Les Miserables

Synopsis: Concerns love and bravery in 19th century France during the revolutionary struggles. Jean Valjean, released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang, finds that the 'ticket-of-leave' he must display by law, condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by the police, and is astonished when the Bishop lies to save him, also giving him two precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew. Things go well but 8 years later, an encounter with a face from the past threatens everything he now holds dear.

NEW YORK TIMES:
"Freshly reorchestrated and (for the most part) appealingly sung, this undercast “Misérables,” a slightly scaled-down version of the well-groomed behemoth that arrived in New York nearly two decades ago, appears to be functioning in a state of mild sedation. It isn’t sloppy or blurry. But its pulse rate stays well below normal, and so most likely will yours."
Read the whole review HERE.

NEW YORK POST:
"Still, it's the story itself, so dashingly and operatically suitable for musicalization, plus its epoch-making staging, that elevated "Les Miz" onto its own strange pedestal of theatrical grandeur. "
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USA TODAY:
"But if a few breaths of levity can't sustain you through nearly three hours (with intermission) of melodrame, don't say I didn't warn you."
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NEWSDAY:
"But the show - trimmed a bit, to less than three hours - is "Masterpiece Musical" at its most pretentious. It's upright and earnest, bombastic and banal, with its pseudo-religiosity, politics without context and generic score as charmless as it is vocally treacherous. It is opera for people who don't like opera, a revolutionary novel transformed into a revolving platform that turns soberly and doggedly in the dark."
Read the whole review HERE.

VARIETY:
"For a period generally categorized as greedy, vulgar and shallow, the 1980s sure didn't shrink from exhibitions of big blustery sentiment. The pop opera milked tears with the indefatigability of the smoke machines that kept its stage drenched in soupy atmosphere. The show that helped repopularize musical theater as blockbuster spectacle has since been so parodied it's almost a parody of itself. And yet, undeniably, it still works, stirring audiences for 20 years and counting."
Read the whole review HERE.