"Do you hear the people sing~?"

On December 28, I went on a trip to Osaka to see the Toho production of Les Miserables at the Umeda theatre. I had one of the best seats in the stall, and the cast on that day was really great... especially Valjean, who was performed by the king of Japanese musical theatre, Yuichiro Yamaguchi! I think it was the last day on which that day's cast members performed together.

I arrived outside the theatre early in order to see the cast and ensemble on their way into the building. A bunch of Yamaguchi fans were there already, readying their cameras. I thought it was funny that Yamaguchi had to have three bodyguards(?) to keep the rabid fans at bay! He was still nice, though, and did high-five with a lot of people before disappearing into the building.

Yuichiro Yamaguchi's Valjean was even better than I'd expected! He has a great voice, his stage presence makes other performers almost disappear before my eyes, and his acting was superb. There are three other Valjeans this year, but it's no wonder that the tickets for his performance get sold out so quickly! He's also about the right age for the part. (He's 49, though he does not look or act his age!)

A few others were really great as well... Koujiro Oka was really good as Javert. He had been playing an excellent Enjolras for about 8 years before being bumped up to the role of Javert 2 years ago. His interpretation of that role was very well done, and his last suicide scene was amazing! I hear there's another guy who plays Javert just as well though.

Marius was played by Kouki Okada, who had the perfect voice for Marius. My only complaint is that he had his long hair tied down behind his back! Eewww... he looked so weird! Also, he's getting a bit old to play the part; the man is about 40! When he goes on stage with Ishii, the youngest Valjean, Marius is older than Valjean!




Eponine, played by ANZA, had a cute voice which reminded me of Kaho Shimada in the CSR. She sometimes acted too cute, though, and that was evident in her voice.


I didn't like Kenji Sakamoto's Enjolras very much... although he had a good voice, I felt that he was too short to play the part. He is a good acrobat and can do lots of stunts... he used to be Simba in Lion King. However, he was shorter than Valjean, Javert, Marius, Grantaire, and most of the other students! Not a very leader-like figure.

Overall, I loved that day's performance; no one made any big mistakes. Yamaguchi tends to mix up his words a lot ("I'm Vean Jalvean!"), but on that day he didn't! Whew... Some of my favorite moments were the "Waltz of Teachery", during which the Thenardiers threw little Cosette around like a rag doll, and of course the beautiful "Bring Him Home"!

During the curtain call, the cast threw small bouquets of flowers at the audience. Yamaguchi, being the funny guy that he is, made the two little girls, Cosette and Eponine, remain on stage to wave and bow down again and again and again after all the other members had gone away. Now I want to see an English Les Mis! The Japanese translation was very well done, but it's still impossible to put all the words and meanings of the original English into it. It's still one of Japan's most popular and longest running musicals.