Say, Do You Hear the Distant Drums?

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” London, 2014. Na-Young Jeon as Fantine, Tam Mutu as Javert, Daniel Koek as Jean Valjean, Carl Mullaney as Bamatabois.

A strong performance all-around.

Na-Young is a graceful, delicate, vulnerable Fantine, but one with inner strength as well, and with a beautiful voice. Her anger, fear and anguish are vivid throughout the scene, if not always as raw as some other actresses’, and at the moment of her turn to prostitution, I like the decisive way she gulps down the liquor and then runs forward, offering her hand to the sailor. It shows that she isn’t being coerced into this by other people, but is making a brave sacrifice for her daughter. My only real objection to her performance is that we don’t necessarily see that Fantine is sick. She does seem weak toward the end, as she collapses from the effort of scratching Bamatabois’s face, but she doesn’t cough, hold her chest in pain, or anything like that. But she’s hardly the first Fantine not to do much in that regard.

Tam’s Javert, as always, is fierce and fiery, especially as he intimidates the fleeing whores and as he forces Fantine nearly onto her back with the end of his nightstick on “Honest work, just reward...” Daniel’s Valjean is solid in his concern for Fantine and quiet sternness toward Javert.

Carl’s Bamatabois is very strong: more dandy than brute, without laying too much physical abuse on Fantine (though still enough), but in a way that works. The ensemble is excellent, with standouts including Jenny O’Leary as the hard, ruthless Old Woman who buys Fantine’s locket and Lee Dillon-Stuart the Scottish-accented Pimp. It’s a horrifying moment when he grabs Fantine after she scratches Bamatabois, apparently ready to give her a beating, only for Bamatabois to scare him away with his stick so he can give her a worse punishment himself.

Thanks to @doyouhearthefranzising for letting me know the ensemble members’ names!

“Fantine’s Arrest,” US 2nd National Tour, San Francisco, 1990. Kelly Ground as Fantine, Richard Kinsey as Javert, Rich Hebert (?) as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

Kelly’s rich-voiced Fantine is truly heartbreaking here. Her encounter with Bamatabois sounds very raw and violent, with his lines punctuated by her screams of pain until she finally sums up the strength to fight back. Equally raw is the desperation in her voice as she pleads with Javert and on “I never did no wrong...” and her anger as she confronts Monsieur Madeleine. Her uncontrollable sobbing as the police start to take her away before Valjean intervenes is powerful too. Say what you will about “dignity,” but I don’t like Fantines who resignedly accept arrest at that point – her daughter’s life is on the line!

Bamatabois sounds appropriately vicious, while Richard’s Javert is appropriately imposing with his dark baritone voice.

The video credits Rob Evan as Valjean, but I think this must be a mistake. Rich Hebert was the regular Valjean in this cast and the Internet Broadway Database doesn’t list Rob Evan as having ever been in the 2nd National Tour, only in the 3rd National Tour and in the Broadway production. This Valjean doesn’t sound like the other clips I’ve heard of Rob either. At any rate, whoever he is, he does a fine job: slightly light-voiced, but striking the right balance between stern and gentlemanly.

Still, this scene belongs first and foremost to Kelly and she shines in it.

Comparison: “Tell me quickly, what’s the story?...”

45 minutes of Javert’s stern efficiency, in a wide array of different baritone (and occasional tenor) voices.

US 3rd National Tour, Los Angeles, February 7, 2000: Part 3 (“Fantine’s Arrest,” “The Runaway Cart” and “Who Am I?”)

Joan Amedilla as Fantine, Stephen Bishop as Javert, Ivan Rutherford as Jean Valjean, Trent Blanton as Bamatabois.

Joan’s Fantine is still compelling, even though her voice still tends to sound nasal. Her fear of Bamatabois and her screams of pain as he abuses her are heartrending, as are her pleas to Javert and her anguish over Cosette, but she also shows spirit and ferocity when she fights Bamatabois off and in her furious “M’sieur, don’t mock me now, I pray!” Yet again, though, she doesn’t make any real attempt to seem sick until she faints as the constables pick her up. Although I notice that just before that happens, she reaches out her hand – possibly implying that she’s already slipped into delirium and seeing Cosette.

