Les Miserables

       It has been called "The World's Most Popular Musical", by some, including it's advertisers. The original production has closed on Broadway, and a short lived Broadway revival has already come and gone, but the original staging is still going strong over on London's West End, and that is where I took the play in.

      My husband, Matthew has never really been a fan of Les Miserables, or Les Miz, as the common folk call it, or Miz as we lazy theater folk call it. He had never seen the show and had only heard the cast recordings. I say "recordings" because I've forced him to listen to The Original London Cast recording, The Original Broadway Cast recording, The complete Symphonic Recording, and the 10th anniversary cast recording. He would always remark "I prefer Miss Saigon".

     When we first realized that we'd be going to London, and seeing a show, I asked him what he'd like to see, and strangely enough he said that he'd very much like to see Les Miz, because he never had, and he feels like it's one of those things one ought to see. I agreed and we set out to get tickets. You would think a show that been playing on the West End, or anyplace for that matter, for over 25 years wouldn't be too difficult to secure a seat for, but you would be mistaken. The entire show was sold out for over a week. This was apparently due to the return of a favorite UK star, Alfie Boe (sp?)

   Matt and I decided, against my better judgement, that we would take two standing room tickets. In the US standing room is usually at the back of the Orchestra (they call the Orchestra level The Stalls in the  UK, makes me feel a bit like a horse, but I digress) These tickets, however, were for the very back of the upper level. So up we trudged to the rear of The Balcony, which really wasn't terribly far away, but it was far enough, and there we stood. For THREE (3) hours!

    25 years later the original staging of Les Miserables is still very powerful. The last time I saw Les miserables I saw it from the Front Row of The colonial Theater in Boston, and I was 12 years old. As a 26 year old viewing it from the last possible row of The Queens Theater in London I had come full circle. It was well worth the stand.

    It is difficult to keep this show fresh after so many years, but most of the cast does remarkably well. The famed and Favorite UK star that had packed in the crowds was ironically out at the performance we took in, but his Understudy was unfathomably good, in fact I didn't realize it was the understudy until intermission. Javert, Thenadier (both Messrs, and Mdm) were superb, as was Fantine if just a little bit "stagey". Cossette (both small and tall) were also quite good as was the rest of the cast.

  The only week link in the production was the young woman who played Eponine. Her voice was breathy and shrill. It was not pleasant to listen to. Also, the character of Eponine is underwritten in the script. The actress really isn't given much to work with as far as text is concerned. This makes it imperative for the actress playing the role to be able to deliver MORE than what is on the page. Otherwise we wont feel for her as we ought to feel for her. This young woman was not able to do that. Nor did she possess a voice that made you wish she had more to sing.

   Other than that minor disappointment (which to me was a bit more than just minor, but once again I digress) it was an excellent night out and well worth standing for three hours. For those of you who have only ever seen Les Miserables on tour before, you may be surprised to see that there are some subtle differences. There is a little bit more music, a little bit more dialogue, and the staging is just the slightest bit altered.

    The only other thing that was lacking in this production was The Orchestration. It was reported on a number of years ago when the production moved from The Palace Theater to the Queens Theater that the orchestra would be diminished. This has hurt the music tremendously in my opinion. So much more of the music is done on an electronic synthesizer, and it hurts the sound in my opinion. Especially since every recording in existence has done away with the synth almost entirely in favor of a richer orchestral sound.

   In February of 2012 Tom Hooper will begin production a film version of this now classic Musical starring Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean. No other casting has been announced at this time, but so far, so good. It will be interesting to see how this incredibly theatrical (and 80's pop infused) score translates to modern film.