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For a person who grew up with musicals, went to see local productions, big Sydney and Melbourne touring productions and spent a lot of my childhood watching musical films with my father, it's a little surprising that I'd never got around to seeing Les Miserables until it was turned into a feature film. I was quite impressed with the film, but assured by people the songs could have been performed a lot better, so I saw this on sale and decided to check it out. Suffice to say I was thoroughly entertained and very impressed.
But the start is a bit shaky, the first two performers to sing solo during the "Look Down" opening had me wondering what I'd got myself into, but once Alfie Boe (Valjean) and the enjoyably hammy Norm Lewis (Javert) get on stage I knew I was in good hands. Boe's singing is magnificent, with Valjean's soliloquy and Bring Him Home two of the highlights of the show. Lewis is having the time of his life, shouting his name with gusto and giving a great rendition of Stars and a passionate soliloquy of his own. Their moments together are brilliant, but I especially love their confrontation as Fantine dies.
Speaking of Fantine, played by Miss Saigon herself, Lea Salonga, her "I Dreamed a Dream" is the absolute high point of this show. She makes you feel everything that her character is feeling during the song while belting out the tune beautifully and receives a well deserved standing ovation at song's end.
Matt Lucas makes a truly disgusting Thenadier (which I mean in a good way), his relative lack of singing ability is well and truly compensated by a great character performance and of course having stage veteran Jenny Galloway with him in most scenes.
Nick Jonas as Marius does not appear to have a strong enough voice to be part of an ensemble, though he was not awful singing Empty Chairs and Empty Tables on his own (this was aided by the very effective lighting behind him to make his dead friends look like ghosts as they stood behind him). Katie Hall is a little hamstrung as Cossette because she spends a lot of her time having to try and sing more softly than Jonas, but she appears to have a nice clean voice.
Ramin Karimloo, who I've always thought had a great voice but never really rated as a good Phantom of the Opera, is excellent as Enjolras. He sings with power and passion, and despite not being a big man, has a presence about him that is appropriate to the role and his rather large, unrestrained voice.
Samantha Barks is good as Eponine and it's impressive she was able to play the role equally well in the film version. There's a lot of power in her voice.
Overall I really loved this show and it helped give me a greater appreciation for the musical part of Les Miserables, but I think seeing the film first really helped as I knew what was happening in the story and so could just sit back and enjoy the singing, Nick Jonas aside.
score 9/10
bh_tafe3 24 January 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2742429/ |
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18-2-2021 06:05:05