Cameron Mackintosh brings his hybrid model of the world’s longest operating musical Les Misérables to arenas all over the world and arrives right here in Glasgow with musical superstars Michael Ball (Javert) and Alfie Boe (Jean Valjean) on the helm.
Essentially a live performance model of Boublil and Schonbergs’s masterpiece, staging a beloved work in such huge and expansive arenas isn’t any imply feat. The majority of the viewers on this fourteen and a half thousand capability area are a good distance from the stage. While costumed, it’s minimally staged with a big lighting rig and a trio of projection screens above the stage so as to add context and environment. The large ensemble carry out both throughout the broad however slender stage or on stepped platforms. The leads step entrance and centre to skinny standing mics to ship the largest songs. The orchestra are positioned on stage excessive above the motion.
Where this manufacturing shines is the standard of the solid, the vocals are actually distinctive, completely flawless. The solid record itself is sufficient to get any true musical theatre fan salivating: Ball and Boe, much-lauded rising main man Jac Yarrow as Marius, West End and Broadway royalty Jeremy Secomb, Bonnie Langford and Gavin Lee because the Bishop of Digne, and Madame and Monsieur Thenardier respectively.
Each performer is given and takes their second to shine. The energy and perfection of Ball and Boe are matched by the superbly toned James D. Gish as one of the best sounding Enjolras I’ve ever heard (and I’ve heard just a few, together with Killian Donnelly who has now matured into sharing the function of Jean Valjean with Alfie Boe on this tour) and a high quality trio of feminine leads in Channah Hewitt as Fantine, Beatrice Penny-Touré as Cosette and Emily Bautista as Eponine. Each and each tune, be it from lead or ensemble, brings the home down. The entirety of this huge, huge auditorium are on their ft in a wave of cheers and applause on the finish.
While among the interactions between characters is somewhat misplaced within the staging (essential throughout the limitations of an area) followers will likely be delighted to know that Les Misérables by no means fails to pack an emotional punch. You could be hard-hearted certainly to not be moved by the sheer perfection of the singing if not Victor Hugo’s story of affection, loss and redemption.
It will likely be a very long time earlier than we see and listen to a solid as proficient as this gathered on one stage collectively once more. Truly spectacular.
