iTunes Exclusive Episode Les Miserables

The following is a sooner orgator production.
Good morning?
We all want to change the world.
Greetings, Empire member and members.
Maybe you're having a group gathering together to listen to us, and that's okay, okay
with that.
If you are hearing my voice right now, it means that one may be of a couple of things.
Number one, you like those of the Clubhouse podcast, and we greatly appreciate that.
The other thing means you subscribe on iTunes because the following is, and iTunes exclusive.
We welcome each of you individually, no matter how you're listening.
My name is Rob, and I am the executive producer, and all around ringmaster at this
thing.
And I'm not by myself on this particular iTunes exclusive chair.
Joining me first across the desk as he tends to, for our live shows each and every Sunday
night, seven Easter and four Pacific, we are your one stop shopper, all things sports entertainment,
and when I say we, I mean we, it requires another person, and that other person
is Chad welcome back sir, good day sir, and I say good day, I say good day sir.
Also joining us for this particular iTunes exclusive is the official fact checker of this
show.
I wouldn't say he helps keep the wheels on the show because there would have to be wheels
on them to begin with, no he's handy with a wrench to knock him off as soon as he gets
a chance.
You may know him as fun, don't go, but his mama named him Don Ford, I'm going to call
him Don Ford.
Welcome sir.
Oh, hello everybody, how are you doing today?
Whatever we do one of these particular episodes, and this is the 40 in iTunes exclusive
that we've done, closing in on that 50 mark, it's usually to review something and this
is no exception.
Today we're going to get a little local on you.
So if you're not in the Dallas Fort Worth area, just listen for your own benefit because
it helps us.
So I'm saying today we are reviewing the local production of Lehmins Arabla currently
playing at the Dallas Theater Center at the Dean Charles Wiley Theater downtown Dallas
a beautiful facility, no kidding unless you've been living in a cave, I'll go ahead
and explain a bit here because this this musical has been around for a long time, quarter
a century, based on the book by the great Victor Hugo, you could say it's the story
of Jean Valjean, but you could say it's also a ensemble piece.
Starts out with Jean Valjean getting a, I guess a weekend pass out of prison where he's
been for 19 years, we're still in the loaf of bread and breaking a window.
Prold.
He's prolled.
And you as a former pro officer, you know the rules, yeah absolutely sir.
And he decides he's not going back and basically disappears and somehow becomes a mayor
of a town, same guy, nobody recognize him, but that okay, I'll roll with you.
And he gets he gets discovered by the Inspector chasing him.
But what you see is he and the Inspector chasing him tend to cross paths and in this almost
cat and mouse game that takes place, I mean I think this is deep into it as we need to
go.
Let's start with the story itself as we do when we review something Chad, now let's
let's kind of temperature this a little bit.
Don had you ever seen any form of layman before we saw this production?
Yeah, I've seen a couple of full musicals and there's also that movie that came out with
a man, decent, and Hugh Jackman, and everybody in their brook, no no Hugh Jackman was a
musical, but we just did it when there were a couple of years ago that wasn't a full
musical at all.
There wasn't a full constant singing like the one with Hugh Jackman and what we saw last
night.
Okay, I kind of stepped on myself and I was like, wait a minute, that's the role that
they both played okay.
So I had that completely wrong because Russell Crow played Juffert in the musical that
Jackman was in.
All right.
And no this was not my first dance either.
It was mine.
I went into this completely cold.
I had never seen the film.
I mean, I knew of the music because if you have a computer you've heard, I've dreamed
a dream at least once, but it's just a boy, yeah.
But that was really all I knew of that.
That's one of the wondercat joins us.
So I was very intrigued going into this because I really wanted to kind of see this
through fresh eyes.
I purposely didn't go and watch any of the movies or do any research on any of the
productions before it because I really truly wanted to go and cold.
So we have three different viewpoints going into this, which I think is kind of
neat.
So Chad, how did this, the story as it was told, measure up to what you've seen before?