Trent’s Bamatabois is excellently nasty. The way he erotically strokes Fantine’s arm but then roughly yanks her to him makes it clear why she wants to escape, and his subsequent throwing her around and grabbing her by the hair is brutal.

Stephen’s Javert still sings with a handsome, imposing baritone voice and cuts an appropriately stern, stolid figure.

Ivan’s Valjean is dignified and generally reserved at this point, but still believable. It’s interesting that on “...that I am not your man?” he holds out his hands for Javert to handcuff then and there if he sees fit. His “Who Am I?” is excellently sung and conveys his inner turmoil subtly yet convincingly. By the way, is it just me, or does he look a little bit like Ernest Hemingway? Of course this is irrelevant to his portrayal of Valjean, but I just happened to notice it.

“Fantine’s Death,” Actors’ Playhouse, South Florida, 2009. Melissa Minyard as Fantine, David Michael Felty as Jean Valjean.

After understudying Cosette on Broadway, Melissa is “promoted” here to the role of Fantine, which she sings with effusive warmth and beauty. She makes no real attempt to sound sick or frail, but it’s fair to argue (although I don’t personally feel this way) that in a musical she doesn’t need to – that it’s already unrealistic for a woman dying of consumption to be singing, so she may as well sing with uncompromised sweetness and power.

David’s Valjean provides the requisite gentle, tender tones, and after Fantine dies, he utters a touching “Oh!” just like Colm Wilkinson (who, unless I’m mistaken, he once understudied) used to do.

“Fantine’s Arrest,” US 3rd National Tour, 1996. Laurie Beechman as Fantine, Robert Longo as Javert, Rob Evan as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

Laurie’s Fantine is moving as always, with her distinctive, sumptuous voice and her pathos and urgency. This is a minor detail, but I appreciate the sheer desperation and defiance of her “No, not at all!” – a line that’s hard for an actress not to make sound too casual.

As usual, Bamatabois is uncredited, but his tone strikes just the right balance between foppishness and ferocity.

Robert is an appropriately stern and pitiless-sounding Javert, with a nicely sharp, flinty baritone voice. As for Rob’s Valjean, he might over-inflect some phrases, but he effectively conveys every emotion: his gentle compassion for Fantine, his horror when he learns his role in her suffering, and his fierceness on “...I will see it DONE!” which is almost at a “Colm in the TAC” level.

‘Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” Broadway, 2001. Jacquelyn Piro as Fantine, Shuler Hensley as Javert, unknown Bamatabois.

As always in the videos from this particular performance, there aren’t many closeups and the view of the stage is partly blocked, but the power of the scene still shines through.

Jacquelyn’s Fantine really comes into her own here. Both her voice and her acting fully capture the tragic power of her downfall. I like that when the Pimp beckons her to “join us,” she tries to hurry away, only for the “Come on, dearie” lady to run after her and stop her: the line “Why all the fuss?” makes more sense that way than when Fantine just stands there. Then the pathos is strong as she coughs from the alcohol they give her and then sobs “Noooo!” as they push her toward the customer (although I might prefer my Fantines to go with him calmly and resolutely for Cosette’s sake), and then reemerges in her whores’ costume, brokenly staggering, and then coughing and holding her chest in pain. But she has backbone as well as pathos as she sings of “the hate that’s in [her] head” and as she fights off Bamatabois.

This is the first performance I’ve scene where the “captain” Fantine tries to solicit doesn’t just ignore her or laugh at her, but threatens her with his cane. How horrible!

Bamatabois is fantastic. He clearly has a beautiful baritone voice (he must have been a great Javert understudy), but colors it and shapes his words in a slimy, arrogant, hateable way that perfectly matches his actions. Even though “It’s the same with a tart...” is cut, his grabbing Fantine by her hair definitely helps to compensate.

