‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ Columbus certainly does
Erin Millar, The Examiner
March 16th, 2011 10:04 pm ET
I’m sad to say that before this week, my only experience with Les Misérables was performing a single song in marching band when I was in high school. I clearly didn’t know what I was missing out on. I’m thrilled that this cast of Les Misérables was what I first saw, because they were, in a word, spectacular. If the audience reaction was any indication, most everyone at the Ohio Theatre on Tuesday thought the same thing.
Les Misérables tells the stories of several people fate has intertwined during the time of the French Revolution. Jean Valjean (Joe Tokarz on opening night) is a former prisoner who, after breaking his parole and regardless of his vow to better himself, is constantly chased by Javert (Andrew Varela), an incredibly determined investigator. There’s Fantine (Betsy Morgan), a dismissed factory girl who formerly worked under Valjean and who leaves her daughter, Cosette (Jenny Latimer), in Valjean’s care. Éponine’s (Chasten Harmon) parents were Cosette’s caregivers when she was a child, and now her childhood friend, Marius (Justin Scott Brown), is falling for Cosette, unaware of the girls’ linked pasts.
It all sounds difficult to follow, but I was surprised that I was able to follow the crisscrossing storylines as easily as I was. The cast was without a doubt impressive. Tokarz was fantastic in the leading role and I found myself drawn to his character almost immediately. Varela brought his character’s vendetta against Valjean to life with ease and was able to prove how tragic Javert truly is. Morgan, for the short time she spends on stage, had the audience in the palm of her hand and my heart was breaking for her before I even fully knew Fantine’s story. Latimer, as adult Cosette, was charismatic and fun to watch. Her chemistry was palpable with Brown, who was also fascinating to watch in Marius’s character arcs as a romantic and as a rebel. I felt my heart also breaking for Éponine, no doubt because of the wonderful performance put on by Harmon.
But I was most impressed with the child actors - in particular, the two whose characters' stories are shared the most - Anastasia Korbal (Little Cosette) and Colin DePaula (Gavroche). Both child stars were lovable, fun to watch, easy to cheer for, and clearly most at home on the stage.
Speaking of the stage, the set was also a wonder to behold. The special effects used in the show were limited, but effective. The scenes transitioned smoothly into each other and the set pieces blended into each other easily. The audience was not smacked over the head with the elaborate nature of the set, but the elegance was still apparent. The set, to be honest, almost felt like a character unto itself.
I truly enjoyed this show—my sole complaint is that the ensemble microphones seemed to be turned too high, causing some of the songs to be so loud it was unable to distinguish the lyrics. Other than that simple technical difficulty, it was a pleasure to watch this show. Anyone who has the privilege to see Les Misérables, which was in high demand on Tuesday, before the tour leaves at the end of this weekend is a lucky person indeed.
Review of "Les Miserables" at Paper Mill Playhouse
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
BY JIM BECKERMAN
The Record
STAFF WRITER
REVIEW
LES MISERABLES
The musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel, Herbert Kretzmer and James Fenton, directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell. At the Paper Mill Playhouse, Brookside Drive, Millburn, through Dec. 30.
With Lawrence Clayton, Andrew Varela, Michael Kostroff, Shawna M. Hamic, Betsy Morgan, Jeremy Hays, Chasten Harmon, Justin Scott Brown and Jenny Latimer.
7 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets: $25 to $92. 973 376-4343 or papermill.org.
The excellent scenery of "Les Miserables" is quite thoroughly chewed at the Paper Mill Playhouse, where a new staging of the 1987 Broadway blockbuster will run through Dec. 30 in preparation for a national tour. If you like melodrama without the slightest trace of mellow, this is your show.
To complain that "Les Miserables" is over the top is like complaining that mime is silent. It is what it is. Either you're put off by the bombastic heaviness of a musical that takes itself super-seriously, or you're mesmerized by the impressive stagecraft and caught up in the epic sweep of the saga of Jean Valjean, the reformed thief who is pursued through three hours of riots, shootings, explosions, romantic intrigues, religious conversions, student uprisings, sin and skullduggery by the implacable Inspector Javert.
It's even possible to be awed by the size and skill of the production, enjoy the tunes (some of them memorable) and appreciate the ability of the singer/actors while imagining just how funny a "SouthPark" parody would be.
Though scaled down somewhat from Broadway, this "Les Mis" is still a big show: It's got two directors, 35 actors and much scene-shifting razzle-dazzle. Rather than mounting scenery on a turntable, savvy set designer Matt Kinley has combined large set pieces with ingenious computer-imaged backdrops that, at times, create an almost cinematic level of realism. During the student march, and the climactic chase through the sewers, the backdrops recede as the actors walk, creating onstage the equivalent of a tracking shot. This is highly effective. Add to that the slam-bang pacing of directors Laurence Connor and James Powell, and you get something that adds up to — at the very least — a Hollywood-level take on the 1862 Victor Hugo novel, with a boatload of music in the bargain.
The actors sing superbly, and incessantly (the show is sung throughout). Occasionally, they are allowed to be yearning, or romantic. But mostly, they rage, roil, boil, froth and seethe. The harlots are lewd, the lower classes are crude and everybody is lusty, loud and rambunctious. Many of the lines are snarled, rather than sung. Even a cute little urchin (played by Lewis Grosso on Sunday night, in alternation with Josh Caggiano) snarls.
The few moments when the melodrama is not on the boil are some of the best. The young Cosette (winningly played by Anastasia Korbal on Sunday; Katherine Forrester alternates with her) has a wistful song, "Castle on a Cloud," that is simple and charming. Michael Kostroff and especially Shawna M. Hamic are delightful as a couple of low villains that are the show's closest approach to humor. Hamic does things with a baguette that are simply unmentionable.
Lawrence Clayton is a sad-eyed, soaringly voiced, properly intense Valjean — but who in this production isn't intense? He's especially soulful in his Act 2 "Bring Him Home" prayer.
While Andrew Varela, alas, doesn't get to show off the terrific comedy chops he displayed in the Paper Mill Productions of "Pirates!" and "Romeo and Bernadette," he's an impressively steely Javert. He manages to give his big moment, the soliloquy number "Stars," some conviction and depth — though the show glosses over the class motivations that made Javert more than a one-dimensional villain in Hugo's novel.
Betsy Morgan is fiery as the put-upon Fantine. Jon Fletcher, substituting Sunday for the ailing Justin Scott Brown, was a credible romantic lead as Marius, and paired very prettily with Jenny Latimer, as the sweet ingénue Cosette. Chasten Harmon sings her unrequited heart out as Eponine in "On My Own." The best tune in the show, "The People's Song," is an anti-capitalist anthem; otherwise you could say that Jeremy Hays, as a student leader, owns it.
With a three-hour running time, "Les Miserables" is an effective, if heavy, dose of musical theater. It's a bit of a late arrival, though. Many years ago, veteran Broadway songsters Betty Comden and Adolph Green tackled "Les Miserables" in a song called "Reader's Digest." What this show does in three hours, they managed to do in three lines. "Jean Valjean, no evil-doer — Stole some bread 'cause he was poor — A detective chased him through a sewer — THE END."
E-mail: beckerman@northjersey.com