A 'Les Misérables' worth seeing, mostly for its star
8 / 10
The faithful will be pleased that producer Cameron Mackintosh's new staging (*** out of four stars), which opened Sunday at the Imperial Theatre, offers as much bombast as ever. There are thundering performances of Schönberg's syrupy, repetitive score (with new orchestrations), a vast, creepy set (by Matt Kinley) inspired by Hugo's paintings and a company of accomplished troupers who gamely glower and fret under Laurence Connor and James Powell's heavy-handed direction. For the rest of us, luckily, there is another compelling reason to check out this production: its leading man, Ramin Karimloo...Perhaps we'll have the good fortune to see Karimloo tackle Billy Bigelow or Sweeney Todd in the future, or perform in an original musical that can more fully accommodate his robust gifts as a singer and actor. For now, this LES MISERABLES will have to suffice.

