Les Miserables In Concert: The 25th Anniversary Live At The O2 Review

• 28th Nov 2010

Having been a die-hard fan of Les Miserables since it shot to instant fame and stardom in 1995 with its glorious 10^th Anniversary Concert at the Albert Hall, you can only imagine my slightly manic excitement at the prospect of another anniversary concert: vocal talent like no other, hand-picked performers from across the world coming together to celebrate the world’s longest running musical… utter bliss. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the live show, but from the five star reviews I read I was expecting grand, unsurpassed things when my copy of the DVD arrived in the post.  Packed out, renowned venue: check. Bizarrely well-spoken, raggedy convicts with dingy lighting: check. Javert’s entrance and opening line sending shivers down my spine: oh.

And certainly for the first part of the show, “oh…” was my overwhelming sentiment; whilst none of the performers were in bad voice (yet), there doesn’t seem to be much of a sense of performance comparable to anything more than a glorified ‘Top of the Pops goes to the Theatre’.  Even multi-award winning Alfie Boe seemed lacklustre and lacking in oomph, which when it comes to playing Jean Valjean is a crime worthy of at least another nineteen years behind bars.

Things trundled on and I was filled with a growing sense of dread that one of the world’s most beloved musicals had fallen victim to the trend of commercialization, which more and more is rocking the foundations of classic theatre. All the symptoms are there:  half the main cast is made up of runners up from forgettable reality TV shows; the other half have been cherry picked from Hollywood sets and placed with a thud in a sphere of performance which they have no capability to do justice to; the supporting roles seem for the most part to be friends and family of the producers, for it really can’t be their talent or suitability for the role which landed them a part. Even the musical score has been significantly altered, with the whole thing sounding tinny, lacking in bass and inappropriate to accompany such sombre, dark numbers as ‘Look Down’ and ‘Dog Eat Dog’.

The question I can’t help but ask is why does one of the most successful musicals of all time with an astonishing reputation feel the need to become a platform for mediocre stars? From the moment S Club 7’s Jon Lee was cast in the role of Marius in 2003, it seems that the show has done all it can to become ‘cool’ at great sacrifice to its own integrity and now, when it is most important for the production to sell itself in its best light, its star performers are shining less than brightly. Things have gone from bad to worse and rather than taking advantage of the 25^th Anniversary Concert to go back to their roots of real talent, we are faced with a cast which pales in the shadow of both the original cast and the cast of the 10^th Anniversary Concert.

Towards the middle of the performance things did pick up somewhat, with the beautiful Lea Salonga’s Fantine providing a sorely needed input of vocal prowess, suitability and acting ability. But it becomes predictably uninspiring come the revolution and the introduction of one of the most controversial castings in current theatre: Nick Jonas as the lovelorn student, Marius. Needless to say, with all the will in the world Jonas’ ‘American-pop’ voice just can’t carry the sometimes incredibly challenging vocal line of the role and unfortunately his acting style resembles that of a lemon.  The scenes featuring Jonas opposite reality TV’s finest Katie Hall and Samantha Barks are verging on embarrassing in comparison to those of Michael Ball, Judy Kuhn and Lea Salonga in 1995 reaffirming the foregone conclusion that popularity and mass appeal are certainly no replacement for formal training and solid experience.

The Revolutionaries themselves are certainly very good, although none of them are anything to get really excited over particularly their leader, Enjolras, performed by Ramin Karimloo, one of the current ‘It’ boys of musical theatre. His voice is not lacking in strength or tone, and he is technically very strong but he’s just not inspiring me to join the revolution. He lacks the steel and oozing-masculinity which the part sorely needs, and I can’t help but compare him to 95’s Michael Maguire who as far as I’m concerned is the definitive Enjolras, and brought the determination-verging-on-obsession to the role which it so sorely needs. The high point of the revolution was without a doubt Boe’s touching rendition of ‘Bring Him Home’, which melted off his tongue like silk to the ears, and deserved every second of the standing ovation which followed it.

Bizarrely, it was the Thenardiers who stole the show. Matt Lucas and Jenny Galloway made a convincing couple, and neither one let the other down at all; ‘Master of the House’, as it should be, was one of the ultimate highs of the production and I’ve no doubt that all 20,000 audience members were singing along with the necessary gusto.

Sadly for the directors of the concert, the appearance of the original 1985 cast was the real highlight and worked wonders as an antidote to the anger and disappointment which had been culminating during the two and a half hour performance. A beautifully arranged rendition of ‘Bring Him Home’ performed by none other than Colm Wilkinson himself along with Boe, Simon Bowman who played Valjean at the Palce and John Owen-Jones, the youngest ever Jean Valjean who played at the Palace in 1998.

A final performance of ‘One Day More’ by the 25^th Anniversary Cast, current Queen’s Theatre Cast, Barbican Cast and original 1985 cast only added fuel to the fire of disappointment, and showed the 25^th Anniversary cast how it should be done; particularly Michael Ball who has lost none of his charm and appeal over the years (incidentally, there was not a sight of Jonas during this performance. Hopefully he was busy munching Humble Pie).

Cue overly sentimental speech from Cameron Mackintosh and the whole thing draws to a neat close as the audience cheers their way through the credit sequence, which makes another promise for an up-coming motion picture (fingers crossed they’ll have another casting call for that one!).

There aren’t much in the way of special features to talk about, except an incredibly short trailer, tracking the show’s growth from its first performance at the Barbican in 1985 to being the world’s longest running musical, performed in over 40 countries globally.

No doubt the 25^th Anniversary Concert will sell hundreds of thousands of DVD copies, so it’s mediocrity is no threat to the financial success of the show, but I just hope the producers take a turn for the better in upcoming productions so as not to sacrifice the loyalty of the true theatre appreciators in favour of Saturday night telly fans.

Dani Singer