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Patti LuPone: "Les Miserables"

Some thoughts about British musicals; I'm borrowing from a new book, "When the British Musical Ruled the World."


*Decades ago, a French writer went to see a revival of "Oliver!" He made note of Mr. Bumble, Bill Sykes, Nancy, Fagin. Suddenly, major French characters began dancing around in his head--Gavroche, Eponine, Valjean. He had a vision; he could no longer concentrate on "Oliver!" This is why we now have a musical version of "Les Miserables."


*The big "Miss Saigon" showdown centered on Jonathan Pryce. Actors were (understandably) furious that a white British man would be traveling to America to play an Asian character. In London, Pryce actually wore prosthetics and bronzer to "look Asian." The producers observed that the Pryce character was only half-Asian--and some wondered if this was a cynical move to make Pryce's casting seem more palatable. (Not a great move, in any case. Imagine if someone chose Norbert Leo Butz to play Barack Obama in a musical. "The character is half-white!")

*The people behind "Chess" were really angry about Frank Rich. There was speculation that Rich had blinding, irrational hatred for all British mega-musicals. He could not "kill" the ALW works ("Evita," "Cats") because they were just too popular. But he knew that "Chess" was vulnerable, so he wrote an especially vicious review to help send "Chess" toward a speedy death. I'm not sure about all of this. Maybe "Chess" is just very, very bad.

*The idea in "Les Miserables" was that several main actors would double as revolutionary fighters. If your final solo happens in Act One, then you can expect to spend Act Two as a faceless singer on the barricade. Patti LuPone hated this; also, she was missing her boyfriend, who was living his own life back in America. Patti became teary in rehearsals--and she insisted she would not spend any time on the barricade. She lost this battle. You could see her holding a gun, or a knife, in the shadows, somewhere around the nineteenth hour of the show, perhaps before "Bring Him Home."

*The first "Cats" production allowed the actors to be human. You never doubted they were human; they were stylized approximations of cats. The makeup was simple and abstract. The touch was light, as in Julie Taymor's "The Lion King." It's only in recent years that directors have tried hard to persuade you that you're watching actual cats. (That's certainly the idea in the recent movie.) One theory behind the decline in this show's popularity is that people are forgetting to make a show about people....People now have a silly idea that they are making a show about cats.

That's all for now. Happy weekend!
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