Les Miserables

Les Miserables is a huge challenge for any society, let alone a company where the eldest performer is only 18, and the average age much less. One of the most famous and challenging musicals in the world – 3 hours of solid singing would challenge the most experience professionals – and so well-known that it comes with so much baggage and preconceived expectations, added to by the recent film adaptation, this is a massive task for any company. That this young company succeeded in giving such a mature and well-executed performance is testament to their dedication and hard-work, and resulted in a very good evening’s entertainment.

The first impressions were good – a detailed and, as it proved throughout the evening, adaptable set with several entrances and working doors allowed for slick scene changes and some excellent set pieces, such as the bridge for Javert’s suicide, and of course, the barricade. The lighting was powerful, and added to the drama – again, at Javert’s suicide and the blinding lights as the students were harangued by the soldiers at the barricade. There were times however where individual songs and scenes were lit with a different state for the sake of it – noticeably during the barricade sequence where the use of lots of colour, while undeniably striking to look at, didn’t help to convey the passage of time, which is so crucial to showing how quickly these students were defeated.

The costumes were in the main part excellent – especially the uniforms for the soldiers and for the students in the second act. Unfortunately, the appearance of a couple of modern shirts in the chorus, short sleeve and printed, was glaring, while some of the waistcoat and flat cap combinations were more appropriate to The Hired Man and First World War Yorkshire than the early 1800’s in Paris. This was a shame as these did catch the eye whenever they appeared on stage, especially when so much effort and expense had clearly gone into making sure that the principal characters were well and appropriately dressed.

Musically, the show was well executed. At times, there were some hesitant cues and some slow tempi from the orchestra, which didn’t help the pace, but in the main part, the balance was good, particularly for the principal’s solo numbers. At times, particularly through the louder chorus numbers where the orchestra was also heavily amplified, the sound became somewhat distorted and words were difficult to make out. However, the cast coped with this well, and particularly impressed with their confident handling of the recitative sections of the music.

Despite these quibbles, the success of any production of Les Miserables really rests with the performers themselves, and here the group excelled. In Oliver Martin’s Valjean and Ricky Enoch’s Javert, we were treated to a fascinating duel between two strong singers and accomplished performances. Both grew into their roles as the evening progressed. Particularly in the second half, both young men’s voices seemed to have warmed up more, and were very comfortable giving lovely renditions of, respectively, Bring Him Home and Javert’s Suicide. I was also very impressed with the Thenardiers, Jordan Hickey and Rosie Treble – it is very easy to forget that these are hideously villainous people and to be swept away in the comedy, but both of these actors found a very strong middle ground, clearly conveying the evil characters without straying too far into caricature. All of the principal characters were in good voice, and were clearly giving everything to their performance.

There were times where the direction seemed overly fussy, with numerous directions and very literal gestures – this was particularly noticeable through the opening scenes with the Valjean and the prisoners, and Fantine and the workhouse & prostitutes. It felt, to me, that so much attention had been paid to very precise gesture and movement that the character wasn’t completely there, giving the impression of these opening solos being highly polished audition pieces rather than fitting comfortably into a story that was being told to the audience. This seemed less apparent as the show progressed, so could have been down to the performers gaining in confidence and relaxing into their characters a little more. There was a lot of business happening in the background, which became quite distracting at times too. While nobody wants to see the chorus motionlessly watching other performers, there is a fine balance that needs to be struck between keeping the chorus ‘alive’, and the occasional scene-stealing pantomime that was taking place, particularly noticeable in Master of the House, and occasionally on the barricades.

Despite these criticisms, I must stress that all of the young people on stage were working incredibly hard with what is a very complex and taxing production, as were the army of volunteers helping backstage, and front of house with four completely sold out performances. Well done to all involved, and I wish you all the best for your future productions.

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