Les Miserables (Thursday, Nov. 8th, 2012)

Les Miserables

I had seen the 10th Anniversary Concert. I had seen the 25th Anniversary Concert. I am partway through the 1200 page book that it was based on. But I had never actually seen the stage production.  Upon learning that Sierra Boggess, one of my all-time favourite Christine Daae’s (she starred in the original  London production of Love Never Dies, the 25th Anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, and will reprise this role in Broadway’s 25th Anniversary of Phantom), was playing Fantine until January 2013, I begged and begged my parents to see it before January, and ultimately, was successful. On the evening of Thursday, November 8th, after enduring an 7 hour overnight flight from Toronto, and spending the afternoon napping, the curtains rose and the music swelled at Queen’s Theatre in London. Les Miserables is based on the book o the same name written by Victor Hugo, and the on-stage adaptation is written by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. This production was directed by Trevor Nunn, and starred Geronimo Rauch, Tam Mutu, and Sierra Boggess.

Les Miserables, or Les Mis, as it is more fondly known, tells the story of Frenchman Jean Valjean (Geronimo Raunch), who, at the beginning of the show, has just been released on Parole by Inspector Javert (Tam Mutu) after serving nineteen years on the ‘Chain Gang’ (a group of prisoners chained together to do physically challenging labour). Valjean is given a yellow ticket of leave, which identifies him to all as a former convict, and a dangerous man. Because of this, Valjean faces discrimination and mockery, not being paid for work and beaten up for complaining. Valjean, full of hate, eventually steals a silver set from the elderly Bishop of Digne (Adam Linstead), who took Valjean in for the night because no inn would have him. Valjean is caught, but the Bishop claims that he gave Valjean the silver voluntarily, and then gives him the candlesticks he left behind, urging Valjean to use this to start a new life. Valjean takes these words to heart, and destroys his yellow ticket, vowing to start anew. Eight years later, Valjean is posing as mayor of Monreuil-sur-mer and wealthy factory owner Monsieur Madeleine. One of Valjean’s factory workers, Fantine (Sierra Boggess), is found to have an illegitimate child, and the women of the factory order her dismissal. Fantine begs for Valjean to save her job, but he leaves the decision to the factory overseer (who’s advances Fantine has been resisting), who immediately dismisses her without pay. Desperate for money to pay for her child, Cosette (Isabelle Allen), Fantine turns to prostitution. This, ultimately, leads to her illness and arrest. Valjean steps in, saving her from Javert’s merciless and law-abiding ways. Fantine dies in hospital, and Valjean promises to find Cosette and look after her. Javert, who has discovered ‘Monsieur Madeleine’s’ true identity, confronts Valjean at Fantine’s bedside. A fight ensues, and Valjean escapes. Young Cosette, unloved and abused by the Thenardiers (Cameron Blakely and Linzi Hateley) is adopted by Valjean, and taken with him to Paris. Nine years later, Valjean and Cosette (Samantha Dorsey) are living in Paris, and both become caught up in the Student’s Rebellion of 1832.

Tam Mutu's Autograph

Sierra Boggess' Autograph

I have to admit, as soon as the music started and the lights went down, I started crying. I was so beyond excited to see Les Mis, I could barely contain myself. I was even jumping up and down in my seat during dinner, anxious to make sure we were at the theatre in plenty of time. When Sierra Boggess came on stage for the first time, I started crying again, because I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be seeing her perform live. Although I hadn’t seen the full show before, I knew the music and the characters relatively well, and had heard rave reviews about all of the actors. So my expectations were high. Not high enough, apparently. The show was beyond amazing. I cried at least twice more (for legitimate reasons, I promise!), and completely lost myself in the show. For me, the mark of an excellent musical is when you don’t feel like you’re in the audience, watching the action unfold in front of you. It’s when you feel like you’re living what the characters are feeling. You cry for them, you feel their triumphs and their losses. Even though you know what happens in the end, you’re on the edge of your seat, anxious for what will happen next to these characters that you feel so strongly about. This is exactly what happened while watching Les Mis. It wasn’t until the end of the intermission that I remembered that I was watching a musical, and as soon as the fifteen minutes were up, I was right back in the performance. Fantine and Eponine’s respective deaths and the students’ deaths at the barricade had me in tears, the Thenardier’s wry humour made me laugh at times when I thought the show couldn’t be any more depressing, and Javert and Valjean’s confrontations had me hanging on the edge of my seat. Les Miserables was excellent. A veritable emotional roller coaster, but undoubtedly excellent.

