Word: marius
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Dear Professor Marius...
Professor Marius, I realize that this Commencement was just one of many that you have been involved in. This was, however, my only Commencement. It did little for me, my parents or my friends to witness the class of 1987 boo and hiss their own orator. Coupled with the mediocre performance of last year's undergraduate speaker, I am concerned that the process of choosing speakers has become a travesty. Only my memory of the stirring performance given by last year's graduate speaker, and this year's Latin Oration, give me hope that the present method of choosing speakers...
...staging, by Artistic Associate Kenneth MacMillan, emphasizes clarity and tradition. He stays with Marius Petipa's choreography, wherever it has survived. (Many of his steps have been lost, as subsequent directors modified sequences to suit later, often smaller companies and different dancers.) The piece is set in 17th and 18th century French surroundings, as it often is. The scenery, by Nicholas Georgiadis, is pleasing if not quite light and airy enough. The costumes, also by Georgiadis and supervised by Anna Watkins, are breathtaking, not only sumptuous but redolent of a royal fantasy. The stage is filled with personages who could...
...Unexpectedly, he encompasses the outsize moral stature of Valjean, making believable both his general saintliness and his outbursts of animal ferocity. Only one other member of the original cast is in the U.S. company: Frances Ruffelle, who as a tomboyish adolescent joins the revolt out of unrequited love for Marius. Many of the other performances rival the West End originals; Randy Graff's splendid Fantine, utterly persuasive when, on her deathbed, she "sees" her absent daughter, is actually an improvement. In three major roles, however, the new ensemble falls far short: Terrence Mann sings Javert impeccably, but in an effort...
Four years of development followed, during which the show raised its total of credited writers to seven, among them Herbert Kreztmer, who translated the lyrics, and Co-Directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird, who asked for five new character songs -- several of which, notably Javert's meditational Stars and Marius' farewell to his slain companions, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, became showstoppers. Nunn and Caird reconceived the staging, using one huge revolving turntable inside another -- on which sets come and go and characters move from one scene into the next -- to achieve a fluid, cinematic style. Also involved from...