Tour brings ‘Les Miz’ to dramatic life in OKC
In these days of hashtags and hyperbole, the term “epic” frequently gets overused.
Make no mistake, the word accurately applies to “Les Miserables.”
An add-on to OKC Broadway’s 2018-19 subscription season, legendary producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh is presenting the top-shelf, spared-no-expense new production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s Tony-winning musical in Oklahoma City after a celebrated 2 ½-year Broadway revival. One of the longest running musicals of all time, “Les Miz” is playing through Sunday at the Civic Center Music Hall.
Between its perennial mainstream popularity and its cutesy nickname, it’s easy to underestimate “Les Miserables.” But for those who have never seen it, or haven’t watched it in a while, please understand that this is no light, carefree night out at the theater.
It’s an epic in the true sense of the word. “Les Miz” constitutes a commanding and demanding theatrical experience, and if you’ve only seen the Oscar-winning 2012 film adaptation, seeing it live only intensifies the emotional effect.
The show runs three hours long, including the intermission. The story is completely sung through, and most of the long list of musical numbers are rendered musically, emotionally and volume-wise as if someone has turned the proverbial dial to 11 and smashed it into place. The few quiet moments are played for heartbreaking dramatic effect.
The famed adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel doesn’t just explore the biggest, most universal human themes, it delves into practically all of them. Love and hate, life and death, Heaven and Hell, mercy and justice, sacrifice and selfishness, redemption and condemnation, obsession and indifference, innocence and corruption, it’s all covered in a sprawling narrative with dozens of compelling characters.
This isn’t a complaint so much as an observation and perhaps a warning. There’s not a lot of subtlety to “Les Miz,” and the show tends to buffet you with its characters’ tragedies and triumphs. If you’re going to see it, you should commit to letting the story just sweep you away to tumultuous 19th-century France, as Jean Valjean, aka Prisoner 24601 (Nick Cartell), is released from prison after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and subsequently trying to escape. After a kindly bishop (Andrew Maughan) shows him a profound act of mercy, he decides to break his parole, change his identity and create a new life as an honest man. But Valjean is relentlessly hunted by tenacious police Inspector Javert (Josh Davis).
Along the way, Valjean comes to the aid of Fantine (Mary Kate Moore), a downtrodden single mother whose dire circumstances force her into prostitution, and agrees to protect and raise her daughter, Cosette (Jillian Butler). First, he must rescue her as a girl (Madeleine Guilbot) from the thieving innkeeper Thenardier and his wife (J. Anthony Crane and Julie Cardia). Eventually, Valjean and Cosette cross paths with a group of revolutionary students led by Enjolras (Matt Shingledecker) that includes Marius (Joshua Grosso), who falls in love with Cosette, while Thenardier’s daughter Eponine (Paige Smallwood) falls into unrequited love with him.
If there was ever a production of “Les Miz” to get swept away with, this is the one. The cast is uniformly terrific, delivering iconic songs like “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Stars,” “One Day More,” “On My Own” and “Who Am I?” with power, conviction and vocal excellence, although young Parker Dzuba in the role of pint-size revolutionary Gavroche steals practically every scene he dashes through.
The national tour production boasts a new scenic design that cleverly uses high-tech projections, as well as reproductions of Hugo’s expressive, surrealistic and enrapturing paintings. The sound and lighting design by Mick Potter and Paule Constable, respectively, are superb, bringing to life the battle scenes on the barricade.
Speaking of lighting design, it was routinely disrupted during Tuesday’s opening-night performance by audience members checking their cellphones. Those little lights in the dark theater really show up no matter how you try to shade them, folks. You’re watching one of the most popular musicals of all time, an actual epic in the age of overstatement, just put the phone away and experience it.
— Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman