Les Miserables, Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, Thursday 29th October 2014

Les Miserables, Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, Thursday 29th October 2014

The newly imagined version of "Les Miserables" directed by  Laurence Connor and James Powell played at Her Majesty's Theatre.

For those new to my blog I do not retell the story and write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre.

I was so impressed with the Dress Circle usher who reminded patrons that no photography was permitted as they entered the theatre.

One of my favourite actors, Simon Gleeson was not appearing as Jean Valjean.  I was disappointed but I had heard only but praise for his understudy, Daniel Belle.  The role of  Jean Valjean is iconic to modern musical theatre and Daniel Belle did not disappoint.  He has a rich and powerful voice with terrific diction.  He brought sincere passion to the role and I felt he made a lovely connection to the role and to other characters.

Daniel Belle aged physically and vocally with his portrayal of Jean Valjean.  In his final scene I had tears welling up in my eyes with his relationship to the memory of Fantine, Cossette and Marius.  This was the emotional connection that I longed for with other characters.

Hayden Tee was menacing and powerful in his portrayal of Javert.  I loved how he took ownership of his space and radiated his evil intentions.  At times I thought he pushed his voice and pressed down for volume.  I also liked his emotional connection with other characters.

Fantine was played by Patrice Tipoki with a warmth and vulnerability.  I liked her emotional connection to the role and her relationship with Daniel Belle  as Jean Valjean.  Her final entrance needed some alternative lighting such as a ghostly lighting or a tunnel of light to create an atmosphere of ascension to heaven.

Lara Mulcahy as Madame Thernadier and Trevor Ashley as Thernadier relished in their roles and the audience adored them.  They added depth and various emotional levels to their wicked characters.  I did prefer the original staging of "Master of the House" compared to this updated staging, as focus was pulled by other characters with over-staging the number.  I thoroughly enjoyed their characterisations.

Eponine was played by Kerrie Anne Greenland and I was mesmerised by her performance.  I enjoyed her emotional connection and then towards the end of "On My Own" it was if she was yelling rather than belting in "On My Own."  It sounded so forced that I lost my emotional attachment to her characterisation.

Gavroche played by Daniel Stow had the audience in the palm of his hand. Daniel Stow has a good sense of comedic timing as the feisty street urchin.  He showed up some of the minor principals with his command of the stage and keeping his character's accent.  He did not force his portrayal and allowed his character's cheekiness to come through.

The sets and image design by Matt Kinley were very effective and I did not miss the original revolve for the barricade as I know others have.  I liked the use of the film and video projections to provide depth and a more realistic time frame.  I did not like the lack of continuity with a recurring scene.  I understand about logistics with moving staging and did not like it when the bench was removed near Jean Valjean's gate when we returned to this set.

I particularly liked the use of the walkway stage right and the proscenium set construction as it was used effectively and brought the audience closer into the action.

The lighting design by Paule Constable was terrific and created lots of atmospheric changes for each scene.  Though I was disappointed in the final scene as there was not a ghostly quality to highlight Fantine as in heaven.  I prefer this new staging of final sequence.

The costume design by Andreane Neofitou and Christine Rowland honoured the period but it worried me that some of the shoes were not dirty or tatty enough for some of the poorer characters.

The wigs and make up for Jean Valjean were particularly impressive. They did not look like wigs as in some versions of this show that I have seen.

The music conducted by Geoffery Castles was crisp, fresh and clean, while the sound design by Mick Potter was impressive.  The gunshot by Jean Valjean towards Javert (stage right) had the sound effect over our shoulder on stage left and lost the realism for that moment.  Otherwise the gun shot sound effects in the audience were terrific.

I loved the projections by Fifty-Nine Productions, particularly Jean Valjean carrying Marius through the sewers.  This created a new depth to the scene.

The musical staging by  Michael Ashcroft and Geoffrey Garratt  was very effective except for  "Master of the House" as sometimes the focus was lost from the central characters by the upstaging of minor characters.  The famous marching sequence did not work for me due to the stop/start nature of the choreography.  If the video had the same stop/start timing then it may have appeared differently and been more effective.  I liked the concept and have seen it done very effectively in shows like "Young Frankenstein" with the "Roll in the Hay" song.  Here, with the cross-overs in the choreography and forward marching it did not match the video footage.

When most of 28/30 cast were on stage they gave depth and filled the stage with their individual characters.  This was unlike the main opening scene in "Brigadoon" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago that had an empty stage with a cast of 28.

The Javert suicide "Soliloquy" was brilliant and his final fall into the vortex was so effective and unexpected.  Comparing it to the original I thought, they may stage it in a similar fashion.  Not to be - as it was very clever and created an emotional push back by the audience as we were jolted into our seats and staring into Javert's black void.

I loved the "Turning" sequence with the candles as a great segue to the ghosts of the dead appearing for "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables."  Some terrific staging that created more of an emotional impact than the singing.

I loved the ensemble singing for its rich harmonies, but, sometimes a minor character was a bit off key and/or there was some scooping onto notes.

I am not going to compare performances from the other versions of "Les Miserables" that I have seen.  I was concerned at the number of times I saw performers checking their marks on the stage to ensure they were correctly placed.  This gave it a real "colour in by numbers" feel to some performances.  With the younger female performers this needs to be corrected.

Some of the minor principals were too concerned about the beautiful singing and came across as emotionally detached from their roles.  I thought some of the casting of these roles jarred in that there did not appear to be an emotional truth with their circumstances.

My partner has also seen "Les Miserable" at least five times and thought that this was the clearest version of the story.  I agree though some of the diction of the minor characters was thrown away.

I would highly recommend seeing this new version of "Les Miserables" again.

Overall this production gets a 8/10.