Shuler is a truly sumptuous-voiced Javert and the immense dark power of his baritone is chilling in this scene. From the moment he opens his mouth, we can hear the towering, implacable force of the law that Fantine is up against. While he avoids showing too much aggression, he’s still a figure of merciless power. His tall, heavyset physique makes him all the more imposing.

The ensemble does an excellent job throughout.

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” Powderham Castle Concert, 2004. Rebecca Thornhill as Fantine, Fred Johanson as Javert, Nicholas Pound as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

An excellent rendition overall, if slightly lacking the sheer passion and energy of an actual production. Rebecca’s Fantine is both lovely-voiced and passionate, the Bamatabois sounds appropriately slimy, Fred’s Javert is appropriately fearsome (his angry “BUT MONSIEUR MAYOR!!”s at the end might be too much so – Hugo’s Javert wouldn’t take that tone with an authority figure), and Nicholas’s Valjean rounds out the scene nicely.

“Fantine’s Arrest,” London, 2001. Grania Renihan as Fantine, Michael McCarthy as Javert, Hans-Peter Janssens as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

Whoever this Bamatabois is, he’s a scary one! So ferocious, and his laughing as he abuses Fantine and at her threats before she finally lands the scratch on his cheek makes him all the more hateful.

Grania has a beautiful voice similar to Ruthie Henshall’s and her performance sounds heartbreaking, as she goes from weary and drunk-sounding at the beginning to utterly desperate, broken and sobbing in her interactions with Javert and Valjean.

Michael’s Javert is a truly quintessential Javert, as always. A magnificently rich, imposing voice and flawlessly stern tone.

Hans-Peter’s Valjean is adequate, also as always.

A fine perfomance overall.

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” London, 2000. Rebecca Thornhill as Fantine, Paul Monaghan as Javert, Simon Bowman as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

A strong performance by the leads and ensemble alike.

Rebecca’s Fantine is excellent. From the start she makes her desperation clear and her transformation is vivid and heartbreaking, as she becomes so visibly broken and almost feral as a whore and as she veers between terror, rage and anguish throughout the arrest scene. I love the small touches she adds, such as miserably rubbing her hand over her shorn head after she sells her hair, or shouting “You liar!” when Bamatabois claims she attacked him. (On Broadway in 2007, Lea Salonga’s Fantine used to ad-lib some much stronger language at that same point.) My one quibble with her performance might be that she doesn’t cough or seem sick until after she becomes a prostitute; then, suddenly, she does seem sick and weak. But maybe in the musical it works to play it that way. Maybe we should assume that this Fantine is still healthy when she turns to the streets, but that a time skip of a few months takes place during the “Old men, young men...” chorus, during which she contracts either an STD or a case of galloping consumption that kills her as fast as Emily Brontë’s did.

Bamatabois (who goes uncredited but whom I think might be Sam Hiller – he was playing Grantaire at the time and I think the roles of Grantaire and Bamatabois were still always doubled in 2000) is strong too. He strikes the perfect balance between prissy dandy and abusive brute.

I think this video demonstrates what I’ve read about the London production being darker and more violent than US productions back in the show’s glory days. I don’t remember ever seeing an American Bamatabois drag Fantine across the stage by her hair!

Paul Monaghan’s stern, pitiless Javert is an effective departure from his gentle, kindly portrayal of the Bishop we all know from the TAC. I’ve never seen another Javert address “I have heard such protestations...” and “Honest work, just reward...” to Bamatabois, not even bothering to speak to Fantine except to snap orders at her. Nor another Javert who used his nightstick as much to intimidate Fantine, putting it to the side of her face on “You may rest assured, M’sieur...” the same way he did with Valjean in the Prologue and then pushing her down onto the ground with it when rejecting her pleas. That last gesture might be overkill, but then so is arresting Fantine in the first place.

Simon’s Valjean is good too.

