Review: LES MISERABLES at Ohio Theatre

Reviewing the revered LES MISERABLES is always a mixed bag. The show, running Jan. 27–Feb. 1 at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State Street, downtown Columbus), is a towering piece of musical theater history. It has a cadre of powerful songs (“Do You Hear The People Sing?,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” and “One More Day” … that’s just in the first act), and characters that linger with you long after the curtain falls.

It’s also famously long (clocking in at nearly three hours), exceptionally bloody (22 on-stage deaths), and, well… it made the mistake of casting Russell Crowe as Javert in the movie version.

 It’s a show so many people have seen, in London’s West End (15,000 performances) or Broadway (6,680), national tours, regional theater houses, or high school stages. Yet the current national tour troupe makes the show worth seeing one more time.

On its opening night here on Jan. 27, LES MISERABLES had 10 understudies in major roles including Jean Valjean, Fantine, and Thenardier. Yet it hardly mattered. Because of its cast, staging, and faithful presentation of Victor Hugo’s original idea, the show is as great or better than any production I’ve seen.

The heart of LES MISERABLES are the two male leads. As Jean Valjean, Randy Jeter (filling in for Nick Cartell) has a booming, operatic voice that carries most of the show on his back. The audience sees him go from being identified only by a number 24601 to being redeemed by his actions.

Hayden Tee is convincing as Javert, the pursuer who is consumed by his need for justice. Tee’s elegantly understated voice gushes the needed intensity for his character.

Nicole Fragala and Jaedynn Latter shine as the show’s doomed heroines. As Fantine, Fragala (filling in for Lindsey Heather Pearce) is haunting as she performs “Come to Me” from her deathbed. Latter captures Eponine’s longing for Marius (Peter Neureuther) in “On My Own.” Then she follows up with a truly heartbreaking rendition of “A Little Fall of Rain.”

Neureuther has an undeniable chemistry with Alexa Lopez’s Cosette and has a standout delivery in “Empty Tables, Empty Chairs.” Never have so many died to make sure one couple is so happy at the end.

In a show that direly needs some levity, Kyle Adams (filling in for Matt Crowley) and Victoria Huston-Elem offer a droll performance as Thenardier and Madame Thenardier, the sketchy innkeeper and his equally corrupt wife.

While Javert and Jean Valjean are the heart of the production, the boys of the barricade and the chorus are the show’s soul. Those roles often expose a touring company’s weaknesses—or prove their greatness. It’s the latter in this case.

As the idealistic dreamer Enjolras, Danny Martin (taking over for Christian Mark Gibbs) leads the spirited group of rabble rousers to their doom on the barricades. The anthems “Red and Black” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?” have an arm-hair-raising quality that tempts the audience to sing along.

If these actors were on a barren stage, it would have enough firepower to win over an audience. However, the show is a visual masterpiece. Associate set designers David Harris and Christine Peters recreate 1830s France with its chateaus and the seamy streets of Paris.

The masterstroke, however, is associate projector designers Simon Harding and Jonathon Lyle’s magical dream landscape. Using projection screens, they give the audience the sensation of rowing through stormy waters, escaping through the city sewers, and even watching Javert’s suicide into the murky waters of the Seine.

These all help present the story, but the re-telling of Victor Hugo’s 1,500-page book makes the three-hour show seem timeless. Claude-Michel Schönberg (music and book), Alain Boublil (lyrics and book) and Jean-Marc Natel (lyrics) created something that can’t, or at least shouldn’t be, condensed. Cut the innkeeper and his wife and you lose its only humorous characters, and not to mention the pair are critical in advancing parts of the plot. Spare the life of either Eponine or Gavroche (a hilarious turn by Rocco Van Auken) is a lose-lose choice. Save Eponine, and you lose the theme of self-sacrifice and some powerhouse songs. Show mercy to the little brat, and you lose the cruelty of war.

In the end, there is only one thing that should be changed in LES MISERABLES: having Russell Crowe sing.