LES MISéRABLES
★★★★
Sondheim Theatre, until October 17 Tickets: 0344 482 5138
FIRST, a confession. This is a show I have managed to avoid for 35 years.The idea of a musical based on a weighty and depressing novel byVictor Hugo, telling the story of an ex-convict and the cop obsessed with stalking him, did not float my boat in the least.
Ah, well.We all make mistakes.
This new production in the magnificently refurbished Sondheim Theatre (formerly Queen’s Theatre) shows exactly why it is the longest-running musical in the West End. Set against a projected background of Paris copied from Hugo’s own sketches, it has an aromatic authenticity.
After 19 years’ imprisonment, Jean Valjean attempts to rebuild his life.
Along the way, he encounters the tragic Fantine, the child Cosette and a variety of characters good, bad and ugly, like the Thénardiers, a husbandand-wife team who run a gang of thieves and use Cosette as a slave.
However police inspector Javert cannot leave Valjean be and chases him doggedly across the years.The climax at the barricades erected by students in Paris is shattering and comes across with a startling currency, since youth rebellions against authoritarian regimes from Tehran to Hong Kong have become an almost daily occurrence.
The songs are beautiful and often stirring and the new cast delivers on every level.
Jon Robyns is a credibly virileValjean
and carries the weight of the show with ease.
Carrie Hope Fletcher is underemployed as Fantine but makes her mark nonetheless and Bradley Jaden is appropriately vicious as the obsessive Javert.
There is a star-making performance from Shan Ako as tragic Eponine, whose unrequited love for Marius (Harry Apps) is truly poignant. And the unexpected humour from the diabolical music hall act of Ian Hughes and Josefina Gabrielle as the dastardly Thénardiers acts as a corrective to the otherwise relentless tragedy.
Boat floated.