Les Miserables Les Miserables in Concert - 25th Anniversary
Les Miserables Les Miserables in Concert - 25th Anniversary
Fifteen years after the historic 10th anniversary concert, the international musical sensation
Les Misérables
returned for a 25th anniversary concert at London's O2 Arena in October
2010. Like the previous concert, it presents an all-star cast, this
time taken from two different 2010 London productions as well as the
original 1985 cast. The singers stand at microphones wearing costumes,
backed by a huge chorus and three video screens showing some action that
can't be represented on stage, though the stage is transformed into a
set for some key scenes, such as in the Thénardiers' bar and at the
barricade. And as it has for 25 years, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel
Schönberg's score vividly captures the passion of Victor Hugo's epic
tale of post-Revolutionary France, combining tear-jerking ballads ("I
Dreamed a Dream," "Bring Him Home") and rousing anthems ("Do You Hear
the People Sing").
The cast is nearly all excellent, including Alfie
Boe as Jean Valjean, Norm Lewis as Javert, Matt Lucas as Thénardier,
Jenny Galloway as Madame Thénardier (reprising her role from 1995), and
Katie Hall as Cosette. Teen pop star Nick Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers)
seems to have been cast as Marius for box-office appeal, however. Though
he has the right look and hits the right notes, his voice is weak
compared to the rest of the cast and throughout the show he seems to
wear the same look of earnest worry, eyes fixed on the horizon as if
reading a teleprompter. After playing Eponine in the 1995 concert, Lea
Salonga is now Fantine, and while she sings well, the part really calls
for more vocal power. Comparing the 1995 concert and 2010, the newer one
has superior audio and video, but the earlier one has the stronger cast
top to bottom, anchored by many of the legendary performers who helped
make
Les Mis the sensation it still is today. In acknowledgment
of that, after the final scene of the 2010 concert ends, many of the
original cast members enter the stage for a thrilling encore. "Bring Him
Home" unites original Valjean Colm Wilkinson with John Owen-Jones,
Simon Bowman, and Alfi Boe, then Michael Ball, Frances Ruffelle, Alun
Armstrong, and others join the cast for "One Day More." (It's hard not
to be moved when Ball looks around the stage and sings his line, "My
place is here, I fight with you.") Producer Cameron Mackintosh and
authors Boublil, Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer all address the crowd
before a throng of student performers (appropriate, no?) comes on stage
to close the nearly three-hour evening.
--David Horiuchi
Les Miserables Les Miserables in Concert - 25th Anniversary
