Monday, January 09, 2006

Music Monday: Les Miserables at the National Theatre

Last night my wife and I saw Les Miserables at the National Theater. While the performers were for the most part very good, I have to say I was a little disappointed. The leads for our performance - Jean Valjean, Javert (understudy), and Eponine - were excellent. Randal Keith was particularly brilliant as Valjean. But some of the other cast members, including most notably Fantine, were quite flat. I was also unimpressed by the overall sound presentation -- the chorus numbers were far too loud (almost painful).

I was also disappointed by the sets and other production aspects of this show. I would attribute this to the fact that it is a touring company, except that the performance of The Producers we saw at The Kennedy Center last year blew this away. Perhaps it is due to the venue, or maybe this is just the way Les Mis has always been performed. I know this is true of some aspects -- for example, the chain gang in the epilogue uses imaginary picks and shovels. I guess I have just come to expect more realistic props and sets from Broadway shows.

I had also forgotten how disjointed the storyline of Les Miserables is. This show certainly requires some pre-reading of the program to understand what is going on, and a thorough listening of the original cast recording of the show would help too. I own the soundtrack and saw the show on Broadway many years ago, and I still found the show confusing at parts.

All in all, it was an enjoyable show and I'm glad we got to see it in it's (supposedly) final DC engagement. However, I have to say I'm surprised that Les Mis has had such a long and successful run and is considered "the world's most popular musical" considering the disjointed storyline, minimalist sets, and generally depressing theme.

-------

In case you are curious, I have seen the following musicals (listed in roughly chronological order):
Phantom of the Opera (Broadway)
Les Miserables (Broadway)
Grand Hotel (Broadway, feat. Michael Jeter)
Man of La Mancha (Broadway, feat. Raul Julia)
Miss Saigon (Broadway)
City of Angels (National touring company, Penn State)
The Who's Tommy (National touring company, Penn State)
The Producers (National touring company, Kennedy Center)

This does not include amateur theater productions.

3 comments:

Jamie the ParkHopper said...

I genuinely believe that a show that has been around as long as Les Mis is no longer getting top-level talent. When I was in college, my dad and I went to NYC to see Miss Saigon, and I was heartbroken that the male chorus sang their big a capella number FLAT. And that was ON Broadway.

Of course, I think I'm in the same boat as you with Les Miserables. I saw it in Philly when I was in 8th grade, and hated it! I still love the music, and I once read the entire unabridged novel, but I wouldn't go see it live again.

Marc said...

Hey ParkHopper, you might be interested to know that the woman who played Eponine, Melissa Lyons, was the singing voice of Princess Anneliese in "Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper". OK, so it's not Disney but it's still a princess!

Mommygoth said...

Oh man, you got to see Julia as Quixote, I hate you!