Sunday 8th December 2013 by Jyoti Kumar
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| Révolution atop the barricade in Les Miserables |
There’s only so many times one can answer “no” to “have you seen Les Miserables on stage?” After all, we’re talking about one of the longest-running musicals in the West End and what’s more, it has been seen by more than 65 million people worldwide and still continues to break box office. Now this show must be a magnum opus, the piece de resistance of the theatre sphere, right?
Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s emotionally-charged musical is an all-singing version of Victor Hugo's great novel. It tells the story of an ex-convict Jean Valjean (Daniel Koek) who breaks parole and is wanted by a ruthless policeman Javert (Tam Mutu) who vows to find him at all costs. The plot has many twists and turns, all subtly entwined in a story of hierarchy, endurance, unrequited love, sacrifice and redemption.
With so many themes to effectively portray, the exuberant and energetic cast manage to pull off some exceptionally strong acting and the music is full of vigour featuring the songs “I Dreamed A Dream”, “Bring Him Home”, “One Day More” and “On My Own.” The two core characters, Jean Valjean and Javert display extraordinary performances and even the other characters that come and go such as Eponine (Carrie Hope Fletcher) and Fantine (Na-Young Jeon) are remembered long after the play has ended.
Andreane Neofitou has done a wonderful job with the costumes and John Napier’s production design makes good use of the set. The interchanges between the scenes and the introduction of props are seamlessly done. The rhyming dialogues and speech may take away an ounce of realism but that certainly doesn’t mean that it won’t pull on heartstrings. Some have dubbed the production as an “opera lite” but when the voices and orchestra are this good, who’s complaining?
The one thing you may carp at is the drawn out middle which adds to the musical’s length making it just under 3 hours long. Not so much a problem for theatre-lovers and regular theatre-goers but I predict this will reduce a teenager’s opinion of the play from “cult-worthy” to “cool” - still, not a bad reaction to have when it comes to a teen!
My experience of Les Miserables was certainly a great one and I urge everyone to see this glorious production. The musical isn’t far from its 30th anniversary, though after seeing Les Miserables on stage, it’s fair to say that the mere existence of the production is a celebration in itself.