Well, just by pure text, the words on the page, yes, that's how I want to start.
There were times that it got a little confusing.
Sometimes it got a little hard to follow.
Okay.
Because of the anachronisms that were kind of phoned in your way.
How so?
Well, I think we were all three just kind of taking a back by the out of place elements
that were put into this production.
Okay.
Because I know that's something that you have in a dress yet in the open.
Correct.
Because I'm kind of buried in the lead on that one.
Yeah.
Well, it's kind of unavoidable to talk about the story without addressing that.
Because it's marketed as journey to 19th century France.
I'm like, well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that the 19th century
France and I'm familiar with, they weren't using iPods and planning their revolution
on a Mac.
And we'll get to that here in just a moment.
But, you know, it's one of those things where you really can't talk about the story
without addressing the changes that they've made to the overall story to it.
That the whole revolution was more like an occupy a Wall Street movement kind of thing.
Just a little more militant to it.
But, I think that they were, even though they didn't really seem like they cut anything
out for time purposes, it did seem like a quite a few shortcuts were taken.
To where I kind of was like, okay, that kind of ended up properly.
So do you think that somebody like me who maybe wouldn't know better would be better
serve now going back and watching one of the other productions that might fill in some
holes.
I mean, that I didn't know were there before.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Fair enough, Don.
Overall, in the big scheme of things, I thought the storyline was really close to what
I've seen before.
In the basic general, you know, mainstream.
So the main storyline, which I've seen before and stuff was there.
The music was, I thought, very close to what I've seen and known before.
But like the changes that Chad talked about.
But in the mainstream things, it's the basic story of a miss.
Let's just hold in a newer way.
Okay.
But if I want to get into the music, I'm not there yet.
So I want the story first.
But the story, it was nothing really surprising to me on the main story.
Yeah.
I was satisfied with that.
It had the big main parts.
It followed the storyline pretty well considering with the new look, the new thing that
they, new twist they added with it.
Okay.
For me, I guess I was going into it with a little bit of a different expectation.
And it took a minute for it to settle in for me.
Hello.
You got you okay with that?
The background music.
Okay.
You're welcome internet.
You think I was going to actually use the production music in this, did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you?
There's a reason that you guys don't get to see what I put.
I needed that.
Because that adds flavor to the podcast.
I'm saying.
It took me because, and let's go ahead and transition that into the presentation itself
because it didn't settle in with me that this wasn't a period piece version of this
musical until well into the first act.
I guess it didn't hit me, you know, the look of the guns that the guards were using.
It didn't click with me and I'll give you the moment it clicked with me in the restaurant
scene where the innkeeper's doing his big number.
And the kid walks up but he's got an iPod, but he's got his iPod.
My first thought was, did somebody just walk out of the audience and they're just walking
through this thing?
And then he sat down and I was like, oh, okay, so we've modernized it.
All right.
Well, you've boss learned it as I was saying that you did say that as we were walking
out the night before we were recording this.
I would say last night, but it depends on when somebody listens to that truth.
Which I guess for me, like you thought maybe it meandered a little bit for me and then
maybe that's because I wasn't getting the full story.
As it went longer, you know, we got into act to it tightened up a little bit but I
felt the pace got quicker.
Yeah.
I totally agree with you on that.
So for that, I mean, I think I have a little bit of advantage going into it cold, but not
much of one.
So we are kind of in agreement that the story itself was a little meandered.
Yeah.
Okay, fair enough.
Now let's go into the presentation as we, as I said, we were transitioning that.
Once I realized what was going on here that we were doing doing this with modern costuming
and modern technology and things of that nature, I can't say it took me out of it.
But on a certain level, I was kind of like, oh, man, because I really wanted to see, you
know, France from 1815 to 1832, right?
Which you got a little bit of that kind of sort of, but you didn't.
Right.
Now let's go to you on this.
Yeah, it kind of threw me, here's a thing for someone like you going in, who's never
seen it or knows anything, it might be a little confusing, saying, okay, why do they have
a swine here and stuff like that?