The ensemble is outstanding throughout the scene. They create a spot-on evolution from the jokey, saucy beginning of “Lovely Ladies,” to an increasing sense of the miseries of prostitution, which finally explodes into the brutality of the arrest scene. I love how frantically and vigorously the ladies try to rescue Fantine, not just a few of them but nearly all of them – especially the feisty one whom the pimp repeatedly has to stop from attacking Bamatabois. The musical depicts so little female friendship and solidarity as written – even less than the novel – but at least the staging can incorporate more.

This performance was clearly filmed by a big fan of Joanna Ampil, who was playing Éponine at the time. Even here, the camera focuses intensely on her during the “Lovely Ladies” choruses: she gets more closeups than Fantine! This is a common trend I’ve noticed in videos when it comes to Éponine actresses. Whether it’s Joanna, or Sutton Foster, or Carrie Hope Fletcher, I’ve found repeatedly that the camera not only fixates on them as Éponine, but beforehand in their ensemble roles too. Éponine has that effect on people, I guess.

“Fantine’s Arrest” and “The Runaway Cart,” London, 2002. Carmen Cusack as Fantine, Jérôme Pradon as Javert, Hans Peter Janssens as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

I was already a fan Carmen’s Fantine from her audio recordings and this video reinforces my good impression of her. She’s so believably broken and sick – I like the way she collapses just from the effort of breaking away from Bamatabois and has to drag herself up by his shirt front to scratch his face, and of course the touch of several whores trying to help her escape from Javert but being forced to leave her behind when she’s too weak to run. But she’s not just a weak, wilting flower. She’s still fiery, desperate and passionate. I love her cries of “No! No!” as the police start to drag her away. As much as I love Ruthie Henshall’s “definitive” Fantine in the TAC, I think the one wrong note in her performance is her resigned head-bow after Javert shuts down her pleas – she seems to accept her daughter’s death sentence a bit too calmly, so I always look for other Fantines to seem appropriately distraught at that point. Carmen nails it perfectly.

I wish Bamatabois’s name were listed, because he’s every inch as nasty and intimidating as he should be. Even though “It’s the same with a tart as it is with a grocer...” is cut, his horrible twisting of Fantine’s arm makes up for it and keeps his role from seeming tamed.

Jérôme is definitely an unusual Javert. As far as I know, he was the first Javert whose previous role in the show was Marius. (Of course we’ve had other Marius-Javerts since then, such as Hadley Fraser, Hayden Tee, and if concert performances count, Michael Ball.) His light, nasal-edged tenor is nothing like the traditional Javert voice. But he uses it well, sounding sharp and flinty, with acting to match. I love his silent annoyance when Fantine grabs his leg – it would be almost funny if the situation weren’t deathly serious. During “The Runaway Cart,” he creates the distinct sense of being an obsessive Javert, not just a duty-bound Javert. His subtly wild, obsessed gaze as he describes Valjean’s elusiveness and “recapture” is chilling, as is his sadistic tone on “He will bend, he will break!” It makes me eager to see his “Confrontation” and other scenes.

His English is excellent too – you'd never know it wasn’t his first language. The same is true for Hans Peter’s Valjean, though his phrasing might be a little more “foreign” at times. For that matter, Carmen’s British accent sounds spot-on, even though she’s really American. None of the three leads in this video are British, yet linguistically they all blend just fine with the London ensemble.

Hans Peter’s Valjean is one I remember getting many bad reviews. He seems fine here, though, even if his voice is slightly nasal and some of his phrasing is a little stiff (again, this might be because his native language is Flemish). Of course these are fairly minor scenes for Valjean as far as singing and acting are concerned – not the best to judge him by. But he still does a solid job.

I’ll have to look for other videos from this cast to get a better sense of their performances as a whole.

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” London, 2019. Carrie Hope Fletcher as Fantine, Bradley Jaden as Javert, John Robyns as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

Is it just me, or are Marius and Enjolras actors becoming Valjeans and Javerts and are Éponines and Cosettes becoming Fantines more quickly than they used to? Of course Jon Robyns’ stints as Marius and Enjolras were 12 and 10 years ago, so the role change makes sense, but Carrie Hope Fletcher’s last performances as Éponine were just three years before she switched to Fantine and Bradley Jaden has spent the last few years going back and forth between Enjolras and Javert!

