How to review “Les Mis”? Surely it’s such a classic that everyone who might want to see it has already seen it so what could I possibly say? Well, I’ll do my best and start off by wishing the original Les Mis – the novel – a very happy 163rd birthday for last Monday (31st March). Eva naturally made the book a tiny party hat to celebrate:
So that gives you an idea of the kind of obsessiveness we’re dealing with here. She’s been planning this outing for a long time and I put off booking for almost as long because I’d read reviews that said that some of the cheapest seats had very restricted views. Eventually I stopped dithering – with some help from seatplan.com – and booked £40 tickets in the Grand Circle. Not super cheap it could have been a lot worse. The view was fine, as it turned out, but first we had to find the theatre. It’s on what I like to call “Orphan’s Row”, right next to “Oliver!”:
It sparked quite some discussion as to which one came first as there are a few similarities. If you’re ever wondered the same, I can confirm that “Oliver Twist” was published in 1838 and, if you paid attention to the first paragraph, you’ll know that “Les Misérables” was published in 1862, three years after Dickens had published his own French revolutionary novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”. The two authors met in 1846 and around 130 years later Alain Boublil would be watching a production of “Oliver!” when the inspiration for the musical version of Les Mis hit. I’ve learnt most of this in the last 24 hours since seeing the show (with research credits to Eva) and only mention it because it seems very fitting that these two productions have run parallel courses to each other and are now neighbours. Also because Victorian novelists really liked writing about urchins and dead prostitutes.
If all that is too cerebral for a blog post, please enjoy my sloppily painted, French flag-coloured nails which happily matched the tube lines we took to get to the theatre (Weaver, Victoria, Piccadilly). Eva’s nails were red and black, for what will be obvious reasons to some.
If you’re wondering what the rest of her outfit was like, wonder no more. I might have mentioned before that she often dresses like an extra from Les Mis, so I assume this is just what she might have been wearing on a Saturday anyway:
All of which gets us to our seats in the Grand Circle. And look, the view was just fine:
So, on with the show! While I knew some of the songs very well, there were huge chunks of the show I only vaguely knew from having watched the film or heard the soundtrack blaring out of Eva’s room. The whole thing is sung-through, which makes for an interesting mix of songs that are actual songs (with a beginning, middle and end) and other bits which are more like conversational interludes. The latter is where most of the exposition tends to happen, so some of it is skipped out which leaves a lot of questions. Mainly around Valjean’s ability to escape Javert by just putting a suit on and moving to the other side of France. I think it’s probably explained a bit more in the book but there are certainly times when you can tell that a sprawling, epic novel has been condensed to a play that lasts just under three hours.
I’ve mentioned Valjean and Javert already and it would be remiss of me not to tell you what absolute powerhouse vocalists these two actors (Ian McIntosh and Stewart Clarke) are. It’s a lazy comparison to point out that one particular Javert was not such a powerhouse but comparisons are a bit pointless when you’re watching the kind of vocalists that can hold on a notes for seemingly hours or can sing a song almost entirely in falsetto. These are superb singers in their own right. It’s a very male dominated show, character-wise but really makes use of all the possible notes in the male voice, from the bass notes in the opening song to the high notes of “Bring Him Home”. The women are all amazing singers too, but it’s notable that there are some real vocal challenges for the male roles and they are managed amazingly. Maybe it’s just because I’m still learning about men – in a choir sense – so I was intrigued by the range on show.