I would more recommend this as for somebody who's already seen it like me and Chad to
go and say, this is, let me with a new twist.
If you're going to this play thinking you're going to see like a normal, you know, a normal
lemon is like production that people are used to or you seem a big screen, you're not
going to get that.
So I might not be one disadvantage.
For someone who's seen it, it's kind of nice to have the new twist, like the officers
and the swat, you know, outfits and stuff like that, and then like the manager, the
format at the plant, where in the little tag ID tag on this thing and, you know, stuff
like that.
So for me, it was kind of interesting to see the new twist, but it might be a major disadvantage
to someone like you going in, which I think may be a problem for some people who just
think and they're going to see a normal thing of a mess.
Right.
Okay.
For all indications, that's what we were going to see.
And that's what I come thought too, but for me, it's something, you know, it's kind
of different.
Okay.
So let's get into the, to the meeting, the meeting, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the play
bill like that.
We're looking at right now.
I mean, what I, what I, what I really dug about this cast is the multitasking, you
know, 90% of the people in this cast have ensemble listed next to their name, even if
they were playing one of the characters, you know, like co-set or Marius or anybody
like that, right, had ensemble next to their name, too, because they were so much movement.
But it was also what I dug about that was the way the costume in the makeup was done.
You couldn't always pin down, oh, that was so and so from before, right, like they really
did a good job with making these people into these different characters, even if they
were, you know, for lack of a better term, extras in a scene, there were still enough
of a difference in the costume in the makeup that, that it didn't take me out of it.
Right, it was like, oh, that's so and so again, and then you had the whole cast on stage
at the end of the show, and then you realize, there's like 20 people in this whole thing.
Yeah, there was like 50 characters, right, you're like, huh?
And that impressed me a lot.
Oh, a lot.
Hey, look at the orchestra, like you had like two or three of the instruments probably
more than that.
We're playing like five different instruments.
They put one down to pick another one up and start playing that and, and so gave you the
feel that you were listening to a full orchestra.
Yeah, I was impressed with that, and the conductor, if you watch that screen during the show,
he's playing the keyboards, but at the same time, he's conducting with his ass, you know,
which I thought was very impressive on that point.
And great technical work by, by the whiley, having those two screens on the back wall
to the actors, should they lose where they were, they could see the conductor and see
it as he was counting working the count.
I thought that was a genius, a little stride, never seen that in a production that I'd
been to before.
Maybe it's just better hidden in certain productions that I'd been to.
Yeah, because your attention isn't really drawn to that, because you literally have to
be looking behind you, and you really don't have a reason to be looking in that direction.
Or in our cases, looking, I mean, we could see it out of this corner of our eyes, because
we were on the side.
Yeah, but the other reason that you, your eyes would be drawn to that is if you were
just wandering.
And to the main characters like the placement and the main character, I think I kind of like
this how they, through the show, aged them by the hair.
They grated out.
I don't know how they did it, but you see the chief inspector in the first scene, he basically
has a black beard black hair by the end.
He has gray hair.
John Bell John played by Nehal Joshi.
I hope I said that right.
Yeah, he had the go-t.
And it starts off black by the end of the show.
He is with the gray, gray, go-t.
You know, which I thought was very interesting how to do that.
On the props I thought was, it wasn't a big, you know, change of stage or anything like
that.
But I liked how they bring in props and changing the lighting, made it feel like you're
in different scenes.
Like the bar scene, you felt like you're like in a bar, then you take everything out,
you feel like you're on the street.
And a fairly stimp, a stimpable, a fairly simple stage set, too.
Yeah.
When we walked in, I was like, okay, because we had been to Mamma Mia the month before.
And a simple stage set, but still very technical, where this was a little bit more
stripped down, but a lot smoother in the transitions I thought.
And the props did it.
Absolutely, Chad.
Yeah.
