Review: 'Les Miserables' at Saroyan Theatre is a sturdy version of beloved musical
The words that most come to mind to describe the national touring production of “Les Miserables” that stopped Tuesday for a week-long run at the William Saroyan Theatre are sturdy and reliable.
Regular theatergoers won’t find a reinterpreted version like the artistic tweaks to recent acclaimed productions of “My Fair Lady” or “Oklahoma!,” which isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes when you go to the theater, a serving of the equivalent of comfort food is what you want: Familiar and satisfying. (Anyone who saw the recent national touring production blood-drenched rethinking of “Oklahoma!" — I found it grimly fascinating, if a bit off-putting — is probably nodding in agreement right about now.)
Ever since the blockbuster musical "Les Miserables" debuted on London’s West End and then made its way to Broadway in the 1980s, the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel about downtrodden 19th Century Parisians (the miserable of “Les Miserables”) has packed in audiences with its combination of catchy showstopping songs — I defy anyone not to hum bits of “Master of the House” to yourself after seeing the musical — and an operatic over-the-top plot with more weepy deaths than a Nicholas Sparks novel.
(Speaking of operatic, “Les Miserables” is more of an opera than a traditional Broadway musical. There is no spoken dialogue in the nearly three-hour production.)
Add some fantastic stagecraft — the London, Broadway, and the initial touring production featured a rotating stage that looked dangerous for the actors to navigate, especially when a massive barricade was erected on it during act two — and you had a recipe for both critical acclaim and box office riches.
While the version of “Les Miserables” that landed at the Saroyan has jettisoned the massive rotating stage in favor of nifty projected images and a scaled-down, if still impressive on-stage barricade, it features some “oh wow” stagecraft moments.
When obsessed police officer Javert (a fierce Preston Truman Boyd) takes a swan dive in the Seine River, his body seems to levitate and then startlingly spins into the abyss. Equally compelling is how the fallen student radicals emerge from the inky backstage fog-like specters.
The chief reason to buy a ticket to “Les Miserables,” though, is to see how the cast pulls off Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s beloved musical numbers, which features more memorable songs than any other theater production aside from “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Happily, the superb cast is up for the challenge of performing those iconic musical numbers, which tell the story of a convict who breaks his parole to care for an orphaned child and an obsessed police officer who chases him across France.
Nick Cartell, as Valjean, the production’s tragic hero, gets to show off his impressive range with “Bring Him Home,” which forces a singer to perform vocal gymnastics to capture the longing and grief of the song.
Equally impressive is the aforementioned Boyd belting out “Stars,” an existential scream into a cruel universe. Haley Dortch brings weary heartbreak to her powerful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,” while Christine Heesun Hwang’s “On My Own” is an appropriately bitter refrain about unrequited love. It also wouldn’t be fair also not to mention Gregory Lee Rodriguez’s moving performance of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” a song that wallows in grief.
If you’ve seen “Les Miserables” before, seeing the Fresno production is like catching up with an old friend or beloved family member after a long separation: No surprises, but it will fill you with a familiar feeling of warmth. And if you are a “Les Miz” virgin — how could you have not seen any version of this musical before, are you living under a pop culture rock? — you will be introduced to the tried-and-true formula that has made the musical so beloved.
How to attend
What: "Les Miserables"
When: Through July 30
Where: Saroyan Theatre at the Fresno Convention Center
Tickets: $25-$145
Information: https://fresno.broadway.com/
This article originally appeared on The Record: Review: 'Les Miserables' at Fresno's Saroyan Theatre
