Les Miserables

When my wife and I first watched Les Miserables in London in 1986 whilst celebrating our First wedding Anniversary , we were both blown away by it and never did we think that we would be watching an amateur production of this musical.

However that box was ticked off on the 11th of July when we were invited to the Gala Performance of Les Miserables at the Grand Theatre Swansea. One of only 11 productions Nationwide to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of this musical.

Firstly may I take this opportunity to thank Claire, Robert and Simon representatives of all three companies for their lovely welcome.

On the first performance I watched team Blue perform and this report will only cover their performances, I will do a further report on Team Red when I watch this performance on the 18th July. 

With a choir of 16 and ensemble of 52 and a main cast of 12 where do you start?

For me it must be with the ensemble. I was blown away by their work on stage. Each actor portrayed an individual character on stage and did not lose it once. As well as singing and acting their roles they also took on the duties of moving the very clever set designed once again by Ashley around the stage seamlessly.

The pictures drawn during the ensemble numbers were so effective , and the vocal performance was fantastic.

Young Cosette and Young Eponine were played by Darcie Webb and Mila Bohan and what an experience it must have been for these two young girls to perform to a sell out crowd in such an iconic musical at the ages of 10 and 9 well done both.

Enjolras was played by Joseph Robinson, and he must be congratulated as Jo is the only actor from the main cast performing in all the shows, from what I have been told Team Purple, an experienced actor and Jo as usual gave a polished performance in this role.

The Thenardiers were played By Joe Walters and Rhian Morwood, these two characters added a good amount of comedy to their roles and the audience related well with them as was evident with the whole audience clapping along in Beggars at the Feast, well done both.

Sam Freeman and Ffion Wilson took on the roles of Marius and Cosette and I really liked their performances, they had a lovely relationship on stage and sang their vocal numbers really well.

The role of Eponine was taken by Domenique Jones and she really nailed it. I loved her characterisation and vocally she delivered in her musical numbers. I especially liked Little fall of Rain sung with Sam and she gave a really powerful rendition of On my own.

Dylan Hill , another 10 year old played Gavroche, and I think everyone present fell for him. A very mature performance by this young actor who I am sure we will hear more about in the future, well done Dylan

It is very difficult in such a quality production to single out individual performance but I feel compelled to at this time.

For me without doubt the three standout performances were by Dannielle Gravell as Fantine, David Stephens as Javert and Greg Arthur as Valjean and all I can say about all three of these performers is WOW.

Danni’s rendition of I dreamed a Dream was equal to any I have seen performed professionally in this show and there were many in the audience with tears in their eyes.

Greg gave a masterful performance as Jean Valjean and for me was a perfect lead in this show, Bring him Home was sung to a still auditorium until the last note.

Finally what can I say about David’s performance as Javert other than , this was possibly the best I have seen and yes I did see the original cast, Stars really did blow me away. He gave a wonderful performance which was added to by some clever direction by Ashley.

The whole evening was a magical night of theatre and all involved can be so proud of themselves. Ashley, Jonathan and all of your support staff are to be congratulated.

I look forward immensely to watching Team Red as I have been reliably informed that the standard is just as high.

Thank you once again to all the societies for their welcome and yes we certainly did Hear the People Sing.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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