Cabaret Scenes Theatre Review

Immensely popular around the world, Les Miserables is a visual page-turner with a gripping saga and a soaring score by composer Claude-Michel erbert KretzmerSchonberg and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer. By all odds, this new production at the Broadhurst Theatre will tempt back old audiences and attract new ones for theatrical treats like the flag-waving anthems, "One Day More" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?." A blockbuster of grandiloquence, yes, but a musical theatre classic, Les Miserables is not.

Victor Hugo's elaborate tale of hope and passion was adapted for the stage by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, complete with colorful characters, moral and malicious, during a revolutionary era of French history. Cameron Mackintosh's current production of Les Miserables at the Broadhurst Theatre runs two hours and 55 minutes, a bit less than the original, with cuts to the score, cast, and orchestration. The story, if you missed the first 16-year run, centers on hero Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving family. He is released after 19 years at hard labor. Morally ambivalent, he breaks parole and spends the rest of the show trying to make amends while avoiding capture by the persistent Javert. Alexander Gemignani plays Valjean with compelling passion. He is an emotional hero and although his voice occasionally strains, Gemignani accesses a superb moment in the show, scaling the high notes in "Bring Him Home."

Valjean's nemesis is Javert, the cold, determined police inspector, fanatical about capturing Valjean. Played by Norm Lewis with a secure, charismatic vocal tone, he manages to flesh out this anti-hero with a convincing conscience, eloquently communicating the character's essence in "Stars and Soliloquy."

Outstanding is the leader of the Paris student rebellion, the swashbuckling Enjolras, played with vocal and dramatic authority by Aaron Lazar. Adam Jacobs is convincing as the love interest, Marius, but steps back in the shadow of Lazar.

The casting falls short with the leading women, excepting Celia Keenan-Bolger, who effectively imbues Eponine with a street waif's delicate fortitude. Singing one of the show's major haunting ballads, "I Dreamed a Dream", with unpleasant raspiness, Daphne Rubin-Vega is a disappointing Fantine, the dying prostitute who begs Valjean to take care of her young daughter, Cosette. Valjean takes the child, and Cosette (Ali Ewoldt) grows up and falls in love with Marius. Cosette, a tremulous singer with a thin racing vibrato, and Marius cram passion into their very short, one-day romance, with the added distraction of a doomed "third wheel," Eponine. It is a melodramatic side trip caramelized to saccharine stickiness in "A Heart Full of Love."

Gary Beach and Jenny Galloway as greedy innkeepers, M. and Mme. Thenardier, give way to full comic abandon providing nasty fun to watch, especially Galloway taking her turn with "Master of the House."

John Napier uses the turntable set and smoke to keep time and characters moving at a brisk pace. With lighting by David Hersey and Andreane Neofitou's costumes, the sets display tableaux of the inn, prison, factory, barricades and sewers with artistic snapshots before twirling into the next display. Tight pacing by original co-directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird keeps the events unfolding over one another with flamboyant, racing drama.

Though abundant in music and characters, this production slices through a captivating era, diluting it to Les Miserables Lite. It will not dispirit, but it probably won't thrill.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
November 14, 2006
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Les Miserables Broadhurst Theatre New York, NY
Immensely popular around the world, Les Miserables is a visual page-turner with a gripping saga and a soaring score by composer Claude-Michel erbert KretzmerSchonberg and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer. By all odds, this new production at the Broadhurst Theatre will tempt back old audiences and attract new ones for theatrical treats like the flag-waving anthems, "One Day More" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?." A blockbuster of grandiloquence, yes, but a musical theatre classic, Les Miserables is not. Victor Hugo's elaborate tale of hope and passion was adapted for the stage by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, complete with colorful characters, moral and malicious, during a revolutionary era of French history. Cameron Mackintosh's current production of Les Miserables at the Broadhurst Theatre runs two hours and 55 minutes, a bit less than the original, with cuts to the score, cast, and orchestration. The story, if you missed the first 16-year run, centers on hero Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving family. He is released after 19 years at hard labor. Morally ambivalent, he breaks parole and spends the rest of the show trying to make amends while avoiding capture by the persistent Javert. Alexander Gemignani plays Valjean with compelling passion. He is an emotional hero and although his voice occasionally strains, Gemignani accesses a superb moment in the show, scaling the high notes in "Bring Him Home." Valjean's nemesis is Javert, the cold, determined police inspector, fanatical about capturing Valjean. Played by Norm Lewis with a secure, charismatic vocal tone, he manages to flesh out this anti-hero with a convincing conscience, eloquently communicating the character's essence in "Stars and Soliloquy." Outstanding is the leader of the Paris student rebellion, the swashbuckling Enjolras, played with vocal and dramatic authority by Aaron Lazar. Adam Jacobs is convincing as the love interest, Marius, but steps back in the shadow of Lazar. The casting falls short with the leading women, excepting Celia Keenan-Bolger, who effectively imbues Eponine with a street waif's delicate fortitude. Singing one of the show's major haunting ballads, "I Dreamed a Dream", with unpleasant raspiness, Daphne Rubin-Vega is a disappointing Fantine, the dying prostitute who begs Valjean to take care of her young daughter, Cosette. Valjean takes the child, and Cosette (Ali Ewoldt) grows up and falls in love with Marius. Cosette, a tremulous singer with a thin racing vibrato, and Marius cram passion into their very short, one-day romance, with the added distraction of a doomed "third wheel," Eponine. It is a melodramatic side trip caramelized to saccharine stickiness in "A Heart Full of Love." Gary Beach and Jenny Galloway as greedy innkeepers, M. and Mme. Thenardier, give way to full comic abandon providing nasty fun to watch, especially Galloway taking her turn with "Master of the House." John Napier uses the turntable set and smoke to keep time and characters moving at a brisk pace. With lighting by David Hersey and Andreane Neofitou's costumes, the sets display tableaux of the inn, prison, factory, barricades and sewers with artistic snapshots before twirling into the next display. Tight pacing by original co-directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird keeps the events unfolding over one another with flamboyant, racing drama. Though abundant in music and characters, this production slices through a captivating era, diluting it to Les Miserables Lite. It will not dispirit, but it probably won't thrill. Elizabeth Ahlfors Cabaret Scenes November 14, 2006 www.cabaretscenes.org

Les Miserables

Broadhurst Theatre New York, NY

Broadhurst Theatre
New York, NY