Some choices that the director made that I would like to comment on are related to costuming and blocking. During Valjean’s Death, Fantine, and later Eponine, appear as spirits to escort Valjean to heaven. Eponine is dressed exactly as she was during On My Own. No blood, no injuries. Fantine is wearing the white hospital dress, with her hair shorn off. I’m not entirely sure why I disliked this decision. I would have preferred to see Fantine with her hair back. I guess it’s the idea that, when you’re dead, you should be at your finest. The hospital gown didn’t really bother me; it comes up in the song Castle on a Cloud, so I feel that it’s important that Fantine stay in that white dress. But I found the short hair rather depressing; it was too reminiscent of Fantine’s time as a prostitute and death. Eponine’s appearance was totally normal; she looked as she did before she got shot. So in my mind, Fantine should have looked as she did before her world came tumbling down after she lost her job. I wasn’t particularly fond of the blocking of Valjean and Javert’s confrontation at Fantine’s bedside. I found it much too violent and physically confrontational. One of my favourite lines in the entire musical was completely lost in the fighting, and this very much disappointed me. Javert’s “I am from the gutter too” is one of the most powerful lines in the entire musical and, although it’s completely contradictory to Javert’s idea that men cannot change, I find it extremely important. I wouldn’t have minded the physical violence in the scene so much if that line had not been lost within it.  The other way this line could have been more in the forefront, without diminishing the confrontational aspects, would be if Valjean lowered his volume a little, giving Javert’s line the chance to ring out a little more. In terms of director’s decisions, I also didn’t like that Fantine drank some sort of alcohol before going off with her first customer in Lovely Ladies. In my mind, she’s so desperate, that she doesn’t need alcohol to convince her to do anything. She also seemed to be acting a little drunk later, which I thought was just wrong for Fantine. I always thought of Fantine as still having some dignity about her, despite the fact that by the end of her life, she’s at the absolute bottom of a hole. She’s tired, she’s sick, she’s desperate... but not drunk. Perhaps the ‘drunken behaviour’ was meant to be more delirium from illness, but based on the fact that she drank something during Lovely Ladies, it didn’t come off that way.

Sierra Boggess as Fantine

Three actors that caught my attention the most (honestly, I could write about everyone in this cast) are Sierra Boggess (Fantine), Tam Mutu (Javert), and Helen Owen (Eponine, understudy). Sierra Boggess was the original reason that I wanted to come to London to see Les Mis. I was quite interested in her performance of this role; Fantine’s part is for a Mezzo-Soprano, and Sierra Boggess is a Soprano (and a good one at that, given that she played Christine Daae without Opera training). This was clear when she sang the lower notes in I Dreamed a Dream; the notes themselves were perfect, but it looked like it was taking a lot out of her to hit them perfectly (she appeared to go a little cross-eyed with effort at the very lowest notes). But Sierra brought an extraordinary fragility to Fantine that I hadn’t thought was possible. She was soft-spoken (or rather, soft-sung), but still perfectly clear, and loud enough to hear easily. In every word she sung there was emotion; no word was sung without meaning and feeling. This brought a character I thought I knew relatively well to life in a completely new way. I can’t fully describe how surreal an experience it was to see this interpretation of Fantine; it was perfect beyond words. Even though I disliked some of the blocking and character development, I never doubted the character as a whole. I was particularly impressed during Valjean and Javert’s confrontation, where Fantine is dead, being pushed around and fallen on by both Valjean and Javert. It is very hard to convincingly play dead through all of the action, and I commend her for doing such an amazing job. I also loved during Fantine’s Death, the words and voice were weak (intentionally; Fantine is dying, after all) but the emotions were so powerful. Then, during Valjean’s Death, when Cosette and Marius rush in and Fantine steps back, the emotions on her face were so real (as opposed to just standing there and smiling); I just can’t accurately describe it. Originally, I was going to choose Craig Mather (Marius) as an actor that I wanted to comment on (anyone who can make me not hate Marius’ character has done a good job at their role). But then Tam Mutu was so friendly at Stage Door, and he also made me feel bad for Javert, so I had to choose him instead. I’ve never liked Javert as a character; he always shows up at the most inconvenient moments, and attempting to tear apart people’s lives. But this time, I actually felt sympathy for Javert. Tam Mutu made him so real, and made his emotions and his reasoning behind his aims so clear that I couldn’t not feel bad for Javert. I found myself irritated with Valjean instead; “why can’t you just be a nice, law abiding citizen and turn yourself in, and give poor Javert a break?” As well, Tam Mutu’s rendition of Stars was the first one that I’ve ever heard that had actual emotion. Usually, it’s just some guy standing there holding a big stick, singing. As well, I have to admire anyone who can sing while standing on a very narrow edge, while clutching only a slim bar for support. The part where he ‘jumped’ off the bridge was done so skillfully; he ended up standing on his toes and leaning back for a good two minutes, which is so incredibly hard to do while still holding the final note. I have nothing but praise for his performance. Finally, I’d like to comment on Helen Owen, who is the understudy for Eponine, and was performing while Danielle Hope, the regular Eponine, was on vacation. I’d seen videos of Danielle Hope singing On My Own, and was unimpressed. By all reports, she was a mediocre singer but an excellent actress. So, figuring that the understudy couldn’t be better than the regular, I didn’t expect much. I was so wrong. Helen Owen absolutely blew me away; there was no doubt that she could sing brilliantly, and act the part as well. Eponine is my favourite character in Les Miserables, and I am a huge fan of perhaps the most famous Eponine, Samantha Barks (who will play Eponine in the 2012 movie). Because I am familiar with such a well-rounded Eponine (powerful singer and amazing actress), I originally pitied anyone else playing Eponine, thinking that they couldn’t possibly match Samantha Barks. Again, I was wrong. Helen Owen is now tied for my all-time favourite Eponine. Vocally, she was excellent. Acting wise, perfect. There wasn’t a moment where you doubted the character. And behind the rough exterior, you could see the genuinely kind, caring, and brave person that Eponine is. I know a lot of people dislike this kind of portrayal of Eponine; they prefer to see someone portray her closer to the books description (where her only redeeming quality is her love for Marius). But Eponine needs to be likeable; the audience needs to care when she dies, and why she dies. Helen Owen captured the characteristics of Eponine that I love, without sacrificing the vocal abilities. I know that Helen Owen is a Soprano (she has played Cosette before, so she has to be), but unlike Sierra Boggess, she didn’t have any problems with the lower notes (although there was nothing in On My Own or A Little Fall of Rain as low as the lowest notes in I Dreamed a Dream). Everything looked effortless, making it easier to focus on the character and her story, as opposed to whether the voice sounded right or not. I am especially glad she has a powerful voice because, in One Day More, she has some of the most tear-jerking moments, and her voice needs to rise above everyone else’s. And it did. Sierra Boggess, Tam Mutu, and Helen Owen all delivered admirable performances, as close to perfect as I think it is possible to get, and have set the bar very high for any future performances of Les Miserables that I see. 

