than the good guys in most fictional works.

Anyway, I thought I'd start this blog as a place where I could talk about all manner of things that interest me. I have quite a number of interests, as well; I'm into a wide variety of media from books to films, from musicals to online reviews. I'm a Tolkienite, Trekker, Troper, Holmesian, Whovian, Batfan, Marvelite, Potterite, Sondheimite, Phantom Phan, Mizzie, Jekkie, Nostalgia Junkie, and many, many other things. (If you're not sure what some of those are, feel free to ask!)

I suppose you could consider this blog a continuation of my old Livejournal (which likely won't be updated anymore, except perhaps with a link to this blog). Also, I've got another Blogspot specifically for posts related to The Phantom of the Opera (novel, musicals, films, and other versions) here. Those links might give you some idea of the fanboy I am, but if not, stay tuned for my future posts here! I look forward to meeting and chatting with some awesome new people, and also perhaps finding some old friends here.

Have an awesome Halloween!
~ Toru771