It was kind of a, whereas the way they had to set up on Mamma Mia, where they basically
had two large pieces that they just kind of flipped around.
And here they just had a drop set that they just lowered down to, and that didn't have
a little second.
Right.
And it wasn't put into play until the scene with the barricade.
And literally was the barricade that they brought down.
And other than that, they just scattered a couple of styrofoam rocks around and, and had
that be your, your hiding points whenever the, whenever all the fighting started, pretty
brilliant stage design, very simplistic, but very effective.
Performances.
Chad will start with you with a performance category standouts.
Oh, good night.
I know where you're going, because I was sitting right next to you, but I'm going to tell
everybody else.
Elizabeth Judd, um, as, uh, Eponine, the adult, uh, right, uh, Dorcus Lung, as
co-set, adult cassette, absolutely floored me.
Well, I remember looking at you whenever she started singing, and all I could hear was
Page O'Hare from Beauty and the Beast, she sounded just like that.
You told me that in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the mission.
And what more can you say about, uh, uh, who played Fontaine, Allison Blackwell, if
this woman doesn't break your heart, no matter of a minute or two, yes.
See, you don't have a soul.
You and I talked, actually, I'll, I'm going to put a pin in that I'm going to let
don't go first, and then we'll talk deeper.
Yeah, I, my, bro, if I had one standout, it was Ashley Judd.
Ashley Judd, Elizabeth Judd.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Although that would have been really, I wouldn't say.
I wouldn't say.
Um, no, Elizabeth Judd.
I thought she played that part, you know, very, very well, her singing wasn't credible.
Also for me, the chief inspector who played, uh, Javier, Edward Watts, I thought, I, I really
liked his character.
And of course, the, uh, Miss Blackwell, too, those, those were my three, three big
standouts.
So I thought the singing wasn't credible.
And overall, I thought the, overall, in the whole cast, especially when they got together
in a couple scenes where they're all singing together and gets loud in there, I was
really impressed.
There wasn't any real singing that I was disappointed, disappointed by it all on this.
I did leave a couple of moth though, yeah, but I think it about Stephen Michael Walters.
And Christia Manzky, co-sets, uh, adoptive, adoptive, adoptive, yeah, yeah, yeah, the end
keepers and stuff.
They were incredible.
Oh, gosh.
Uh, Javier, I will agree with you, I'm strong, just strong.
I can't give you a weak singing performance in this cast.
I mean, everything I was incredibly impressed with, uh, one thing that really, really got
to me and one thing as someone who was a vocalist that I'm, I tend to be fairly critical
is control, anybody can go out there and belt.
But when you know how to work dynamics into it and know when to bring it down and when
to be big and when to be, you know, emotionally invested, this cast I felt did that very
well, um, it was big when it needed to be big, make no mistake, but it was understanding
what it needed to be, understanding it and to have that kind of vocal control where you
can stay in that range and still hold those notes when your vocal cords want to go
big with it and your brain is going, you know, you have to be quiet in this, even though
this is high, you have to keep it quiet, amazing work by the cast there.
So I want to give a shout out to the technical crew on this.
That's a lot of microphones, it's no kidding, and the lighting made it, oh well, let me
let me see what I'm going with this.
I think I only heard one time where maybe a mic, he was missed, yeah, at one time and the
mix was great, you never had too much orchestra, you never had too much vocal, you could
tell there were different types of mics used, I guess it was just a personal preference
by the cast, some were using the ones hanging from the hair, some were using the ones
hanging over the ear, but it didn't, it didn't distract me from what was going on.
So shout out to the technical crew for really nailing this thing, like down to the lighting
too, really, you know, they did the transitions great.
Like the lighting in the bar scene, then the next is a street scene where it's seen
start giving notes just so you know, basically a stage with just some props.
I think that really did it there.
Any criticisms of the show, and Chad, I'm going to start with you because I know you
have one, and on a certain level I agree, I feel bad that I feel this way, and it
shouldn't be good.
