One Day More! In Concert!

Those who were not able to get tickets, rejoice! Monday gave as good a start to December as you can get - unless there was a Christmas medley somewhere...
As a result of extremely high demand, Sir Cameron Mackintosh decided to film his Les Miserables: The Staged Concert and beam it into cinemas all over the world, like he did for the Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary. Unlike Kim however, he broadcast Cosette LIVE, the last performance of an 18 week ish run at the Gielgud Theatre (next door to the Sondheim (aka, the refurbished Queens), and where I saw Company).

This may be the 3rd time I have written about Les Mis now, but it is NOT getting old!

If you want to read about my experience at the Queens a few years ago, click here.
To read about the current UK tour, click here. 

This Staged Concert has been playing at the Gielgud whilst next door has been having a makeover. As we've see recently with the Piccadilly Theatre roof collapse during Death Of A Salesman, these old theatres are beautiful, but haven't had a lot of work done for a long time - hence the changes.

This brings a huge and talented cast, most of whom have performed in the show at some point over its 34 year history. There are only 2 people out of the main cast who are complete newbies to the show, who are Lily Kerhoas as Cosette, and Shan Ako as Eponine, both of whom put their own take on the role. Ako looked not just angry, but pissed during A Heart Full Of Love, something we don't often see.  Both girls are continuing playing their roles at the Sondheim - in fact, a few of the cast are.

Two more people following the show next door are former Eponine Carrie Hope Fletcher (Heathers) as Fantine, and Bradley Jaden (Wicked) - he played Enjolras in the concert but will be playing Javert at the Sondheim.
Fletcher's Fantine was innocent but still with a backbone, her voice angelic and sweet, clearly still not over the love she experienced with Cosette's father - it's nice to see Fletcher's softer side after Wednesday and Veronica.
Jaden still remains my favourite Enjolras so far, passionate and compassionate to the core, and being hot to boot helps!

Moving on from Enjolras to the puppy eyed Marius - Rob Houchen (Light in the Piazza) returned to the part, and rounding out the supporting cast, Katy Secombe returned to the role of Madame Thenardier, finding more things in the text to play around with and being even funnier than I remember.

Secombe's husband was played by Matt Lucas (A Midsummer Night's Dream), reprising his role from the 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 - this is coming on for 10 years people! He was brilliant, funny as ever, but he found a way to make the part for menacing for 1 half of Little Britain to be playing him. And his singing has improved too.

The headliners of course were Michael Ball (Chess) and Alfie Boe as Javert and Valjean respectively (or if you happened to go to the concert on another night, you could have had John Owen-Jones as Valjean). Boe was as good as you would expect him to be from the 25th Anniversary.

Ball was interesting - I will admit that I have seen better Javerts, but they were all VERY good Javerts (them being Earl Carpenter, Jeremy Secomb and Nic Greensheilds). Ball doesn't quite have the intimidating presence, but his voice did at certain points. In fact, he went into Sweeney Todd vocal-mode at a couple of parts.... I hope there wasn't a razor hidden in that truncheon....!
His Stars was as impressive as you would hope it would be; ironically enough though, it was his final scene that was his personal highlight for me.

It's interesting reviewing this as a concert rather than a full production, another that it has somehow become its own animal during the run; it's a unique in that you still get the grandness of it, but its still intimate and not blown up in another large venue like the Royal Albert Hall or the O2. It's still moving and sweeping as ever, but without a full stage, it's the score laid bare - it becomes clear how quickly you are reminded how good of a score Claude-Michel Schonberg's is.

Like any other Cam Mack celebratory performance, there is always a huge encore and this time was no exception. First was a surprise duet of Stars between Ball and Jaden (with me full on melting in my seat!). 😍😍
The second was a Valjean quintet all singing Bring Him Home: of course Boe and Owen-Jones were included, but also Killian Donnelly (who has just left the tour), Dean Chisnall (his replacement), and Jon Robyns (Sister Act, Legally Blonde), who will be taking on the part at the Sondheim. ❤❤❤❤❤

If you somehow missed this, there is another opportunity to see the screening at your local cinema this weekend (7th and 8th December) - and fingers crossed Sir Cameron will ensure this gets a DVD release!
The Staged Concert version of Les Mis was just as epic and sweeping as you would expect, with an insanely talented cast to boot! If you have about 3 hours to spare, and you're able to check this out then do it. There is a reason why Cosette is the reigning Queen of the West End.