Run and Tell That: Les Miserables (Dallas Theater Center)

Well I recently watched a production of Les Miserables on Youtube, but unlike many productions this one took place present day. "BLASPHAMY," "WHAT," NO YOU CAN'T!" Is what I'm sure a lot of you might say. However this reinvention of a very long, tiring and old musical is just what it needed. It was not the most visually inspiring production, but sometimes the show is better when it doesn't have that. Now I'm terrible at describing so you will see a picture of the set

The Final Battle

to the right. Now since Les Miserables is such a long show, let's start from the beginning and work our way their. Let's start with the songs and overall production. The prologue and specifically the chain gang. I loved the opening especially how during the part of the overture and a little bit into the work song, you see Valjean trying to escape and getting caught. I liked that little add on that if/when you notice it, it adds a little more impact on the story. However what ruined that scene was all the convicts prancing around like little elves on Christmas. It was very weird and it was not right. The rest of the prologue was pretty good. After the prologue we meet the strong and tragic character Fantine and her intro song At the End of the Day which shows the similarities of back then and today. You'd be surprised how a lot of women are shamed and shunned for being a single mother. I'm not going to get to much into the politics/social economics of this piece because that's not what I'm here to talk about. Fantine finds her way to a brothel in Lovely Ladies. The updating of this scene was good and bad at the same time. It was very over the top with the stripping, pelvic thrusts and kinky scenes going on I felt very uncomfortable watching it. However the scene was brilliantly acted. Their was also a pimp or drag queen of sorts and I was a little confused as to what their role was. It was still a very effective scene and brilliantly acted by the cast, but some parts were just a little questionable.

Nehal Joshi, Christia Mantzke, Steven Michael
Walters and Salma Salinas
The Thénardier Waltz of Treachery

Anyway we have tragedy after tragedy. We then meet Cosette who is abused by her care takers the Thénardiers whose outfits were completely hysterical and were fantastic. Madam Thénardier looked like she belonged in The Real Housewives of Montfermeil and Thénardier with dreads was fantastic. This is another scene that again transfers well to present day. Several years pass and Cosette is all grown up who was updated to be an adorable geeky bookworm. Look Down held so much more meaning being updated to today. It didn't hit me until I saw that number, but this story could happen today and it would fit perfectly, especially with the upcoming presidential election, but I'm not gonna talk about that. I think before we get any farther into the story we need to go over specifics. Our hero Jean Valjean is portrayed by the talented Nehal Joshi. While Joshi is talented I don't think his voice suited some parts of the role. His rendition of Bring Him Home was not the soft spoken, head voiced number like it normally was. It was a little belty and loud which is not his fault. The role of Valjean requires you to have a voice as flexible as Play-doh. Besides that one song he tried a lot of new things with the character of Valjean. A lot of them were different from previous portrayals of the character. Valjean's chaser Inspector Javert is played by the Edward Watts whose voice fits so beautifully into the role of Javert. His rendition of Stars was superb. We then meet the tragic Fantine portrayed by Alison Blackwell this woman was an amazing Fantine and again with this story now being set in present day it adds even more layers to this character which Blackwell portrays beautifully. Salma Salinas who has a very good voice for someone at her age is a great Young Cosette. In all the gloom and doom we meet the hilarious caretakers. Madam Thénardier played by the hilarious Christia Mantzke puts a new twist on the role of this trashy woman who tries to be very classy. She did this hilarious walk in her probably 6 inch platforms that was so perfect. Her husband portrayed by Steven Michael Walters while not as funny as Mantzke he was still a very good choice for the role. When we have another time jump that's when some of the character changes went down hill a little the most annoying one was Gavroche (Mark Hancock) who looked like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts.  I was not a fan of his updated look. Gavroche's pal Enjolras is played by John Campione whose performance was good, but nothing special. I did like Enjorlas' updated aviator look. Now that years have passed Éponine has grown up and is portrayed by Elizabeth Judd who

Dorcas Leung
In My Life

was not suited for this role in my opinion. I don't think her voice is suited for a classical musical like Les Mis. I was also not a fan of Éponine's updated look. I was not a fan of the dreads she was give. Anyway Éponine is in love with the adorable Justin Keyes who portrays Marius. He added this dorky, nervous teen side to the character which is surprisingly not shown that well in other portrayals. Keyes goes as far as fanning his arm pits when talking to Cosette during In My Life it was little things like that which made Keyes a great Marius. Also how could Marius not fall in love with the adorable Dorcas Leung as Cosette whose just so adorable. Cosette was updated as a modern day cute, geeky bookworm which fits so well with this character. Oh my god I just love this. This production turned a character which normally annoys me into one of my favorites. My favorite moment was during In My Life when she notices Marius she puts her book down and does this semi-model pose which is just so adorable. Leung's Cosette was the best thing about this production in my opinion. So the question that needs an answer "Can Les Mis be updated to a contemporary time period?" My answer is YES as well all musicals can. Some musicals might require for you to update the book, while others don't. Was this the greatest production in the world? No it was not. But what's important is the director (Liesl Tommy) tried something new with an old show. I would love to see more productions brought to present day. Maybe in She Loves Me Amalia and Georg find each other on a social network. Who knows? The updates don't have to be perfect it just has to show that even though something may take place in the 1940's it could have happened today in 2016. That's just my opinion. Below are highlights from this production.