(mini review) May 12, 2019
We saw an INCREDIBLY funny show yesterday and I am sorry we saw it only on the closing day.
For a month or two, in the Santa Monica Blvd HWD theater row, there was a parody of Les Miz called LES MIZ AND FRIENDS. We knew one of the leads. It was in a 99 seat theater.
Click here:
The motife was that lead characters were gradually replaced by muppet-like puppet versions, but the use of the original Les Miz music, plus very funny parody lyrics, plus breaking the fourth wall, improv, etc, was really funny.
Example. Toward the end a couple of the actors paused and one asked, "Does anybody in the audience know what happens next?" Several call-outs, "Javert commits suicide!" "Javert jumps off the bridge!" The actor double-takes, waves his arms, yells, "IT WAS A YES OR NO QUESTION !!!"
During the second act battle scenes, Epinome takes a love letter from Marius to Cosette, and when she hands it to Jean Valjean it turns into a "who's on first" sketch ("Marius is in love with me? No? Cosette is in love with me? No?" "Just give the letter to Cosette!" "(turns letter upside down)...Marius is in love with Fantime...?")
Another digression was on the weak roles of women relative to the several male leads, and then a comparison to Hamilton which is much more recent but has the same problem. The finale started, and then was paused to point out that the melody and rhythm were almost identical to Battle Hymn of the Republic.
It's a little hard to extract but there's another section where they point out that they have arrested someone thinking he is Valjean, but the lyrics also tell us elsewhere that Valjean's number 24601 is branded on his chest. "They found another guy the same height, same age, and same prisoner number tattooed on this chest?" "How did Victor Hugo explain this?" "He didn't! The branded number occurs only in the musical lyrics and in a different act. It's the biggest unforced error in the history of musical theater!"
It's a little hard to extract but there's another section where they point out that they have arrested someone thinking he is Valjean, but the lyrics also tell us elsewhere that Valjean's number 24601 is branded on his chest. "They found another guy the same height, same age, and same prisoner number tattooed on this chest?" "How did Victor Hugo explain this?" "He didn't! The branded number occurs only in the musical lyrics and in a different act. It's the biggest unforced error in the history of musical theater!"
Or, an outtake, "That's right, folks: Jean Valjean has become mayor of the one town in France where the Chief of Police is Javert, a man who has dedicated his life to finding Jean Valjean. But we digress, because this next scene depends on the mayor and chief of police never having met each other once in the previous five years."
___
The actors were very good as actors, as singers, and also as improve comedians which was a small but important part of the experience. There were two sections where they bring audience members on stage as extras.
It's written and produced by two of the ensemble, Nathan Makaryk and Geneveive Flati. Find some reviews through the links here.
Hear a 30 minute podcast with the creative team at LA Theater Bites online, here.
Hear a 30 minute podcast with the creative team at LA Theater Bites online, here.
