Ensemble cast

I love musicals. I love the stage productions and sometimes the movie adaptations of musicals. The one flaw with large stage productions is the fact that they're always ensembles. Most of the time the casting is done right but of course there is always one or two that are off. For example, the 25th anniversary of Les Misérables. Nick Jonas, he is über distracting because he is not at the level of the other performers. He is a pop singer. Admittedly his performance wasn't bad, but put against the others he was definitely the weakest link. He has the least control, least training, and looked like he was in constant pain while he sang. Plus, he tried to have a British accent, which was hit and miss and dreadful. He did his best and it was obvious, so props to him. Still half the people in the chorus were better then he was. When he is singing towards the end and incredibly emotional song, "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", it's the lyrics that grab you not the performance. *sigh* Oh well, moving on to bigger and better things.

The Broadway production of Hairspray the musical had a good ensemble; however, the original Tracy was not to my liking. She was a bit shrieky and just overall not that good. Nikki Blonsky in the movie production was much better.

Lets talk Phantom. The movie was pitiful. Sad, bad, horrible, and all around disappointing. Gerard Butler did a good job as Phantom, but he was no Micheal Crawford. Emmy Rossum was a good Christine, but again Sarah Brightman was way way better. Patrick Wilson as Raoul was, in my opinion, as good as the original. Worst, Minnie Driver as Carlotta. She didn't do any of her own singing and she was extremely distracting and detracted from the whole thing. She is a good actor, but her performance was weak and laughable. Jennifer Ellison as Meg was brilliant and Miranda Richardson as Mme. Giry was incredible; in fact, she may have been the best part of the movie.

The best ensemble cast in a movie ever, that I've seen, is the 1973 movie production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Not one of the best musicals of all time but not one of the worst either. Ever single person in that production was insanely good. Yvonne Elliman was an exceptional Mary Magdalene. See, I don't hate all ensemble cast. : p