Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary

Date: 2010

Cast: Alfie Boe (Jean Valjean)

Norm Lewis (Javert)

Lea Salonga (Fantine)

Nick Jonas (Marius)

Katie Hall (Cosette)

Samantha Barks (Éponine)

Matt Lucas (Thénardier)

Jenny Galloway (Madame Thénardier)

Ramin Karimloo (Enjorlas)

Earl Carpenter (the Bishop of Digne)

Summary: After serving nineteen years of a prison sentence, Jean Valjean breaks parole so that he can find work and survive.  Initially he determines to act like the convict society treats him as, but the kindness of a bishop inspires him to seek redemption for his crimes and live a better life.  As the years pass, he adopts the daughter of a dying woman and raises her as his own.  He hopes to protect her from the outside world, but a revolution is brewing in the streets of Paris.   

Review: Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s musical adaption of the classic novel by Victor Hugo is an unforgettable experience that brings listeners through a range of emotions from the thrill of revolution to the sorrow of unrequited love.  The story is at once both sweeping and intimate, deftly balancing a scathing social commentary with personal looks at the lives of individuals being shaped by the history taking place around them.  Uplifting, inspiring, beautiful—Les Misérables bears no comparison with other musicals.

Although the 10^th anniversary singers received the nickname the “Dream Cast,” the members of the 25^th anniversary cast make the roles their own.  The three-dimensionality of the characters gives the cast a lot with which they can work, so that Katie Hall manages to bring even to Cosette something that resembles a personality.  In this version, Cosette still functions mainly as a pretty face around whom the other characters revolve, but Hall suggests something almost rebellious in her as she confronts Jean Valjean about his past.  Furthermore, audiences can believe in her love for Marius, sudden as it is.  The other cast members match or even exceed her stellar performance.

Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean actually made me forget Colm Wilkinson.  He lives the role, moving from bitter anger to repentance to petition, and making it all seem natural.  His voice is beautiful and his rendition of “Bring Him Home” as touching as any fan of Les Mis could wish.  He seems genuinely humbled by the enthusiastic reception of this signature solo (the concert is filmed live) and that touch of humanity brings him closer to audiences.  It is a small acknowledgement that he recognizes how beloved the role is to audiences and that he is really there to share with them the experience of Les Mis, and to celebrate it.

Lea Salonga as Fantine is my definitive version of that role.  The emotion she brings to the part gives me chills.  She shone as Éponine in the 10^th anniversary concert, but she has so much more experience now, and it shows. When I watch her, I believe Fantine is real.

Samantha Barks takes on the role of Éponine this time around, and I cannot envision more perfect casting.  Her interpretation of the character has a certain wistful quality that proves absolutely heartbreaking.  The balance of strength and tenderness that her character exhibits leaves me in amazement every time.  Though she has not received much coverage for her appearance in the upcoming film, she is the cast member whom I most want to see.

Only Nick Jonas really disappoints me in this production.  He can sing, but he never makes me believe he really cares about any of the other characters or, indeed, about his own.  I like to think that Marius actually possesses interesting qualities—after all, why else does he plot with revolutionaries—but his inclusion in the musical currently seems inspired by the idea that Cosette, being beautiful, must fall in love with someone.

The phenomenal casting of the 25th anniversary concert brings me back to this version time and again.  Many of these cast members have given what have become for me the definitive portrayals of their characters.  I look forward to the imminent release of the film version of Les Mis, but I know that I will never stop loving this wonderful production.