But yes, let’s talk about the women because they were some of my favourite characters. Fantine (Katie Hall) is something of an angel character in the second half, all blond hair and white flowing dress, and she sings likes an angel too. Of course, in the first half, she’s very much a fallen angel as she has to sell herself and everything she owns in order to send money to her daughter. But then she dies of mother’s disease and thereafter only appears as a hallucination, where she takes on a heavenly glow. I wish the show gave her time to have more character development as she goes from respectable factory worker to dead prostitute over the course of around five songs. Eva often points out how there’s a very jarring contrast between “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Lovely Ladies” and she is not wrong. I guess it’s meant to be a bit of light relief after the epic drama of “Dream” but it does seem like a bit of a leap. “Dream” is rightly one of the most famous songs of the show and Katie Hall does an amazing job of bringing it to life. Again, I’m going to lazily compare it to the film but Anne Hathaway’s tearing of her vocal chords to try and add pathos just doesn’t hit in the same way that this ever-so-pure stage version does. If only we’d had more time to applaud before the sailors rocked up. No disrespect to the actors playing the sailors – it’s just an odd piece of direction.
Talking of odd, something happened just after Fantine died and Valjean and Javert had one of their rumbles. That might be why I couldn’t quite fathom how Valjean got out of the whole turning up at court and declaring his true identity thing…..I missed a bit of the show as there was a commotion towards the front of the circle. I have no idea what it was but I’m assuming it was either a medical emergency or someone filming the show. Lots of people were standing up and pointing and eventually it all settled down but it meant that Valjean escaping and the iconic moment of Cosette appearing were both somewhat overriden by what was going on. The staff seemed to handle it efficiently though, and all was calm by halfway through “Castle on a Cloud”. I’m not entirely sure which Little Cosette we saw but she was very good and her voice carried all the way back to us in the cheap seats.
Then another abrupt change of mood as it shifted again from pathos to comedy with the appearance of the Thénardiers. I didn’t realise it at the time but Madame Thénardier was played by Claire Machin, who I met when she played Cora in The Girls. I cried a LOT at that show and – spoiler alert – I cried at this show too. I won’t blame Claire Machin for either of those as she’s a great comedy actress, ably matched by Luke Kempner as her husband. I hadn’t realised quite how much comedy there was in this show as I’d assumed it was all quite dark and dramatic. I know I watched the film but that was a decade ago and I can’t remember what the balance was like then. I also didn’t realise how many saucy gags there were but that’s not a problem with these worldly adolescents. The age rating is 8 plus so just be aware that some of the humour gets a bit bawdy…but it might well go over their heads anyway. The show is also nearly three hours in total (including interval) so it might be a bit long for the younger ones.
It’s also worth everyone familiarising themselves with the plot before you go as well. There are two time jumps in the first half and it’s not immediately obvious if you don’t know what to look out for (though the programme has a handy guide, which helps). Valjean’s life as a prisoner takes place in 1815, his life as Mayor in 1823 and then the main bulk of the action – around the revolution – takes place in 1832. I won’t say which member of the family was confused by this last jump but it wasn’t Eva. Éponine appears briefly as a child in 1823 and it’s her appearance as a grown woman (played by Amena El-kindy) that signals that we have definitely moved on. I’m skipping forward a little to the second half but I must say that Éponine is probably my favourite character of all. I mortally offended Eva later by saying that I thought Marius should have ended up with her instead of Cosette but yknow, there was chemistry there. Plus I’ve been using a line from “On My Own” as a warm up for choir for a few weeks now because I just love the drama of “I have ne-ver knooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn”. Wanna see how long I can make the choir hold that note on for? How long dya have?
So with the time jump, we’re into full-on revolutionary mode and my top tip would be to not get too attached to any of those idealistic young students. I hope that’s not a spoiler, given that this show has been running for almost as long as I’ve been alive. Eva gripped my hand ever so tightly in excitement as they sang “Red and Black” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” back-to-back and in the interval made sure to pull the red and black theme through to her ice cream:
But I’m once again getting ahead of myself because what comes before the storm – I mean interval? That’s right, the epic pulling together of all these threads in the form of “One Day More”. Now I’ve seen the show, I can really appreciate how all the different musical themes are previewed through the first half and then they all fit together so beautifully. It was the first time I had a little cry because it is so stirring…but it would not be the last. I’m glad Eva had the interval to calm down afterwards because she was almost bouncing out of her seat by this point. After all, this is the girl who set a “One Day More” calendar reminder for bedtime the day before the show….and yes, we did sing the whole thing through. It gets tricky with two people when it gets into five parts.
