For Christmas last year, my daughter, Juliann, gifted me with a ticket to go with her to see the 2005 Broadway tour of “Les Misérables.” I was thrilled! “Les Misérables” became an integral part of our family in 1987, when it first opened in NYC, at the Broadway Theater.
At the time, my husband, Jeff, was in Manhattan for a business trip and happened to catch the show. Inspired he called me later that night, full of sentiment expressing how “Les Mis” had worked his emotions from laughter to tears, describing the story and the music. Then he told me that he was going to buy the soundtrack and when he returned home, we would take an evening together, just the two of us, to drive around and listen to the beautiful songs.
On night, that’s exactly what we did! Driving through the neon lit buildings down the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth, we pumped up the stereo submerged in Claude-Michel Schonberg’s award-winning score. Jeff told me what was happening with each song, and as soon as we were able, he took me to NYC, so I could experience “Les Mis” for myself.
For years afterward, whenever Jeff and I visited Manhattan, we took the opportunity to go see “Les Misérables.” During one of those trips, we learned about, and began to frequent, the little coffee shop across the street from the stage door of the Broadway Theater, where the cast and crew members sometimes gathered.
As soon as our children were old enough, we took them to the Broadway tours that brought “Les Misérables” to our cities. When my grandson Aldon was still a tender age, I took him to see “Les Mis.”
Aldon is very musical and plays the trumpet. Jeff and I take him to a Broadway show every year, but so far, to date, “Les Misérables” is his all-time favorite. The day after we saw the show, he sat with me and watched the entire anniversary DVD with the original cast.
Last Friday night, after Juliann and I had spent three months savoring our anticipation to once again, see “Les Misérables,” we entered Fort Worth’s outstanding, Bass Performance Hall, and were led to our seats. I couldn’t believe it when we discovered that we were only four rows from the stage! For all of my previous productions we always sat way in the back of the theater, which does have appeal because of the visual for the special effects. But for this performance, Juli and I would be able to see the performers expressions!
As the house lights dimmed and the familiar stanza to the score filled the theater, the lights behind the scrim revealed chained prisoners rowing a ship. I sat back as the scrim lifted and melted into the journey that is “Les Mis,” allowing the cast, musicians and crew, to once again, transport me to Paris in the year 1832.
The cast to the 2025 tour of “Les Misérables” is led by Nick Cartell as Valjean and Nick Rehberger as Javert. Both actors gave memorable performances that rose above and beyond what “Les Mis” fans have come to expect, particularly with their powerful vocals.
David T. Walker, as the innkeeper almost stole the show, as he drew the audience to him with his cleaver antics that kept us laughing and watching to see what he would do next. Adding the bird to “this and that,” made the audience roar. Equally appealing was Vicotria Huston-Elem for her portrayal of Madame Thenardier. I especially enjoyed her use of a loaf of French bread as a prop!
Lindsay Heather Pearce was the most tender, heart-wrenching Fantine I have ever seen. Her portrayal of the character, her tenderness and love for Cosette and contemplative rendition of “I dreamed a dream” made Juli and me cry.
Kyle Adams, as Grantaire was another actor I kept my eye on especially during “Master of the House,” and at the barricades, where he drunkenly, stays beside his mates, despite knowing that he’s going to die. I was particularly moved as he held and wept for the fallen Gavroche.
Since covid, there have been a great many changes to the presentation of too many classical Broadway productions. Sadly, not all of these changes have improved the quality of the shows. One in particular is the new staging and set for “Phantom of the Opera,” which is publicized as “new and revised,” when it should really be publicized as “stripped from its original splendor due to budget cuts that have changed the set and staging and significantly damaged the audience’s experience of the show.” I walked out of that show deciding never to pay for a ticket again.
Then, there are the revisions to the beloved, classical Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s musicals, where the original scripts and scores have been so altered it’s difficult to recognize the original classic that theater goers have grown to expect and love. Noteworthy is the new rendition of “Oklahoma,” where audience members in swarms left after (or before) the first act ended and the word of mouth was, whatever you do, DON’T’ take your children to it!
“Les Mis” too has been restaged, the most significant change for me is the removal of the original turntable. I first noticed this when I took Aldon to the show. But even with the loss of the turntable and barricades coming together in front of our eyes, the staging to this current “Les Mis” tour, directed by the talented Laurence Conner and James Powell, is masterful! Both directors have drawn from their cast “milked” moments that actually pulled the audience further into a scene. As a result, every song and each interaction became just a bit more memorable.
The audience, packing the house, seemed to agree as they hooted, whistled and hollered after every song, momentarily causing the show to stop for an elongated pause.
In writing about the talented ensemble, it would be a crime not to acknowledge the troupe of talented musicians, to whom without, “Les Mis” is nothing. The reason why musical lovers flock to this production is to become immersed in the music that most of us have memorized. It is the music that carries the audience through the journey and in this current production, the beautiful voices blended with the musician’s harmonics, staged by Geoffrey Garrant, do just that.
I urge you, particularly if you have never seen “Les Misérables,” go and enjoy this current production. Take the whole family, dress up, go out to dinner and make a nice evening of it. The experience is worth the price of the ticket. Come and join the crusade of theater goers who have marched and raised their glasses to the anthem, “Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men…”