While it's touted as having a "critically acclaimed" cast of 36, the same Tony-award winning design as the Broadway original, five fog machines, 500 pounds of dry ice, and 1000 costume pieces, the numbers for this Les Miserables just don't add up. It looks and sounds pretty dog-eared and tired despite its recent rave review in the New Jersey Star Ledger (6/11/04). The show is, unfortunately, what one tends to expect of a national touring company of a blockbuster Broadway icon.
A purported clone of the original London and Broadway productions, this Les Miz lacks their passion and power. The problem begins with lead performers who, despite their equity and road show credentials, do not have the physical presence, acting ability, and vocal size to carry the show. Other than Randall Keith as Jean Valjean, star quality and excitement are definitely lacking. The singing is best when soft, as in "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" sung by Josh Young (Marius), but fails the demands of the frequent climatic emotional swells [as when when Tonya Dixon (Fantine) becomes harsh and strident at the end of "I Dreamed a Dream"].
The inability of leads to project the outsized passion of the vocal material ultimately leaves the audience unfulfilled and unable to feel Fantine's anguish, Javert's hatred, Valjean's spiritual drive, and the alternating love and anguish of Marius, Cosette, and Eponine. The result is that characters' actions seem false and unmotivated - as for example, Jean Valjean's sudden feelings for Fantine and her child; Javert's vengeance towards Valjean and his subsequent reversal and suicide; and Eponine's selfless love for Marius.
While the 18 member orchestra does little to help the singing, there are glimpses of promise in many of the beautiful songs by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer - moments when you believe that the show might take wing - but these are few and far between. Too often, Les Miz jerks unevenly along, gaining momentum only to lose it again.
I sense that after 16 years, 50 million viewers, and hundreds of national and international tours, Les Miserables has been around the block one too many times -- a feeling ironically reinforced by the 35' turntable that is the central scenic device and visual metaphor for the show. While its revolutions signify the monumental movement of three decades of chaotic 19th century French history, it is so overused, its intended impact is lost. As it relentlessly carries us from one scene to the next, the revolve instills a monotony - broken only by an occasional glimmer of something resembling actual choreography and stage direction by associate director Jason Moore (of Avenue Q fame).
The complex movement and expert direction of crowd scenes that was apparent in the recent Cameron MacKintosh revival of Oliver (seen at NJPAC this April) is sorely lacking here. The Thenardier Tavern scene, "Masters of the House," is a mish-mash of stage business that fails to create a visual or emotional impact even as the revolve moves the scene forward and backwards desperately seeking to create focus. The only other major scenic elements were the two gigantic moving junk piles that look more like strange Dr. Seuss contraptions than the slums of Paris. As the two 16-ton heaps creak toward one another to join in the barricades for the student rebellion, I couldn't help but feel how tired and dated they looked.
It is clear that the creators and producers of Les Miz, in their desire not to trifle with a winning product, have frozen its vital life force and hastened its eventual retirement. Les Miz desperately needs some re-conceptualizing, new sets, inspired performers and, most of all, a new sense of direction.
