#scheveningen

Bugün günlerden Lale bahcesi

1992 Scheveningen video bootleg

Henk Poort (Jean Valjean), Ernst Daniel Smid (Javert), Pia Douwes (Fantine), Door Van Boeckel (Thénardier), Irene Kuiper (Mme. Thénardier), Marika Lansen (Éponine), Danny de Munk (Marius), Bill Van Dijk (Enjolras), Joke de Kruijf (Cosette)

Enjolras consoling Grantaire during “Drink with Me.”

This is the original Dutch production, with most of the same cast as the Amsterdam Cast Recording, although by this time the show had transferred to Scheveningen. It’s also the second performance in my watch-through where “Drink with Me” has significant Enjolras/Grantaire interaction after Grantaire’s solo… and it’s the first where that interaction is tender. Granted, it doesn’t start out that way. Like their London counterparts, at first Peter de Smet’s Grantaire offers his bottle to Enjolras, but Bill Van Dijk’s Enjolras rejects it and drinks from Feuilly’s jug instead. (I think that must have been direction at the time, since it was also done in London and Madrid.) But afterwards, Grantaire crumbles in complete despair, gulping from his bottle and burying his head in his arms, and Enjolras seems to regret his harshness as he looks at him. Finally, Enjolras crouches down, puts a consoling arm around Grantaire, and pats his back. It’s not quite a hug, but it’s most definitely a warm, tender moment.

Honorable Mentions:

*In “At the End of the Day,” after the Foreman reads Fantine’s letter, instead of either keeping it or just disdainfully handing it back to her, he rips the letter up, then hands her back the pieces.

*Pia Douwes’ Fantine goes completely feral in “Fantine’s Arrest.” After she scratches Bamatabois, two other ladies try to hold her back, but she fights to break free from them and lunge at Bamatabois again, until he comes back over and knocks her to the ground with his stick.

*So far, Henk Poort’s Jean Valjean is second only to Gary Morris’s in his mourning at Fantine’s death. After folding her hands on her chest, he kisses her forehead, and then lays his head against her hands in grief.

*Henk Poort is also the first Valjean in my chronological watch-through to boop Cosette’s nose. He does it to little Cosette on “…to take Cosette away,” and to her older self in his death scene, on “…I will try.” I don’t know if he was the first Valjean in the world to do it, but he’s the first one I’ve seen do it so far, and he certainly won’t be the last!

*In “Look Down,” at the side of the stage during the final chorus, Marika Lansen’s Éponine has what looks like a vicious argument with her parents, in which Thénardier grabs her menacingly only for her to push him away.

*Joke de Kruijf’s Cosette leaps to her feet in shock when Marius appears in the garden in “A Heart Full of Love,” flailing her arms. For the most part her Cosette is a very proper, reserved, and graceful lady, but every now and then she shows hints of an excited and passionate young girl beneath that façade, and nowhere more so than in this moment of physical comedy.