Carrie’s Fantine is good, but she still sounds like Éponine to me. Maybe it’s just that I’ve recently been listening to more “classic” Fantines like Elinore O’Connell and Carmen Cusack, but I do like to hear more richness of tone from Fantine in contrast to Éponine and Cosette’s more girlish voices. Carrie’s voice is beautiful and powerful, but she sounds like an ingenue. Still, her vocal acting is just fine. I especially like her “M’sieur, don’t mock me now, I pray...” with its raw, uncontrolled rage and anguish, and before that, I like that we hear her still begging “Please, M’sieur...” as the constables start to drag her away.

Bradley’s Javert has grown on me, as I’ve said before. His voice is light and Enjolras-like compared to other Javerts, but he uses it to cold, stern effect in a way that feels just right for the role. I especially like his spoken, quietly disdainful “Save your breath.” Meanwhile, Jon sounds like a good, solid Valjean in the few lines he has here. The Bamatabois sounds appropriately vicious, and I like his scream when Fantine scratches his face (the dandy can’t stomach what he dishes out!), but he’s probably a little over the top: his anger would have been clear enough without quite so much yelling.

The ensemble sounds excellent all around.

I’ve said it once but I’ll say it again: I don’t like that the Connor/Powell production reassigns Fantine’s “Come on, Captain, you can wear your shoes...” to two random whores, who ask her departing first customer “Tell me, Captain, did you wear your shoes?...” with Fantine herself only singing at “Easy money, lying on a bed...” While I think I understand what they were going for – enhancing the sense of Fantine’s trauma by having her stumbling speechlessly down the stairs – it lessens the effect of Fantine’s transformation than when she takes center stage and aggressively tries to sell herself further. Not to mention it robs her of agency. Connor and Powell’s take on Fantine’s character has always been a bit too much of a delicate wilting lily for my taste, at least based on the performances I’ve seen, and this reassignment of lines clinches it.

One thing I do like, though: that their production brings back “It’s the same with a tart as it is with a grocer...” It always feels like something’s missing when that passage is cut. A cut I can appreciate, though, is at the end of the scene, when they reduce Valjean’s “I will see it done!”s from three to two. If there need to be time-saving cuts at all, that’s an easy one to accept.

“Fantine’s Arrest,” US 2nd National Tour, Los Angeles, 1988. Elinore O’Connell as Fantine, Kenny d’Aquila (?) as Bamatabois, Jeff McCarthy as Javert, William Solo as Jean Valjean.

Bamatabois is uncredited, but Kenny D’Aquila was the regular in the role, and I’m positive I recognize his voice from his Grantaire on the CSR. At any rate, he sounds nicely nasty. Jeff’s Javert and William’s Valjean also sound fine.

But this excerpt is really carried by Elinore’s Fantine. Her emotions throughout this whole scene are so vivid and raw. I can definitely believe that she’s read the novel – at the beginning she sounds drunk, which reflects Hugo’s description of Fantine’s voice as “roughened by brandy” at this point, and her ferocious rage when fighting off Bamatabois definitely evokes Hugo’s description of Fantine “striking out with feet and fists... howling... livid with wrath, horrible.” Her subsequent, wildly desperate “I beg you, don’t report me, sir...” and pleas to Javert also evoke the sheer agony of Hugo’s Fantine in her speech at the police station, and after Valjean arrives, her bitterness on “M’sieur, don’t mock me now...” and the brokenness and anguish of her “I never did no wrong...” are equally gripping and heartbreaking. I remember once reading remarks from an older fan of the show who said that after all these years, Elinore is still his favorite Fantine. I understand why now for sure.

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” Broadway, August, 2007. Nikki Renee Daniels as Fantine, Robert Hunt as Javert, Dan Bogart as Bamatabois.

Each time I saw this production in person, I was impressed by how good the ensemble was, and here they prove my memories correct.

