Les Miserables

Fair play to the team at the Norwich Theatre Royal for once again bringing this production of Les Misérables back to Norwich for almost a whole calendar month. This, on the back of having to abort the originally scheduled performances one week in as Covid struck back in March 2020.

The statistics speak for themselves. It’s the longest running show in London’s West End, the longest running show on Broadway and has been watched by over 120 million people across 52 countries and has also been translated into 22 different languages.

And so, to the show itself, very clearly it has mass appeal, it’s quite extraordinary at just how the show has had so much global success with so many dedicated fans spanning across the generations.

Victor Hugo’s original novel is based in France, from a period of both political and social unrest. The story is about persecution, love, and the French revolution and revolves around the life of prisoner Jean Valjean’s hardship having been banished to prison for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread (try telling that to the youth of today). Prisoner 24601 is eventually released into a World that will not accept him as an ex-prisoner, he is constantly chased by Javert a fearsome man from the Gendarme and out of desperation he steals again this time from a kind natured priest, who upon his capture gives him an alibi and he walks free to start a new life to make his fortune as a factory owner, one assumes that this is due to him being able to keep the stolen silver. He changes his name and does indeed become very wealthy. He then rescues the orphaned daughter (Cosette) of a worker turned prostitute (Fantine). He provides her with a life of luxury and privilege, buying her from the owner’s whore house that housed her mother.

Meanwhile the French leader, General Lemarque, the one man in the country that displays any sign of empathy towards the poor is in decline and with that the French revolution kicks off, with the Parisienne youth whipping it up, wild scenes ensue on the streets and a revolution is born (Did the band Coldplay got their inspiration from Les Misérables or maybe even from these scenes for their Viva La Vida album and artwork in particular?).

Meanwhile Cosette falls in love with a young student called Marius, and ex prisoner 24601 is still on the run and forever fearful of being caught by the feared policeman man that still hunts him down. But he himself, Javert is caught as a spy in the heat of the battle and Valjean is given the opportunity to get revenge on his hunter. He declines the offer and spares him his life! But as they flee to the sewers, they once again meet. This time it is Javert that lets Valjean leave, but he then takes his own life. With Marius safe and in the arms of his true love, Valjean comes clean and confesses all from his chequered past!

At the couples wedding, the The’nardiers (the brothel owners), who are always on the scam or thieve go for the jugular and try to blackmail the young man on his big day by producing a stolen ring that they have taken from a corpse. Marius at this point realises that it was indeed Valjean who saved him on that night.

Eponine played by Siobhan O’ Driscoll, the young man that played Gavroche and the The’nardiers played by Helen Walsh and Ian Hughes were all excellent and for me the stars of the show in their various roles.

This is the first time that I have seen Les Misérables and on a personal level I found it to be an extremely well-produced and performed production. The plot is quite thin and the show altogether rather hard going and drab at times, compared to the many other shows that I have had the great pleasure to have watched over the years. I am aware of course, that I run the risk of being loathed my many a Les Mis’ fan in saying this and it is of course only my view. But sure, enough when the big songs come out such as I Dreamed a Dream and Bring Him Home, there is a stirring of the soul, they really do sound quite magnificent, but it is still not enough for me to be turned onto the show, unfortunately.