Complete, no understudy, no white slip (except for Lisa Capps) cast!

* Lisa Capps on for Karen Elliot

Brief notes on principles: (ensemble and other random notes below, more comprehensive comments in review for next performance).

Randal Keith

Amazing, as always.

Robert Hunt

I've noticed kind of an odd moment during "Javert's Intervention" where Robert starts heading off-stage but then stops suddenly as if someone had said something, but no one had. It wasn't until a couple beats later that Norman enters with "In the absence of a victim ..." That timing just needs to be refined a little to make sense.

Joan Almedilla

I was sitting farther back today, and yet I still noticed a lack of facial expressions during "I Dreamed a Dream", less than I think I'm used to seeing from her. And woman, stop singing from the throat. And I do have to complain that her movements are a little overdone, to the point where she looks like she convulsing when that isn't even remotely her intention. For example, when she spits in Valjean's face, she manages to catapult herself backwards into a heap onto the floor. It just looks a little unnatural. Even in her death scene which I used to like a lot, it doesn't look right anymore because she doesn't appear weak or sick. She just looks uncoordinated, which doesn't have the same effect. My new favorite scene of hers, though, is the "Epilogue" -- she isn't trying to do too much and she sings VERY nicely.

Rachel Schier

Her acting has so much surpassed her singing. I love her extremely pained facial expression when Mme. Thénardier screams, "Like mother like daughter, the scum of the street!" She's frantically scrubbing a table at that point, and she looks as if she's about to burst into tears.

Jennifer Butt

Wonderfully freaky.

Norman Large

Hilariously dense, but driven by money.

Anthony Skillman

He put a great deal more oomph into many of his lines today, especially those in "Little People". Still a little stiff on the stage movements, but great attitude coming through in his voice. He got a good laugh from the audience and a nice round of applause after his remarks (after "Stars")

Melissa Lyons

She was uncharacteristically low energy in "On My Own" until last lines where she re-affirms that she "loves him", which were heartbreaking. "A Little Fall of Rain" was particularly moving, I think because Melissa's voice really carried a tone of "what-could-have-been" and Dan played off that quite well.

Victor Wallace

Victor seemed a little underpowered today, like a lot of the notes required more effort than it usually does. I really did expect his voice to break somewhere, but luckily it didn't -- but it sounded like it would. (As I learned the next day, he'd been out sick on Wednesday and wasn't feeling 100% yet.)

Daniel Bogart

Well, some of that strange sitting-on-the-vowels thing came back, even in "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" which was so good on Wednesday. It was still very moving today, but those vowels are somewhat distracting.

He adds an interesting gesture at "I'm LOST until she's found!" where he pauses ever so slightly before "lost", takes a step back away from Eponine, and waves his arms down as if to indicate that he is missing a part of him.

Leslie Henstock

She seemed to have a little less ease with that highest note of "A Heart Full of Love" and especially at end of "Every Day" -- both sounded a hair flat. Also, the vowel resonance wasn't working as well as on Wednesday, and some of them were a little sharp (in resonance, not pitch).

Random notes:

• Not sure if this was intended or on accident, but Ryan sang "Here's to pretty girls who went to our beds" and Charlie came back with "Here's to witty girls who went to our heads" (and Charlie heavily emphasized "heads" -- yes, he usually emphasizes "beds" anyway, but he put extra on it.). Supposed to be reversed.
• Candice Nicole is one mean Factory Girl. She reminds me of the most popular girl in high school, who expects to get everything she wants and will bite the head off anyone that gets in her way -- or at least make their life miserable, which she does to Fantine, obviously. But it's so believable. All she needs to do is take a step toward Joan, and immediately Joan shrinks away.
• Gabriel Kalomas's Lesgles has an interesting relationship with Dave's Grantaire -- when Dave sings "Dogs will bark, fleas will bite", Gabe gets right in his face, angrily pointing his finger at him, and sings rather roughly, "They will do what is right!" But then later in "Drink with Me", when just about everyone is mad at Grantaire for having said what he did in his solo, Gabe comes over with a cup and asks for some wine from Dave's bottle, almost sympathetically.
• Gabe also is making his Bishop much more frail in his movements. It actually does look like he has a hard time standing up from that kneeling position he has in front of Valjean when giving him the silver candlesticks.
• This audience was very responsive tonight, lots of laughing especially, and quick to applaud (except after "Javert's Suicide" which deserved applause) and very loud cheering for most of the major songs.
• Dave's Grantaire is growing on me. Particularly when he is mocking Marius for being in love, which I actually have been laughing at (yet not so much when Trent did it, for some reason). And even though his drunkenness isn't funny like Trent's, damn, Dave is good at it. He stumbles across the stage and I half expect him to pass out from intoxication by the time "Drink with Me" comes around.
• Also, Dave's Grantaire and Dan's Marius have a rather jovial relationship, as Dan takes Dave's teasing very good-naturedly and they playfully smack each other around for a few moments after that. That's fun to watch.
• It was funny when Melissa turned indignantly to Jennifer at "Our Eponine would kiss their feet" and then stuck her tongue out at "she never had a scrap of brain".
• Dan is very careful about keeping Eponine's identity secret when she arrives dressed as a boy and when she returns from delivering his letter to Cosette. He sings in a half-hushed voice, and quickly pulls her aside from everyone else.
• Leading into "A Little Fall of Rain", Dan's "why have you come back here" took on a very worried tone, not for Eponine's safety but because he figured something had to have gone wrong in delivering his beloved letter for Eponine to come back
• Thénardier's gang also sings in half-hushed voices through most of "The Attack on Rue Plumet", which sometimes made their singing difficult to make out.
• I also noticed this last Sunday, but Victor yells out Jean Prouvraire's name at the start of the battle in "The First Attack". I don't think I've heard any other Enjolras actors do that.
• It's interesting how Eric Briarley picks up and slams down a crate in frustration, creating a loud bang on the very first beat of music leading into Enjolras' line, "How do we stand, Feuilly? Make your report!"
• Strangely, Dan didn't have his white gloves for the wedding scene -- first I noticed that he wasn't trying to hurriedly put them on in the darkness, and then I saw that his hands were bare. Did he (or his dresser or the props people) forget them?
• I noticed this on Wednesday, too, but even though Pierce is back to where he usually is in the ensemble during "The Wedding Chorale", Leslie is still left to eavesdrop on the conversation between Marius and the Thénardiers.