Tam Mutu as Javert

The technical aspects of this show were amazing. My favourite part was the rotating stage, which was such a cool effect, especially when Valjean was singing “Here I stand at the turning of the years,” while walking on a turning platform. I just thought that was funny. I also liked how this turning stage showed the passage of time and distance; instead of just having the actors walk around in circles, or on and off stage repeatedly, they walked forwards and backwards and sideways, and the set was constantly changing. It made it seem much more realistic. The turning stage also had a trap door in it (constructed to look like a sewer grate), which was used for a few different scenes. I liked that it didn’t always have to be there, just waiting to be tripped over. It was only a part of the set when it was needed in the scene. I thought the way the barricade was done was very clever; it was in two parts, and one came down from each side of the stage. Because it was on a rotating stage, the barricade could be turned around to the other side, where you could see the dead French soldiers and, at the end, dead Enjolras, draped over a bright red flag. It was also quite cleverly designed; there were conveniently placed footholds and platforms for the student revolutionaries to stand on (or be dead on; many of them were hanging off the side of the barricade, and using footholds to not crash headfirst onto the stage). The only issue I had with the barricade is that it shook rather badly whenever someone moved on it. I didn’t notice this until it was rotated around to show Enjolras’ body, and although the stage was no longer moving, the barricade was shaking inexplicably. I figured out a few moments later, when the barricade turned back around, that the shaking had been all the dead people climbing down from the other side. I think this partially ruined the effect of Enjolras’ body; it’s such a poignant scene, seeing this powerful and confident student lying dead, with blood dripping down his face, on top of the flag of the cause he so believed in. The shaking threw it off; perhaps the barricade should be secured down a little more to prevent the shaking, or the actors should move more carefully. Costuming , hair, and makeup weren’t anything particularly unexpected; everything looked as I had seen it in the 10th and 25th Anniversary Concerts. As with Phantom, I like the traditional costumes that haven’t changed in years. From Enjolras’ red and gold vest, to Eponine’s cap, to Madame Thenardier’s wild red hair, everything looked just right. The only thing is that I think Cosette should have been blonde. Her mother, Fantine, was blonde. Young Cosette was blonde. Then older Cosette has dark brown hair. I also like it when Eponine and Cosette’s hair colours contrast, as a representation of their completely opposite personalities and situations. Having them both be dark-haired just didn’t work for me. 

I had the misfortune of sitting one over from someone who seemed unable to ignore her phone for more than three minutes; when she was texting during On My Own, I almost threw a program at her. But in general, the audience response was very positive. The standing ovation started early; everyone was on their feet by the time Enjolras and Gavroche took their bows. It was completely well deserved; while some people in the cast were weaker than others (Liam Tamne as Enjolras and Samantha Dorsey as Cosette, specifically. One didn’t seem to care, and the other had a slightly weak voice, although she hit every note beautifully), everyone did an excellent job bringing the musical to life. If I was given the opportunity to see this again, even if it required another seven hour flight overnight, I would be on that plane right away, and smile all the way. It was a three hour show, and by all rights I should have been fast asleep by the end of it, but I got so caught up in the show that it felt like it was over after five minutes. Les Miserables was incredible, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, whether they like musicals or not, or whether they like exceptionally long shows or not. This is a must see.