So - here is the review - for what it's worth....
Les Miserables - Review.
I promise, no spoilers.
Today I saw the National Tour of "Les Miserables" at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. I first saw Les Mis in 1990, and the experience was so that it probably the reason I got into musical theatre. Amazing. Since then, and up to today, I have seen the show 7 times.
The show I saw today was different from the rest, and I knew that going in. New design, new orchestrations, new direction. All that was well and good. The projections in Act Two worked really well and I was really impressed. At first I wasn't impressed with the production, then I realized why.
Les Mis is 31 years old. When it was written, people sang differently. We had real baritones (Colm Wilkenson, Gary Morris, Anthony Warlow) - baritones with high powerful upper ranges. Able to command a stage and carry a show. We had real sopranos, (Judy Kuhn, Rebbecca Caine) with real head voices and lovely floating high notes. Tenors sounded like tenors and not whiny young boys and the mezzo's belted with nice rich voices, not ear-splitting angst-y high "mixed" high notes. Bottom line, Broadway singers are not trained that way anymore. The are trained to be Elle's, Glinda's, Elphaba's, Roxie's, etc... the techniques are different, therefore, the over all sound is different. There really isn't anything distinguishing vocal types anymore.
So, what I didn't like was the quality of voices. Sure, everything was sung well, but it didn't sound like Les Miserables. Valjean got lost in the show because he didn't have the power to carry the show. The stars were Javert (and I'm on record as not liking ANYTHING Javert sings) but this was the best portrayal of the character I've seen. Same with Eponnine. FINALLY, one that does not whine. Her vocals were fantastic. The ensemble was great also.
I did feel the production was much more complex that the original staging. I always found the turn table to be a wonderful way to stage this show that changes scenes quickly. I did get a little bored with the new set and at times I missed the turn table. But, I understand why there was a re-design. Not just because they "could", but to show people the show did not need the gimmick of a turn table to tell the story. I will say, though, the story telling in the original was more about the music and lyrics than the set, which I lost this time.
So, in the words of my favorite comedic character from the movies - Arthur -- "It didn't suck". But I hope to hear this show sung the way it should again sometime.