Anyway, it did not disappoint. I think the live version is a little different to the recorded version as the different themes are sung at different times to really bring each theme out. It was, as I say, beautiful.
I took some time to look through the programme during the interval as I was thinking that – just like “The Sound of Music” the first half was a bit heavily loaded with all the best songs. I stand by that opinion but the second half makes up for the lack of big hitters with the sheer amount of drama and excitement as the students take to the barricade. No more spoilers here but keep those tissues close by.
And the aforementioned “On My Own” is in the second half so it’s not entirely devoid of mega-bangers. Again, it was wonderfully sung and the audience hung on her every note. You might think I’m being harsh by not including “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” or “Bring Him Home” as mega-bangers but you know what I mean…they’re both lovely and poignant songs but not as stirring as something like “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. I did have a few more nitpicks here about what exactly the students’ plan was as it seemed to have a few pitfalls and Marius changes his mind about the whole thing after spending literally five minutes with Cosette. But that’s young people for you, hey?
I haven’t mentioned Marius and Cosette’s actors yet (Jacob Dachtler and Annabelle Aquino) yet but they were compelling as the young lovers and Cosette’s high notes were incredible. Neither of them get much in the way of character development before the action moves on to the barricade but they’re sweet together and when they’re harmonising, it’s one of the highlights, especially when Éponine and Valjean are also singing in “In My Life”. It’s nothing against Cosette when I said he should choose Éponine, honestly. It’s just that their relationship is a bit rushed. As I said earlier, you can sometimes tell that it’s an epic tale condensed down to the length of a show.
Robson Broad as Enjolras was another highlight. Although his time on the stage is relatively short (darn, am I spoilering again??) he has a great energy and you can see why his followers were prepared to die for their cause (still no spoilers, I promise). Lack of planning aside, who wouldn’t want to join this revolution? Eva certainly did.
There is a certain amount of being overdramatic in this story – Valjean, planning to flee the country because he thought someone knew something that they didn’t know, Enjolras risking his life just to showily fly a flag and as for Javert….well, that’s quite an overreaction. Maybe he was jealous of Valjean’s disguise skills, given he got outed as a spy almost instantly. Takes more than a hat to fool those students. But accusing Les Mis of being overdramatic is the very definition of futile – of course it’s overdramatic. Being overdramatic is its very raison d’être. And that’s probably why my very dramatic child loves it so much.
If you’re wondering what the slightly-less dramatic kid thought – well, he enjoyed it too. He said it was “amazing” and has been humming the songs ever since. I think we may have spawned not one but two theatre kids. I would say it’s my fault but Nathan’s a bit flamboyant too so I think they were always doomed.
The crying-at-the-theatre gene is also strong in Eva as well, which I might well have mentioned before. So I wasn’t surprised to see that both of us were sniffling together during the final reprise. Oh and during “Empty Chairs” a bit as well. And probably when Fantine died and kinda during “Bring Him Home” as well. Did I mention you should bring tissues?
A third strong gene is the ability to lose our possessions everywhere we go. So after we’d stood and cheered the performers and headed down the stairs, wiping the tears away, I went back up all those stairs to find Eva’s jacket. It was a red velvet jacket on red velvet seats so the ushers hadn’t picked it up and I managed to retrieve it. It was also my red velvet jacket from the 90s so I was pretty determined to get it back.
I’d left the family hanging out conveniently next to the stage door and by the time I got back to the street, Katie Hall and Amena El-kindy were out signing. We weren’t super prepared but Roo found a pen and we got to say hello to them both and thank them for being so amazing. It was a lovely way to end the day and they were both super sweet. Then we headed home via the chip shop. This is pretty much Eva’s perfect day. Now to manage her expectations for the rest of the Easter holidays….
No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but opinions remain honest and my own. If you want to go and see it yourself, I’m sure there are plenty of ways to book the most famous musical in the country but still…handy link here
