Les Miserables superb
What: Les Miserables| Who: Hamilton Operatic Society When: Friday, June 23, to July 8 Where: Clarence St Theatre Director: David Sidwell Musical director: Alex Wiltshire Reviewer: Sam Edwards
Most theatregoers perceive musical theatre as light and frothy entertainment, the candy floss of choral and orchestral pairings. Les Miserables, however, will have none of that, and neither will David Sidwell. Under his direction, each part becomes a character part, from the complex and demanding role of Jean Valjean to the sluttiest unidentified singer/dancer in the ensemble movements.
What that emphasis has done is to create a version of the Hugo story which is at once as involving and entertaining as it is movingly, revealingly human. It always has been a work which triggers the lachrymose glands. Eponine’s heartrending song On My Own, for example, or the lead Marius singing of empty chairs at empty tables, or the death of Jean Valjean in the final minutes are intense emotional trips into areas of our lives which we normally carpet over with cliches to avoid the hurt.
We need such cathartic moments to be able to develop as humans, and on Friday night these were intense enough to make one realise that this is not simple entertainment.
It is magnificently, absorbingly entertaining, but it also has a depth which just penetrates the soul without our really realising it. True, the ideas need actors who understand and can connect with the emotional trip. They then need to be able to convey the essence of the character experiencing the events to an audience often unused to multidimensional characters in song and dance shows.
Kyle Chuen’s Jean Valjean was a masterclass in stagecraft. His timing, his command of the stage, his diction, and that superbly agile voice with its stunningly mesmerising countertenor range and resonant bass figuring was memorable. He, however, is outstanding in a whole class of outstanding performers.
Like tips that go into the staff jar to be shared around, the compliments he receives should be spread among the cast because it was the complete ensemble, including the musicians, which brought this show to life and realise yet again the remarkable Sidwell vision.