Les Miserables School Edition

Since its release in 1985 “Les Miserables” has wowed its audiences with an emotional story line, a powerful score and it has made stars of many of its performers. Based on the Victor Hugo novel it follows the life of Jean Valjean from his imprisonment, mistreatment, and rebuilding of his life whilst being pursued by Inspector Javert.

CAOS have a very young cast, probably the youngest cast I have seen perform this show, and I wondered if they would be able to capture the emotion but I need not have worried, they captured it and delivered a powerful performance throughout. The subjects covered are a challenge for adult performers to emote let alone young people with limited life experience so congratulations to the team for working to ensure that the performers created the correct feel in their numbers.

The set was simple and each scene transition was swift and without disruption to the story telling. The lighting complimented each scene and the sound quality was clear throughout with the balance between backing track and performer being good and neither overpowered.

The ensemble worked hard throughout, with good singing and movement and those who played the supporting roles – Erin Kilgallon, Ami Dodds, Ethan Fowler, Matthew Gray, Emilia Sellars, Sophie Bannerman, Rowan Devlin, Molly Hall, Ollie Car and Charlotte Whitfield – did very well and contributed to the success of the piece. Daisy Bradgate as “Young Cosette” gave a sweet delivery of “Castle on a Cloud” and Lucy Wilkinson as “Cosette” had absolutely perfect vocals, her top notes were superb. I was surprised to hear that “Marius” was the first role that Tom Bainbridge had played, what a start Tom and hopefully you will continue to perform, well done. The role of the powerful “Enjolras” was in the safe hands of Nina Clarke who gave a solid performance as the student leader. Chloe Cutter as “Eponine” gave us so much emotion, her rendition of “On my Own” was beautiful and the scene with Marius on the barricade very moving. The brave and cheeky “Gavroche” was played with powerful vocals and super confidence by Joey Howourth, he is definitely one to watch for the future. The scenes with the “Thenardiers” are always a welcome piece of light relief in this emotional piece and George Anglesea and Katie Kyle were a perfect partnership, their delivery and timing was excellent. “Fantine” is a complex character, she has so much to portray in the short time that she is on stage, but Milly Cassin did a great job and also gave us a beautiful “I Dreamed a Dream”.  The troubled and determined “Javert” was extremely well portrayed by Alex Rochester, Alex never let his character slip and his death scene was particularly well played. He made a strong challenger for “Jean Valjean” played by Ted Gladstone. Ted didn’t falter in this mammoth role and his falsetto rendition of “Bring Him Home” was beautiful, you could have heard a pin drop in the audience. Both Ted and Alex gave performances way beyond their young years (13 and 14), well done!

It was clear to see the amount of hard work that had gone into the production, congratulations to Lee, Claire, Scott, Jo and your support team, you and your cast fully deserved the rapturous applause and standing ovation. I am looking forward to seeing you all in “Fame” next year.  

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