Deen Van Meer News

Les Miserables, has returned to Los Angeles in a new, "25th Anniversary" production, currently playing downtown at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre in a limited run, now through July 31st.

The 25th Anniversary Tour of the Tony winning Les Miserables opened last night at the Broward Center and I am here to report that it is the best time at Les Miz I have ever had.

Cameron Mackintosh's 25th Anniversary production of Les Misérables, presented by The Paper Mill Playhouse, has finally hit the friendly American shores after touring Britain, and perhaps symbolic of its Atlantic crossing is the new opening picture devised by co-directors Laurence Conner and James Powell.  Sure, 24601 (a/k/a Jean Valjean) is still a prisoner in chains for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister and her family, but he and his fellow inmates are now rowing oars on a galley ship.  The music (Claude-Michel Schonberg) and words (Herbert Kretzmer, based on the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel) of this world-famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, set against the backdrop of Paris' 1832 student revolution, are unchanged, but the new locale not only starts the evening off with a visually striking image, but signals to the musical's two-and-a-half decades worth of fans that this will not be just another variation of the original Trevor Nunn/John Caird production they are accustomed to.  (A production that can still be enjoyed on the West End.)

While there's certainly plenty to enjoy in the new musical version of Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 film, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown - David Yazbek's jaunty Latin-based score, the winning performances of a star-studded cast (three Tony winners and four other nominees) and the kinetic flashiness of Bartlett Sher's kicky production - the show is also a prime example of how the sum of the pieces can add up to more than the whole when the missing ingredient is a strong book.  Not that the talented Jeffrey Lane doesn't make a game try at it.  Sticking closely to the source, his work is frequently clever and he and Yazbek concoct some quirkily fun musical scenes, but the odds are working against him in this one.

The 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables making its United States premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse prior to a major US National Tour. The all new production of Les Misérables features glorious new staging and spectacular reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's eagerly anticipated Australian production of MARY POPPINS began performances Wednesday evening, July 14 at Her Majesty's Theatre in preparation for a Thursday, July 29 opening night.