It's your honest opinion, and I think that's what people that listen to these shows
ask for.
Yeah, you're principal, you're principal lead, nail joshing, again, hope we're saying
that correctly, a very commanding voice, absolutely, I cannot, I cannot, you know, a short
change him on that at all, if this guy doesn't hold your attention when he sends
your probably death right, and he's he's got a lot of of of weight to his voice,
but I, I never bought him as Jean Valgion, I was never completely sold with him playing
this character.
I would agree with you on that, not that he's another, it's a bad performance.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's one of those deals where you are great, but this role
is not you, right, I mean, I, I'm probably rather would have seen Stephen Michael Walters
or Edward Watts playing Jean Valgion, and I think it would have worked better for me, just
as an actor playing a role, but again, not taking away from the greatness of his
for no, not at all, but just, it just didn't, it was just, it was just, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know what it was.
It's an ex-factor that I can't put my finger on, like, you know who I think he would
be brilliant to play, not even in this, in this particular play, I think he'd make a fantastic
Arthur in Spambalot, fair enough fair enough, I would love to see him play that role, I think
he would be absolutely killer in that role, I just don't buy him as Jean Valgion, fair enough
done, any criticisms, in the big scheme of things, I would be, I like that they took the
chance on this, and they did it, you know, the modern version, but I think for, like I
can't say in earlier, that someone coming in wanting to see a normal MS, they're not going
to get it, they're not going to get it, I wouldn't recommend this to someone who, like
you Rob, had never seen it before, and have this be your first impression of this story.
I personally like it, and it was a good twist for all of us, but that is the first time.
Not as a first timer, that would be my one criticism.
If I have to have a criticism, it is the updated look of it, because once I realized they
were setting this modern, the French will give up before they revolt, that's all I'm
saying, you know, and I almost didn't even feel France, except for they called, you
know, Mr. or Madam, you know, other than that, I didn't get France, of course, they
were Baraisal, one point, but I didn't get France out of it.
It could have been a Prince concert for all week, it's fair point, you know, or, you
know, a public enemy concert from 1992, yeah, it's like a Jean-Belle Jean-Belle, a terminator
and exactly, but that's what kind of took me out of it, because I didn't feel France
from it outside of, oh yeah, you're Madam, you're a messured, like you didn't, again,
like Don said it was a risk, but I don't think that role came up, snake eyes, but it
didn't come up, Bar Bar Bar Bar, either or Diamond Diamond Diamond for me.
I can't say, I want that three hours of my life back, because I don't, I really enjoyed
the show.
I'm glad we, I'm glad we went out there and they put their hearts into it.
Absolutely, you didn't, you didn't feel there was one person in this cast that wasn't giving
150%.
It just, this thing's going for about seven weeks, roughly.
Yeah, I mean, it started right, right, 27, June 27th, the taping for this is July 30th,
and it's got another week in there, almost, almost seven, 10, goes for another two and
a half weeks.
It's like, like we said earlier, that this, this goes out more to the Empire, that's
in the DFW area, who has a chance to see this now, and this is a small venue, but
to the people, the Empire, if you see this traveling around, who's not in the DFW, we're
giving this review, so if it comes to your area, just check it out, but we're, you know,
given this more to the DFW area, but before we go any further, we, we first have to think
for stuff that Dallas Theater Center.
Yeah, thank you so much for that.
We got to think Kelsey Guy for, wonderfully.
Wonderful lady.
Wish we would have run into her, we were there, but I know she's a very busy one.
Yeah, but to Kelsey, we want to thank you.
We look forward to a long relationship, anything we could do for you.
Let us know to the Dallas Theater Center.
Thank you so much.
Also, to the wildly theater, you know, downtown Dallas, the wildly theater downtown, you
know, thank you so much.
All right, so let's get to the final analysis.
We're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down.
We're not going to give you a rank or a grade because you're the Empire and you're
better than that.
Two prong question, prong one, would you see this again?
If the answer is no, we're done here.
