Les Miz Question / Scaled Back Production?

Are there any other big Les Miz fans out there who follow Les Miz news, even now? I am going to be in London this Fall and was in the mood to see Les Miz, which is playing there. When I did a little research on the West End production, several people said that it was a way scaled back production that didn't even have the famed revolving turntable stage anymore. That alone makes me not want to see it, because Les Miz is meant to be big and impactful.

So, it seems that there is a U.S. tour going on that will come to my city next year. Does anyone know if the U.S. tour of Les Miz is also scaled down in this way? If so, I will pass. One of the reasons I love Les Miz so much is because of its grandiosity, which really fits the scale of the story. Scaled down just seems really sad to me.

I am not sure if I would consider it to be a "scaled down" version of the show, as it is still big and impactful. It just has different staging than the original. It still has a large and impressive set, there is still a baracade, just without the revolving stage. I still prefer the original staging with the turntable as it was so beautifully done, but I like this newer version as well. Some of the staging hits different dramatic moments than the previous version and I like that.

The new production of Les Miserables that Cameron Mackintosh has now made the standard production worldwide is one of the ugliest, misguided, and misdirected mess of a production I have ever seen. The design is so ugly and confining. I saw the production both on tour and when it played on Broadway at the Imperial a few years ago, and it is just really, really bad. Such a shame as the original staging is so iconic and timeless.

bwayobsessed said: "A show can be big and impactful without an over the top set. IMO sometimes shows are more impactful without the grand set stealing focus."

I'd argue that the original production was more simplistic and refined than the mess they currently have onstage.

I appreciate reading everyone's feedback on this. I agree that a production doesn't have to be large-scale to be impactful, but that's not really what this is about. I've seen Les Miz 8 times now over the years, beginning in 1987 (I'm a former NYC resident and frequent NYC traveler), and the version I'm in love with is the big full-scale turntable original staging. I think if I go to see a scaled-down version (and it IS scaled-down by all accounts of those who have seen it) with the new production staging, it will be depressing to someone who loves a certain thing already burned into my mind (and heart). Hopefully down the road, maybe years from now, someone will re-mount the original full staging. I will be there in a heartbeat. The turntable is just a big part of the show, and one thing I really love about it. I found this interesting interview with Trevor Nunn about the new staging, and he is quite clear that he feels it is far inferior: https://playbill.com/article/trevor-nunn-speaks-out-on-revised-london-bound-les-miz-mackintosh-responds-com-169704

Differing opinion but if anything I think the new production is scaled UP not down. The original was a lot of empty space with a turntable and a big barricade. But it was kind of sparse most of the time on stage. The new production has bigger sets, though no turntable. Those walls coming in from the wings when the action moves to Paris in the new staging are stunning (how they finagle that moment in some of the road houses with tiny wings is a marvel of theatrical engineering).

I LOVED the original. But I also loved the new staging and didn't find the direction messy at all. I brought someone who'd never even heard the music before and they had absolutely no problem following it or connecting with the characters.

Opinions are opinions, and we're all entitled to them.

tourboi said: "Differing opinion but if anything I think the new production is scaled UP not down. The original was a lot of empty space with a turntable and a big barricade. But it was kind of sparse most of the time on stage. The new production has bigger sets, though no turntable. Those walls coming in from the wings when the action moves to Paris in the new staging are stunning (how they finagle that moment in some of the road houses with tiny wings is a marvel of theatrical engineering).

I LOVED the original. But I also loved the new staging and didn't find the direction messy at all. I brought someone who'd never even heard the music before and they had absolutely no problem following it or connecting with the characters.

Opinions are opinions, and we're all entitled to them."

As a cast member of multiple iterations of the Official Les Mis (including turntable and the non-turntable) I of course have a preference, but the original stated intent from Cameron himself to us when the show was first taken off the turntable in 2008 for the mini-tour, was to reduce the amount of trucks needed to travel the show thereby reducing travel time and load-in time, as well as adding the ability to fit the show in spaces where it hadn't been able to tour before. I believe that the "new" staging cut the amount of trucks in half (I could be wrong) and made it entirely possible to play a 7:30 show on sunday and be able to open Tuesday night in a new city which was all but impossible on the original even with the jump set.

The one thing that was lost however is the connection of the theme of "revolution" that is present in the show from beginning to end. The legend is that while the show was being fleshed out and re-created as it was being translated from french to english the presence of the then-new physical element of a turntable that had been just installed at the Royal Shakespeare Company inspired many of those specific lyrical references- "here where I stand at the turning of the years..." "now the wheel has turned around..." "turning" etc. It was literally a case of function preceding form which doesn't always happen. There are some other cool moments from that time regarding the writing of the piece that are really cool bits of trivia, but those are stories for another time (and another thread).

I also believe, knowing Cameron in the way that I do, that all of this will come back around (forgive the pun) and be used when we get the inevitable return to the turntable when the next anniversary comes along. The marketing for that basically writes itself.

It was,it's just in Cameron's archive. He has proshots and soundboards of a lot of things.