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Theater Review "Les Miserables"
Monday, October 14, 2013 at 7:26PM THEATER REVIEW
“Les Miserables”
Produced by: Theatre Three, Port Jefferson - Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur
Steve McCoy as Jean Valjean and Ed Brennan as Javert in a scene from ‘Les Misérables’ in Port Jeff Photo by Sarah BushAlmost as interesting as this compelling musical itself, is the circuitous route the Victor Hugo novel took from conception to its ultimate production on the American stage.
Les Miserables was first released as a French ‘Concept’ record album … that is, a recording all of whose musical numbers share a common theme. Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly With Me’ album (featuring songs of international travel) is an example of the ‘Concept’ genre, as is Woody Guthrie’s ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’ collection.
‘Les Mis’ was fairly well received as a record album, and was first presented as a stage show at a sporting arena in Paris in 1980. That adaptation, however, couldn’t trump the Frenchmen’s inordinate love for soccer, and the play closed after three months.
In New York in 1983, a British producer named Cameron Mackintosh was given a copy of the French ‘Concept’ album. Though impressed, Mackintosh was reluctant to run with the idea of producing a theater version of ‘Les Miserables’ in English … he had, after all, just opened on Broadway with the hugely successful ‘Cats.’
However, pressed by friends and theater connections, Mackintosh finally agreed to put together a production team that included Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, and two years later London’s West End mounted the world’s first English language stage version of ‘Les Mis.’
The rest, as they say, is history, and thanks to Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three and Director Jeffrey Sanzel, Long Island theatergoers will be the beneficiaries thru November 2.
This show deals with inequality … and particularly with the unjust treatment leveled on protagonist Jean Valjean (perfectly played by Steve McCoy) whose agony is brutally constant. The essentially narrative role of Valjean’s pursuer, the malevolent policeman Javert, is interpreted and rendered with equal expertise by the seemingly omnipresent Ed Brennan. Together, this pair produces a theatrical work of art.
Balancing the scales skillfully are the comedic characters, Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, keepers of a bawdy house. Twice—in Act 1 then again in Act 2—these irresistibly naughty originals command the stage from the minute they set foot on it, and in both cases they deliver absolute showstoppers. Credit not only Jennifer Collester Tully and James D. Schultz (as the Thenardiers) but include Choreographer Sari Feldman.
In a show whose excellent cast consists of forty named players and another twenty unnamed, it is relatively impossible to list all the credits due the players. This reviewer will go out on a limb, however, and predict that no patron attending Theatre Three’s production of ‘Les Miserables’ will find any actor’s performance lacking. Everyone sings beautifully, moves effortlessly, and looks his part.
Costumes, make-up, set design, and lighting are all unobtrusively exquisite. Music, though limited in variety, is never found wanting … after all, when fifty or sixty voices are raised in heraldic song, who is going to say a second oboe was needed in the pit? As for the touching solos and duets … I don’t recall even being aware of the accompanist. Which is probably as it should be.
Award-winning Smithtown author Jeb Ladouceur has published seven novels. His theater reviews appear in dozens of L. I. newspapers. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “The Dealer” due this summer, Israeli extortionists threaten to destroy Hoover Dam demolishing the Las Vegas Strip - if casino operators don’t pay millions.
Reader Comments (2)
This is an excellent review and I particularly enjoyed the background information about Les Miz. Bravo Jeb!
The acting in the movie version, in my opinion, was like a bunch of howling, ill-tempered cats that nearly drove me senseless. I then vowed that I would never want to see Les Miserables again, no matter in what form it was presented.
However, after reading Jeb Ladoucer's superb review of Theatre Three's presentation, I am tempted to renege on that vow.
All of Ladouceur's reviews are of the highest standard, and worthhy of consideration when planning to see a play he has reviewed.