Playhouse Square 2/5/2013
Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
The excited pre-show buzz (plus the standing ovation after) validated the continuing popularity of this flash version of the French Revolution. The 25th anniversary production of “Les Miserables” by the national touring company (a show last seen at Playhouse Square in 2011), showed how a “leaner, meaner” vision of the sprawling musical saga still pleases. Unlike the earlier version I saw in London which featured a huge turntable that changed scenes by rotating the cast, this one moved smoothly from scene to scene through use of backdrops and quickly formed sets.
Sure, things sped along, but why not? We already know the story, especially after the latest film, so a mere sketch served to carry the plot along. Peter Lockyer as Jean Valjean and Andrew Varela as Javert proved intense and well-matched adversaries. Physically and emotionally, they resembled each other. Two strong, brooding men, both thinking they had justice on their side, served to balance each other.
Highlights? When the opportunistic Thenardiers (Timothy Gulan and Shawna M. Hamic) showed they really knew how to throw a party. (When Hamic ground up tasty treats for the party for the “Master of the House” there were gasps from those who watched what she was doing instead of watching her spouse cavort over the tables.)
Javert’s suicide showed brilliant use of visual illusion. Gavroche (Joshua Colley alternating with Hayden Wall), the young boy who dies in front of the barricade (where we can’t see him), made many weep with his brave assertions that he’d be all right. Not. A couple next sitting next to us even came prepared with a pack of tissues just for such moments.
Reading Victor Hugo’s massive novel takes so much time that one actually feels years have passed, but this snappy new version of the classic (we were out in only a few hours) takes care of that: French Revolution in a Nutshell. Check.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.