Let me add that in hindsight, I appreciate more than ever how racially diverse the production was. In the early 2000s this wasn’t a normal sight in Les Mis: at most there would be a token black or Asian Fantine and/or Éponine, but otherwise lily-whiteness. The ‘06-’07 Broadway revival stood out for featuring so many performers of color, both among the leads and in the ensemble.

Nikki’s Fantine makes a solid impression here. She doesn’t create quite the sense of emotional breaking, hardening, or deteriorating health (apart from coughing) as other Fantines; other actresses do more to show the transformation Hugo’s Fantine goes through. But her beautiful, powerful voice never fails her, and she still does justice to the character’s desperation, fear and anger. Her reactions to Bamatabois’s rough handling and her rage when fighting him off are particularly excellent.

I like the touch of her anxiously reading yet another letter from the Thénardiers, obviously full of more lies about Cosette’s health and demanding more money, when the hair-buyer approaches her. I also like the touch of several other ladies trying in vain to defend her from Bamatabois and one trying to help her escape from the police.

Dan Bogart’s Bamatabois is a bit more foppish than predatory, but he turns appropriately vicious and scary when crossed. It’s hard to believe this was the first actor I ever saw as Marius, or that he turned around so easily in this same performance to play a kindly, idealistic Combeferre! I feel slightly torn about the fact that the staging doesn’t have him physically abuse Fantine as much as other productions do. On the one hand, it’s hard not to miss the sheer horror and outrage of seeing her brutalized and almost raped the way she is in other stagings. But on the other hand, Hugo created enough pathos for his Fantine without ever having her graphically beaten or threatened with rape (the original Bamatabois only puts snow down her dress, after all), and maybe too much reduces the scene to crude female torture porn. I’m of two minds.

No complaints whatsoever about Robert’s Javert. He personifies stern, pitiless efficiency, just as he should.

I only wish the video included Valjean’s intervention. I would have liked to see Drew Sarich’s contribution to the scene and Nikki’s “M’sieur don’t mock me now, I pray...’

“Fantine’s Arrest,” US 3rd National Tour, Shanghai, 2002. Carmen Cusack as Fantine, Michael McCarthy as Javert, Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean, unknown Bamatabois.

I wish I could find a cast list so I could know the name of this Bamatabois. He sounds very good, even though his lines are cut too short. Since I’ve been listening to earlier recordings lately, it feels strange to hear this scene performed without “It’s the same with a tart as it is with a grocer...”

Fantine, Javert and Valjean are all outstanding too, as expected. Carmen’s fear, anger, anguish and desperation are all fantastically vivid and she succeeds at the rare feat of being emotionally raw yet still singing beautifully. Michael is every inch the stern voice of authority he should be: the sheer contempt in his voice on “....save your tears” stands out. And of course Colm is Colm. An excellent job by all.

“Lovely Ladies” and “Fantine’s Arrest,” US 3rd National Tour, Toronto, 1998. Susan Gilmour as Fantine, Todd Alan Johnson as Javert, and if I remember reading the cast list correctly, Stephen Bishop as Bamatabois.

Again, not the best video quality, but an excellent performance, and a good reminder of the effectiveness of this scene’s classic staging, as I wrote about here.

Susan’s Fantine sounds very raw, emotional and desperate, just like she looks in her “I Dreamed a Dream” photo, yet still sings beautifully. I only wish her facial expressions could be seen more clearly. She doesn’t seem to be doing too much to convey Fantine’s declining health, but at least she seems to cough here and there, and then nearly collapses after fighting off Bamatabois. Maybe that’s all we really need.

Likewise, Stephen’s Bamatabois doesn’t lay on the physical abuse quite as much as some other actors, but he still does enough, and creates a clear sense that Fantine would have been raped if she hadn’t fought back. Sometimes less is more.

I like Todd’s Javert too. Not too aggressive, but calmly and sternly efficient, “the letter of the law” personified.

It’s too bad the video ends before Colm Wilkinson’s Valjean steps in. I would have liked to see his contribution.