'Les Miserables'

Les Miserables
December 22, 2004
Pantages Theatre, Hollywood

Watching the musical version of Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" is like going for a really long run. You start out flying, but as soon as the enormity of what you're doing hits you, you start to groan. You're tired, your body would really like to stop all this huffing and puffing you're forcing it to do - but the best of us stick it out and keep running. And as you keep going, you settle into this weird sort of funk, where you feel like you could keep on running and that tiredness just doesn't bother you anymore. The run becomes satisfying in a strange way.

And the same goes for "Les Mis" - its a very long 3 hour musical whose hype preceeds itself. You enter the theatre flying; but then as the show starts, you groan - 3 hours of this blandly written, pop-schmaltzy pseudo opera? How will I get through without falling asleep? Oh, but then, somewhere around the 30 minute mark, you get pretty used to it. In an odd way, those tunes - repeated over and over and over again throughout the entire show - become pretty and accessible. You start enjoying the thing, and in the end you can be quite happy about it.

There are the big anthems that every musical theatre geek born in the last 20 years would know: Fantine's lament on her sorry life in "I Dreamed a Dream"; Eponine's pining for love unrequited in "On My Own". The songs are essentially pop ballads reorchestrated for mini-orchestra, and the lyrics are so generic that they could be transplanted into any other musical with nary a change in wording. But they are highly seductive; the tunes don't leave your head for a good amount of time, and it is undeniably fun to hear the performers belt their lungs out in a live setting.

The national tour has been on the road for something like 14 years now, but the production still moves like clockwork. One thing can be said for the production: it is exceptionally well staged by John Caird and Trevor Nunn. The show flows scene by scene, using a rotating stage (designed by John Napier) with great use of the stage space to create dramatic tension - even if that tension isn't necessarily flowing from the actors themselves. Indeed, it is a show that will flow on no matter who is playing the roles.

Several of the cast members stood out though: Ivan Rutherford has a very pleasant tenor voice in the lead role of Jean Valjean. If he wasn't a riveting stage presence, he was a very reliable one, delivering all the right impact at the right places. He's been performing the role for years (I saw him the only other time I've seen this show - at the Ahmanson over 4 years ago!), so he probably knows it inside out - still, he never looked bored. Tonya Dixon as Fantine and Melissa Lyons as Eponine also turned in respectable performances. Adam Jacobs' Marius didn't really wake up until Act II, where he gave a powerful singing of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" - but then again, his role in Act I is written so blandly that he can't be faulted too much. The Thernardiers, traditionally the comic relief couple, were the main disappointment. David Benoit and Jennifer Butt looked like they were walking through the show, speeding through lines and only half comitting to their comedy.

Still, though, "Les Mis" remains a nice long slog. The show lags terribly at the end - when will it finally end?, you think - but the tunes stick with you, and its a fun day at the theatre.