If the answer is yes, in what atmosphere would you want to see this again?
Because this isn't a film, so it's not like we can't give it.
I'd rather watch it out of the mat and there, blah, blah, blah.
Would you recommend it?
I guess we could change that second prong to, would you recommend it to someone going
to it?
So Chad, we'll start with you.
Would you see this again?
I probably would say it again now that I know what to expect, okay?
It was the, it was the, you know, not knowing what I was in for, that kind of
threw me.
And then seeing what I saw, I'm like, okay, well, now that I've got to wrap my hand
around that, would you recommend it to others to someone, like I said, who was familiar
with the story and they wouldn't be so put off and let them know in advance, hey, it's
a new, it's a new spin on this.
So don't be, don't be thrown off guard when you see it.
Don, would you see this again?
Oh, yeah.
I would.
And to the DFW area, I would recommend it to the people there.
Even if you haven't seen it before, it's still, you know, it's still a miss when it comes
down to it.
It's not what you're, the normal thing, but to anybody, I would recommend it.
You got another two and a half weeks roughly for this, you know, so go for it.
I would love to see this again, um, being as techy of a guy as I am, I spend a lot of
time looking all over the place and plus I have that squirrel thing going on.
But I loved it from a technical aspect.
You know, this isn't, this isn't a huge theater, you know, so you, you get to fill
in that maybe the budget isn't what it would be for somewhere like the music college
fair park or, you know, just a windspirer opera house that's right across the street.
But I felt they did an amazing job technically.
I would recommend this to somebody who just wants to spend a few hours enjoying some
great entertainment.
You don't really have to be an arts for art, sake, kind of person, which is kind
of nice.
It's a night at the theater is really what it is.
It's not exactly kid friendly either.
That is true.
That is true.
That caught me off card.
We did, we did bring my niece with us, who was 17, but I still kind of had, I put the program
up in front of our face at one point, of course, she looked me like, I'm gonna rob
really.
Have you met my father?
It was an honor to have her with us, really enjoyed the evening, a theater geek in
her own right, just like I was in high school, that's why it was a Dallas Fort Worth
area.
Go check out ladies at the Wiley Theater.
You will not be disappointed.
We really enjoyed ourselves.
Thank you again to Kelsey and everybody over there for giving us the opportunity to not
only see it, but the opportunity to review it for the empire and it goes through August
17th.
Yes.
Again, thanks to Dallas Fears and everybody there.
Thank you guys.
This says we've wrapping up iTunes exclusive number 40, you can believe that.
Unless in a year, we've done 40 of these.
We hit it amazing.
We hit a year doing these, I mean granted, the show itself's been on for over four years,
but the iTunes exclusives have only, I haven't even been a year, the two or three weeks
we hit the one year mark.
God, almighty.
So, you ready to do the plugs?
Let's do this.
Totally.
Visit our website, www.theclubhousepodcast.com, find out everything you need to know there
in some stuff you don't, including our written reviews, which will be up very, very soon.
Like our page on Facebook, look up to Clubhouse podcast, but the word podcast on the
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Follow this show on Twitter at Clubhouse Show.
You can follow me on Twitter.
I am at, yes, that Rob Urban that is called ERVIN.
I am at Chad in PG-69 and I'm at Fondongo and you can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com.
We love doing live shows if you'd like to have us do our show live at your establishment
contact Don for details on that.
You can email me with questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go out and say, and I am
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vomit dude, she's doing what she does, bro.
Our normal show is live every Sunday, night, seven Eastern, four Pacific, on you stream.
You can link to that from our website or our Facebook page, so make sure you do that, or
you know, just keep subscribing on iTunes.
We appreciate that as well, not what you can listen to it any time you want.
So for Chad, for Don, for the Empire, I'm Rob and the clubhouse is closed.
Was pretty Palmer there because I was looking.
I didn't see her.
The preceding was a sooner orgator production.
Gotta go get a go!
Why? Because I have to.
See ya!