Cleveland’s 1922 Palace Theater, seating 3,000, was the appropriate setting for the new Les Miserables on February 9, 2013. Carrara marble and crystal chandeliers appropriately welcome a stunning theatrical event.
Laurence Connor and James Powell directed this version and almost every moment has been re-imagined. Theater artists in the early 20th century vainly sought what they imagined a “total theater” experience. Well, this Les Mis did it for me.
Every aspect of the production was first rate, no expense seem spared, no great singer ( this was the best Marius ever)overlooked or technological wizardry ignored. Kathleen and I were simply overwhelmed, and we know this musical almost backwards and forwards.
I found myself in the childlike state of pure wonderment and joy at the glorious performance. The production achieved what philosopher Jacques Maritain called the merging of the artistic experience into the religious experience. For the three thousand people on Euclid Avenue today, “to love a person is to see the face of God” was not just a notion, it was a vibrant collective experience. I could barely talk at the show’s end. Thunderous standing ovations. Numerous curtain calls. Beaming cast, sobbing audience. Who could ask for anything more?
People go to see this show over and over again. As we were leaving the theater, I overheard patrons comparing versions they had seen in London, Toyko, Australia, Canada, only to conclude that this new one was the best.
The movie version (which I loved) turned the stage work into a film with the power of Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc ( 1928) by using Dreyer’s same close up strategy. The musical is a child of the live theater (despite electric amplification) and achieves its power by those means, which are no less, though very different, than those of film.
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