Toal 1 Jessica Toal Ms.

Craft ADA201 18 February 2014 Les Miserables Captures Audience Again The recent remount of the musical Les Miserables in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre captured the hearts and attention of its audiences just over three decades after its original production. Les Miserables tells the story of Jean Valjean and his decades long quest to right his wrong of stealing bread when he was hungry. Javert, a ruthless inspector, hunts him over the course of the play in an attempt to finally have justice for Valjeans crime. When Valjean meets a young single mother on her deathbed, Fantine, after he has reinvented himself as the upright mayor of a town, he promises her he will take care of her child, Cosette. The rest of the action in the play is set during the French Revolution when Cosette is a teenager. She becomes entangled in a love triangle, and each character must decide where they belong among the ranks as a revolutionary. The acting in the show was well-received by its audience. I found myself most taken by Ramin Karimloo who played Jean Valjean. After having seen Les Mis performed once before and having listened to the soundtrack performed by the original Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, it would have been easy to write his performance off. However, I found that his acting was subtle and not over the top. He was easily able to engage his entire audience from those who sat in the first row, all the way to the back row, where I was sitting. Karimloo also did an excellent job of interpreting

Toal 2 and singing the songs in a unique way. It would have been easy for him to sing each song in the same way that other actors have made famous. Rather than take the easier path, he decided to put in the extra effort and it paid off greatly. This production also featured completely new and original costumes for each character as opposed to the costumes that audiences have come to know and love. I found Eponines costume redesign to be the most compelling. Eponine usually wears a rather drab brown dress, tan overcoat, and a brown pageboy cap. She is supposed to be lower class and spends most of her time in the streets, hanging with boys. In this new staging, the costume designer chose to change her dress and instead she wore brown pants and a tank top under her familiar overcoat and pageboys cap. I thought this was a good choice because it makes her character seem more modern and also casts her more in the role that she is supposed be seen as- a tom boy. The audience is supposed to see her more as one of the boys rather than the girl that Marius is in love with. The technical elements of the play also were executed well and worked with the new restaging of the play. The biggest change in the set was the removal of the turning stage. This was primarily used in the battle scene in which Gavroche and Eponine die. Before I saw the show, I thought I would miss this element of the play, but I found myself forgetting about this while watching the show. During the battle scene in the restaging, light was used to pinpoint important moments and to create the dynamics of the battle rather than the turning stage. As well, the actors used their blocking to create movement rather than using the stage as the catalyst for

Toal 3 movement. The setting and the lightning all helped to create the intense and dramatic mood of the play. Overall, I thought the restaging of Les Miserables was well-done and I was impressed with how unique it was, but still kept die-hard audiences happy. I would honestly recommend that anyone who is a fan of dramatic stories and catchy music go see this play! It will please new and old fans alike as it modernizes a classic story that has been well-loved since its opening in 1980.