By Martin F. Kohn
The company of the new 25th anniversary production of "Les Miserables" at Detroit's Fisher Theatre. Photo: Deen van Meer
The couple next to me was seeing "Les Miserables" for the first time; the couple in front of me was seeing it for the 10th time. Like someone who was really paying attention in Girl Scouts, "Les Miz" makes new friends and keeps the old.
The new 25th anniversary production at the Fisher Theatre should be doing plenty of both. It isn't all that new. Most of the changes are visual: a bit of re-staging (keep your eye on the birdcage during "Master of the House"); updated scenery inspired by the paintings of author Victor Hugo, who turns out to be an impressive pre-impressionist; and the iconic turntable is gone, but the music and the story of Jean Valjean and company haven't been messed with.
And how clever of producers to revive this grand musical melodrama set amid poverty, repression, revolution and the bullying of working people just when these issues are front-page news all over. I can't wait for the "Les Miz" tour to get to Madison, Wis., (May 10-15) or Benghazi, Libya (never).
Meanwhile, it's here, so count your blessings.
Among blessings to count here are Betsy Morgan, who plays poor Fantine, not as a fragile and broken flower but as resolute, determined and fiercely clinging to life, at least until her final gasps. In a production that (in a good way) seems more skewed than usual towards strong women, we also have Chasten Harmon's fine performance as Eponine, played here not as pathetically lovesick but as a brave and independent woman who happens to be hopelessly in love.
Through no fault of her own, then, Jenny Latimer's Cosette comes off as what she's always been: a not terribly interesting person who can really sing.
All the performances are top-notch, really, including Andrew Varela's bottled-up, obsessive Inspector Javert; Justin Scott Brown as young, vital Marius, in love with Cosette (but not Eponine); Jeremy Hays as Enjolras, the idealistic revolutionary; and Michael Kostroff and Shawna M. Hamic as comically smarmy innkeepers/thieves Monsieur and Madame Thenardier.
There is a reason I haven't said anything about Ron Sharpe as Jean Valjean: You aren't likely to see him. Lawrence Clayton, who would normally play Valjean, was ill on opening night and, rather than use a regular understudy, the powers that be chose to bring in Sharpe, who had played the part on Broadway. Sharpe was excellent, but there isn't much point in going into detail.
"Les Miserables" is not, and never was, star-driven. Raise a glass if you know who originated the role of Valjean on Broadway. (It was Colm Wilkinson.)
No, "Les Miz" is a big, ensemble-rich show, something of a spectacle in its original incarnation, slightly less so this time around, which is just as well. Under new directors Laurence Connor and James Powell, characters have a little more room to breathe and the show's scale is a little more human. Nobody ever came for the turntable anyway.
REVIEW:
'Les Miserables'
Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. March 22 – April 3. $39 and above. 1-800-982-2787. http://www.broadwayindetroit.com
