Musical theatre royalty !

If I had known about this a little earlier I would have made this first post about Prisoner – my all time favourite trashy iconic TV series – but since I’ve already prattled on about that one I will move the focus over to Les Miserables, my all time favourite live musical.

The storyline of this show – based on the novel by Victor Hugo – is a very simple one, telling the story of how the paths of the lead characters cross over a period of 20 or so years. There are a multitude of sites around that have a very good description of the story – try here or here or here – so I wont bother with going into that. This is more about the music and the production over all.

Les Mis is a ‘sung through’ musical so all of the dialogue between the ‘songs’ is sung as well. Nothing new about that – there a lot of other shows that follow the same format, namely anything by Andrew Lloyd-Webber – but for me there is something very different about the way Les Mis presents itself with a lot of the ‘dialogue’ being just as, if not more, powerful than some of the actual songs.

Now, if you are looking for a happy happy joy joy musical with lots of frivolity and dancing, this one really isn’t for you. All bar 4 of the lead characters die before the curtain comes down, including the leading lady who perishes within about the first half hour. There are comic moments though provided by the Innkeeper and his wife but that isn’t what the story is actually about.

I will admit that I am a bit of a sook and get very wrapped up in the emotion of a scene or song and can name just about every part of the show where I will either tear up or have tears flowing. When I worked on the 10th Anniversary Tour back in ’99 I would watch parts of the show from the wings and even after about 80 performances would still find myself in tears in exactly the same spots – luckily we all worked in the dark !!!

Sets and costumes ? There are some big sets through the show but the over all look is minimalist and don’t expect to see a sequin anywhere but it all works in together to create the required mood. The imposing visual of the barricade set moving onto the stage in Act 2 is incredible.

Clip below is from a tribute concert to Cameron Mackintosh and I believe it is this is the only televised performance of Les Mis done in ‘performance mode’ which you can kind of tell from the applause when the curtain goes up. Any other televised performance has been done in concert mode or just as a solo (if I am wrong about that let me know). This medley of songs features Australian actor Philip Quast who is considered the one of, if not THE, best ‘Javert’ in the world.

If you haven’t seen it I do recommend the dvd of the 10th Anniversary Concert in London. It doesn’t give you the full impact but it’s the best substitute around and the cast is exceptional.

BJ and I saw it in London a couple of years ago and will be going again later this year. If it tours Australia again and you haven’t seen it before, get yourself a ticket ! I’d be very surprised if you were disappointed.

See ya :-)