MUSICAL THEATRE REVIEW: LES MISÉRABLES

Pictured: Earl Carpenter, Ramin Karimloo


JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
10 OCT 2013
R: 4.5/5

TORONTO - If, despite Thomas Wolfe’s injunction, you did decide to go home again, chances are, the first thing you’d probably do is redecorate. Certainly, that seems to have been much on producer Cameron Mackintosh’s mind when he returned to LES MISÉRABLES, the mega-musical woven by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer from Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name — or, at least, that novel’s dramatic high points.


As a consequence, the silver anniversary Broadway-bound edition currently playing the Princess of Wales Theatre boasts not only a spanking new staging from directors Laurence Connor and James Powell (replacing John Caird and Trevor Nunn) and new orchestrations, but a whole new design too, conceived by Matt Kinley, a design, inspired by novelist Hugo’s own paintings, that embraces an entire-quarter century technological innovation. Not surprisingly, it’s spectacular.


To bring the story to life, there’s a whole new roster of talent too, led by Richmond Hill’s Ramin Karimloo, returning in triumph from London’s West End. Karimloo’s strong, impassioned take on the one-time criminal Jean Valjean is pitted against Earl Carpenter’s equally fine performance as the unbending Inspector Javert — and the two provide some of this production’s finest moments as they play a deadly game of fox and hound across the width and breadth of 19th century France.


Of course, that’s always been the strength of both this musical and the novel that spawned it. But things get a little rockier when LES MIZ, the musical, morphs into a love story between Marius, a young revolutionary played by Perry Sherman, and Cosette (Samantha Hill), an orphan raised by Jean Valjean. Though both actors give it a game try, the plot has become so episodic by the time they meet that their audience must take their passions on faith. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast enjoys mixed success. As Fantine, Genevieve Leclerc all but disappears, done in as much by memories of Susan Boyle and of Anne Hathaway’s over-wrought Oscar-winning performance, one suspects, as by her own shortcomings.

Cliff Saunders and Lisa Horner are all but out-of-control as the child-abusing Thénardiers — and quickly become tedious, then irrelevant. Melissa O’Neil plays their daughter Éponine with a touch of Che but makes it work nonetheless, while Mark Uhre has stirring moments as Enjolras, the golden-haired leader of the revolutionaries, making his wig — a bizarre 19th century version of a Trump comb-over — all the more regrettable.


Ultimately, of course, what Mackintosh and his team have done to make LES MISÉRABLES sparkle for its silver anniversary involves a lot more plate than sterling, which is fitting in its way. LES MIZ may boast some of theatre’s most enduring musical earworms, but historically, this adaptation has always relied too heavily on incident over character development, using a theatrical shorthand comprised of cute kids, waving flags and a musical palette both jingoistic and anthemic, to make up for its shortcomings. And while all the new glitter is likely to make this the best LES MIZ you’ve ever seen, for many, it may still seem oddly hollow at its core.