If you caught the North American touring production of “Les Miserables” at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre in 2022, it would be understandable if you responded to the news that the same production (with many of the same principal actors) is back on the same stage with a dismissive “Been there, done that.”
But, after attending Wednesday night’s performance, I can give you a good reason to return: Because the music is miles ahead of where it was in 2022. The leads are belting ballads with considerably more conviction, the intricately layered vocal phrases are particularly well woven, the anthems may have you looking around for a banner to wave, and the 14-piece orchestra does more with Claude-Michel Schonberg’s score than I’d previously thought possible.
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Add an eye-catching set design and projections and a cast that seems to passionately believe in the material, and you have a production that could leave even a “Les Miz” regular combing their memory banks to see if they’ve experienced a better one.
Victor Hugo’s story is set in an early 19th century France that seems to have the heart beaten out of it by the “Reign of Terror,” a place overflowing with crime, poverty and punishment. There, an embittered ex-convict, Jean Valjean, tries to build a new life after breaking his parole and attempting to stay one step ahead of a dogged detective. He adopts a daughter — rescuing her from some comically craven innkeepers — and she later falls in love with a revolutionary, Valjean joining their cause.
This take on the tale never lets your attention flag, and much of that can be attributed to some exceptionally well-crafted characterizations from the lead actors and their passionate delivery of the songs Schonberg created with lyricist Herbert Kretzmer.
At the forefront is Nick Cartell, who introduces us to Valjean as a fount of anger before he’s softened by the warmth of a dying single mother and the daughter he adopts, as well as the hope it instills in him when love comes into her life. Cartell’s ballads are almost invariably breathtaking. Speaking of taking breaths, he exhibits the lungs of an Olympic swimmer by holding impossibly long notes on ballads like “Who Am I?” and “Bring Him Home” that somehow never feel the least bit overwrought.
The same could be said of what Lindsay Heather Pearce does with “I Dreamed a Dream,” Mya Rena Hunter’s showstopping lament, “On My Own,” and the “Stars” of Nick Rehberger’s Inspector Javert. All boast voices that not only pack power, but often caress their phrases with consummate tenderness.
Entrusted with being the story’s comic relief is the amoral thief, Thenardier, and Matt Crowle could easily steal the show, were it not for those disarmingly passionate ballads from his castmates. Complemented well by Arianne DiCerbo — who stepped into the role of the equally crooked Madame Thenardier Wednesday night — Crowle is so colorful as to be a constant magnet for the audience’s attention. Good thing, too, for he’s probably picking someone’s pocket when you’re not looking.
But I save my strongest admiration for conductor Will Curry and the orchestra, which made Schonberg’s music so much more interesting and engaging than I’d ever found it to be in the past.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
‘Les Miserables’
When: Through Dec. 1
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
Tickets: $179-$40, available at 612-339-7007 or hennepinarts.org
Capsule: The spectacle takes a backseat to the songs in a production expertly sung and played.
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