The people are still singing
It was nice over the weekend in the Sydney and Melbourne Good Weekend to see that despite all the hoo-ha and nonsense surrounding endless football matches (one day I will write about my utter hate of Australia’s obsession with sport and particularly all things football!!) that space was put aside to celebrate the Les Miserables 25th anniversary in London over the last weekend. How lovely to see a long piece on the original Australian cast.
It was nice over the weekend in the Sydney and Melbourne Good Weekend to see that despite all the hoo-ha and nonsense surrounding endless football matches (one day I will write about my utter hate of Australia’s obsession with sport and particularly all things football!!) that space was put aside to celebrate the Les Miserables 25th anniversary in London over the last weekend. How lovely to see a long piece on the original Australian cast.
London has been taken over by Les Miz in the last few weeks as the world’s longest running musical celebrated 25 years of non stop performances. There was the original production still pounding along on the barricade at the Queens Theatre (where it transferred a few years back from the Palace Theatre). For three weeks the acclaimed new production which has been touring Britain (more about that later) has been playing at the Barbican, the home of the original Les Miz production and on Sunday at two incredible sessions, the O2 arena played host to the 25th anniversary concert with a new dream cast (well almost new, Lea Salonga played Fantine, last time she played Eponine). From all accounts, it was quite an event.
In two weeks time, Australia will be lucky enough to see the film of the concert when it plays for one week only at select cinemas from Oct 21st. A DVD of the concert will then be available shortly before Christmas. Many would say, wait for the DVD, but to see that concert on the big screen with all the trappings of movie house sound is something I wont be missing.
Les Miserables is the most extraordinary of musicals. It opened to mediocre to poor reviews in 1985, then defied all critics by causing a sensation at the box office as it was embraced by audiences. The show now defies criticism, it is truly a musical phenomenon.
Yes it is sentimental, yes it uses the most basic of emotive devices to conjur up audience response, but there is no denying that when Victor Hugo’s words “to love another person is to see the face of God” are uttered in song, the human message is so strong that there is no denying that this musical has been blessed by some extra force and goes beyond being a theatrical experience of song, dance and drama.
Cameron Mackintosh is now talking about a movie version. I have doubts about this. To see the mess a movie version of Phantom of the Opera turned out to be a few years ago is proof that these mighty musicals find it very hard to find a way to adapt to the film medium. I am sure there is a great movie in Les Miz somewhere, but it will need a skilled director who knows, understands and loves the piece to be able to translate it. For my money, seeing an epic concert of the work on the big screen is almost good enough. Of course there have been many successful film versions of the story, and I notice some very eager fans (with nothing better to do) have cut some sequences from the last version (the one with Geoffrey Rush as Javert) on You Tube and set them to music.
Australia has long had a love affair with the show. The Good Weekend did an excellent job detailing the original Australian cast and how it helped Marina Prior, Simon Burke, Anthony Warlow and Phillip Quast to a new level in their careers. Quast went on to great success in the West End, success that continues (albeit with a short respite back in Australia at Cherry Tree Lane). He rightly sees Les Miz as a watershed in his career.
Several Australians have trod those barricades as the students at various times in the west end, Quast, of course, played Javert for a time. Other Australians who have appeared in principal roles in the show in the west end include Martin Crews and Hayden Tee, both of whom did 12 months as Marius.
Of course we must remember the 1997 Australian revival. In that production two of the principal roles were played by imports (Dave Willets as Jean Valjean, Michael McCarthy as Javert) but David Campbell fresh from his New York triumphs came back to Sydney to play Marius for six months (later replaced by David Dixon), Scott Irwin was a superb Enjolras, Natalie Mendoza as Eponine and Rachel Beck as Fantine, were all performers whose careers benefited greatly from the Les Miz magic.
Now comes the great news that in 2012 we shall have our own 25th anniversary of the show with a brand new cast and this marvelous brand new production that has been playing across Britain and will soon begin an American regional tour, no doubt with Broadway as its ultimate home. This new production has been acclaimed by everyone who has seen it, it dispenses with the revolve and finds a new and more intimate way to tell the mighty story. It will come to Australia to enchant a new generation of theatre goers, I personally can’t wait.
I really love the new cast recording of this production (recorded live in performance). It has elements of excitement never captured on disc before and what it lacks in some of the principal’s vocal abilities (when compared to some of the superb versions from other recordings) it more than compensates with its furious pace and feeling of urgency. It also has John Owen-Jones as Jean Valjean, I have seen him play this role and he is, to my mind, vocally and dramatically the best person to perform this majestic role.
So Les Miz charges forward, its magic cant be bottled and it has been the winner of winners for Mackintosh and the Boubil and Schonberg composing team (who sadly after this and Miss Saigon have never been again able to reach those heights of success and brilliance)
Yet if you have Les Miz as your principal musical calling card, who cares what else is there. The show will never die and will continue to enchant and inspire. Happy 25th!