Les Mis 25th Anniversary Tour?

I personally did not like this production. At all. The biggest problem I had was that the projections that gave the audience the location and year (which allowed them to know how much time had passed in the story) were taken out. The set and projections of Victor Hugo's paintings were stunning, but other than that, I did not care for this production. I saw the show when the cast was in the middle of some changes, so that very well could have impacted the show.

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Saw the tour in January, absolutely loved it, and i can't reccomend it enough. I had no exposure to it before seeing the show and I was swept away by it. Beautiful production with lavish orchestrations.

I saw the show last weekend and had a wonderful time. I've seen a lot of different productions of Les Mis, so I'm at the point where I enjoy seeing new choices rather than miss earlier ones. The cinematic take was very effective for me. The actors had great voices and sang their roles with conviction. I'm always in tears by the end of the show and this time was no different.

Saw the Tour in June and loved it. The projections were beautiful and the entire cast was truly amazing, especially J Mark McVey as Valjean. The orchestrations were rich and enthralling. One problem was Gavroche's death occured out of sight which lessened the impact. Otherwise truly wonderful.

The Death of Gavroche actually got a LAUGH when I saw this! First, as someone else pointed out, it takes place offstage so YOU DON'T SEE IT. Second, after he is shot one of the actors does a loud "Noooooooooo!" That is such a cliche that shows like THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY mock it on a regular basis. That was when people actually LAUGHED in the theater. In the original his death was very powerful. Here it is a joke.
Ruined the show for me. There MUST be a way to stage his death on stage.
Major fail.

I thought it was meh and in no way an improvement over the brilliant original.

But it wasn't a disaster either. Fragmented mess, but not a disaster and a hot mess worth seeing for most people. I recommend it.

If you're a hard-core like me, spare yourself, save your pennies, and go see the original London production (now featuring "dynamic" new orchestrations, blah) or better yet the Japanese production (which uses the originals of everything, yay!). Oh how I love my Japanese friends.

EDIT: As for Gavey's croaking scene, it's already a devastating moment no matter what. The NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! was comical to me, I'm sorry to say. The entire show was filled with similar over-the-top performances. It wasn't the casts fault at all and I loved them all. You could tell the directors told them to infuse the piece with "passion" and it would have worked had they actually instructed them to inject passion as opposed to "cheese," which is what this production dialed up to 10.

I just about laughed when during "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" Grantaire and Gavroche appear next to Marius with literally sad puppy dog faces. It's small stuff like that which may not seem like a big deal alone, but when combined in many similar instances, make an evening where you're told what to feel, how to feel it, and exactly when. This Les Mis was desperate to make you forget about its superior original version which was brilliantly suggestive, subtle, and powerful.

Go see this newest version for the cast who are absolutely top notch. Yes, there is some miscasting but nothing disastrous. The new "dynamic" (according to its director) doesn't ruin it, either. It can get irritating though, especially during late in the second act when the show naturally settles and moves at a slower pace--the screaming and wild gestures come off as just extremely desperate. For example, "Drink With Me" is by its very nature a reflective, contemplative moment. The directors did not care and made it into a chummy "woo-hoo we're FRIENDS!!! *group hug* moment. Even the first line was sung with an explosive upbeatness "DRINK with me!!!!" It was really lame.

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Updated On: 10/16/11 at 07:23 PM

Saw the production last night, and unfortunately was very underwhelmed by the evenings proceedings. I thought the energy of the cast was fine, but found some of the directorial choices to be a bit odd. I used to work at the Broadway Theatre shortly after the original production opened and worked there for over a year. I have not seen any incarnation of Les Miserables since 1995.

I thought it worked fine without the turn table and I liked some of the new costume designs, though Cosette's dress at the end of Act One looked like it was much too big for her. The dress she wore in the 2nd Act prior to getting married fit her much better. On the whole the cast sounded very good vocally, but I felt something was missing.

The strongest: Andrew Varela as Javert. Both acted and sung beautifully. In the past, I was usually bored during Javert's songs, last night was completely opposite. Andrew's performance was quite riveting. It's a shame that most of the cast did not reach that level.

Betsy Morgan (Fantine) - she barreled through I Dreamed a Dream as if it was a race to the finish. She sang and performed the song without any nuance whatsoever. I didn't particulary care for her voice either.

Jenny Latimer (Cosette) - very young, but had a striking resemblance to the actress who played Fantine. Very weak top notes.

Beth Kirkpatrick was on for Mdm. Thernardier. Not sure if it was her first time on in the role, but the cast applauded her when she took her bow. She was very good, but I never really cared for the role to begin with.

I'm glad I went, and the audience last night seemed to enjoy it.

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You mean they were denied doing the full show, so are instead doing a concert?

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^ I've read that post three times and I still have no idea what you're saying...

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^ thanks that makes sense now. It is way too soon for another Les Miserables revival IMHO

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Thanks, gvendo -- that's pretty much what I figured theyw ere saying, too, but still wasn't entirely sure!

FWIW there's nothing on here about the show being canceled, so we'll see: http://twitter.com/TheCoterieLA

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Max Quinlan, I believe, will be taking over the role of Marius
Max Quinlan