I
saw the new production of Les Miserables running
in Toronto for my first outing last night and because I am such a junkie, I may
write about it again; but I wanted to note a few things that have changed in
the production we all grew up with.
Les Miserables, in the golden age of the
evolution of Blockbuster musicals, was always rather minimalist: what with its
apt use of a revolve and the jigsaw pieces of the barricade and a few flashes
and smoke and fog machines as well as
some expert lighting being the whole of its special effects.
Here,
Powell has upped the ante- though still keeps the focus on the story and not on
the things that go “bang” on stage with firecrackers…thank the Lord. He has fleshed out a lot of the sets: from
the factory where Fantine loses her job, to the ships where the Lovely Ladies
prowl for prey to the gardens and house front at Valjean and Cosette’s digs at
55 Rue Plumet. When we do get to the
barricade scenes, we are looped into a narrow scope that ultimately feels like
we are looking down the barrel of a city street. The students using everything
from chairs to a spindling wheel to separate us, the audience, from their
National Guard foe.
Powell
uses several of Hugo’s own illustrations to give us a glimpse of industrial
Paris: the technique is most enticing when it depicts sequences such as the
rush through the sewers or Javert’s magnanimous ponderings on that infamous
bridge above the Seine, the stars overhead like pinpricks in the black night he
cannot rush from.
When
the film first came out, I mentioned how beguiled I was that it added snippets
from the literary source material evaded in the musical. I really found the moment between Valjean
and Petite Gervais ( the young ruffian he steals a sou from ) to be amplified
here. More still, the candlesticks and crosses
are more present and front.
Character-wise, our cast excelled at directorial changes that saw a
burgeoning closeness and paradox between (an excellent) Grantaire and
Gavroche. Gavroche is pained by
Eponine’s death to the extent that those who recognize their familial
relationship ( they are both Thenardiers) will be appeased.
The
orchestration is fabulous. Every melancholy, thematic and robust layer of the
score is stripped and built and stripped and built, peeled back with the focus
on a single strain of an instrument: powerful and swelling but never taking
away from the prime voices.
Which
leads me to Ramin Karimloo: our celebrity, Canadian-raised Valjean. He is magnificent. His literal youth allows for a ferocious
Valjean at the beginning—before his conversion—and his heartfelt way of emoting
everything with the resonance of pure and unadulterated compassion seeps
through. His initial bond with Cosette
is charming. I just cannot speak highly
enough of him in the role. And, for a
girl who saw Colm Wilkinson on stage in the role several times, I was
flabberghasted that Karimloo’s Bring Him
Home could almost pre-empt Wilkinson’s definitive version. Karimloo’s voice
–which in previous scenes has been seen as grating, over-powered, over-bearing,
controlled, breathless and passionate—is pure and ethereal: a glistening tone
that hushes the audience and lingers with the sweet pitch of his held last
line. This is a magnificent exercise in
offering: Valjean, palms outstretched to heaven, tasting every word as it slips
his lips and falls on Heavenly ears.
Our
Eponine was also of note. Melissa O’Neil has a great, thoroughly pop-styled
voice that has influenced so much of Broadway of late; but her tomboyish
demeanor and simultaneously tragic and light countenance propel her in fluid
movement around Marius and the stage.
When she is finally fatally wounded, the duet A Little Fall of Rain is more than once truncated by her authentic
moans and frightening groans of pain. It
was really authentic; more visceral than sweet and perhaps pounded the audience
into the stark realization that this is not a romantic story: this is one of an
unhappy soul hungering for the life her beloved can (and won’t) give her.
The
Thenardiers are problematic for me because of their deprivation of any comic
entitlement in the story. However, I know well that Boubil and Schonberg were
in dire need of comic relief so, as per usual, they ham their way with guttural
roars and a lot of physical comedy. They
“Sweeney Todd” it, as it were.
The
One Day More choreography:
synchronized marching, with slight feature of all of the characters winding
round the plot’s intricate carousel is here amplified again: a fabulous maze
that you don’t want to end, the harmonies blazing with the full effect of the orchestra.
Good Lord people, I loved the film; but this feeling can never happen on
screen. It needs to be experienced live.
Javert.
Gah. Javert. What a dish of a role. Earl
Carpenter is all stoic and rigid with his voice as powerful as his presence.
His suicide scene is one of my favourites of the story. Here still, as before, the contrast between
legalism and grace is vast and moving.
Valjean, touched by the Bishop of Digne’s act of unwarranted redemptive
love is spun into a vortex of caring, of belief, of faith and humanity: moved
by grace so that it propels his life.
Javert, as steadfast in his belief of God and righteousness, is a
product of legalism and rigid law. When grace is offered him by Valjean he
cannot fathom how he can live with it. Throwing himself off a bridge and
sinking at the precipice of his thought that Valjean holds dominion.
Old
Testament God. New Testament God.
The
orchestra is brilliant. Cosette is no longer swathed in that ugly black dress (
no matter how source authentic it was for a time ) and all is well.
Seeing
Les Miserables is a religious
experience because the story is so drenched in redemption and grace. You can’t shy or shirk its religious
overtones, all gloriously central and propagating the life of the converted
Valjean, so it is best to just run with it and let it over-take you
Dazzling
new production. Seriously fast-paced; but loaning it a sense of visceral
urgency, an energy mirroring the student’s fervor for change and the precipice
of this cast of characters on the brink of something brilliant and light and
that only Heaven can intercept with the replacement of the sword for ploughshare.
Did you all watch White Collar last night?
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