Dave and I went to see the new Sydney production of this show recently – he has never seen it on stage before, although he has of course seen the musical version movie. On the other hand I have seen it at least 6 times before on stage (it may be 7, I lost count), including several previous productions / casts. Original Australian production (1989 Sydney cast, both versions), original Broadway production (in 1991), 10th anniversary Australian Production (1997), plus very familiar with the International soundtrack which blends cast members from around the world.
Do you hear the people sing?
Overall, I am torn about this new production. The music was good (ie the orchestra). I thought the new set design, incorporating digital images in place of the revolving stage was good – although there were definitely times when I missed the revolving stage. The stage direction seemed to make a lot of changes that were borrowed from the film version. I guess that was ok – although the prologue in the warship rather than in the mining colony was imo unnecessary. Not only was it a change from the story, it then negated how Valjean was able to set up in business mining the same material.
But oh my – the individual performances? Incredibly disappointing. The review in The Australian said that the cast has no show stealers, that “cast members don’t impose their personalities on their roles. Rather, they channel them.” I feel that is giving most of them too much credit to be honest. Some of them felt like ghastly caricatures, and were painful to watch – and listen too. Also while the overall sound of the ensemble was really good, there was another issue – everyone was fast, way ahead of the music. Not just the ensemble, but soloists too.
