#melissa mitchell

COSETTE’S FIRST DRESS

(restaged ver)

“Epilogue,” Broadway, 2015. Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean, Erika Henningsen as Fantine, Melissa Mitchell as Cosette, Chris McCarrell as Marius, Brennyn Lark as Éponine.

Another lovely performance. I could quibble about some of Ramin’s phrasing (though I adore his voice) or that Chris’s Marius sounds like a high schooler (I have yet to listen to any other parts of his performance, so I’ll reserve judgement), but overall, it’s definitely well done. The women’s voices are especially beautiful.

Unfortunately, the video cuts out the last note.

I think Laurence Connor’s staging of the moments after Valjean’s death is especially interesting to compare to Trevor Nunn’s original, even though the differences are subtle. In the Nunn staging, Valjean, Fantine and Éponine’s spirits seem to transcend time and place; they step into a stylized tableau over Marius and Cosette, then stand motionless and gaze outward, transfigured and ethereal, while the other spirits emerge from behind them. It can be (and has been) debated if we’re literally seeing the characters in the afterlife or if it’s just a symbolic tableau to represent that the dead are at peace and the living still have hope. But in the Connor staging, we clearly stay in real time and literally see Valjean entering the afterlife. We see him start to walk away with Fantine and Éponine, then turn back to impart a few last words of love and wisdom to Marius and Cosette, and then gaze over them for a last few moments before moving on – and the Bishop is there to greet him too.