Sad to Bid Adieu to 'Les Miserables'

Author: Jonathan White

When I walked through the door of the Imperial Theatre in New York two weekends ago to see "Les MisÈrables" one last time, I was disheartened to see that the role of Jean Valjean would be played by an understudy.
After 16 years of performances on Broadway, "Les Miz" bids au revoir in May.
The show is a victim not merely of New York's economic woes following Sept. 11, but as I recalled when seeing the announcement of the Valjean understudy, it is also a victim of its own success.
The last time I saw the show in New York in 2000, it was stale. Sixteen years is a long time and certainly innumerable performances at the Imperial have lacked the show's requisite gusto.
Yet any misgivings I had that evening dissolved when Joe Cassidy, the understudy for Valjean, delivered one of the most poignant and confident renderings of the show's masterpiece, "Bring Him Home," that I can recall.
Cassidy's clear, powerful voice boomed through the Imperial, beseeching God to spare Marius' life with earnest words, "Let him be. Let him live."
A near two-minute ovation followed. The audience recognized they were experiencing something religious rather than theatrical.
I think, too, that all the cheering was a clear signal of the sadness concomitant with the show's closing. "Bring Him Home," along with other innumerable show-stopping moments, has endeared "Les Miz" to millions.
It is a theatrical landmark that will be missed and surely not recreated.
The show demands more from its audience than do the Disney and ABBA-inspired musicals that now populate Broadway.
First, it begs patience. Victor Hugo's source material plumbs the wells of human misery with its portrayal of chain gangs, the indigent, prostitution, abuse, suicide, death on the barricades and the murder of a child.
The set itself relies heavily on the interaction of darkness, fog machines and opaque lighting.
It, too, begs much of the heart.
By the end of the show all the characters, less the ThÈnardiers, Cosette and Marius, have perished.
The final scene, furthermore, leaves no sentiment unturned in depicting of the loss of a loved one.
Who cannot be moved when the spirits of Fantine and Eponine assemble to escort the weary Valjean to a place "where chains will never bind" him?
This affirmation of salvation and redemption is, I believe, one of the primary reasons "Les Miz" has endured.
Against the darkness and tragedy, hope flourishes from the beginning. Only minutes into the show, the Bishop of Digne spares Valjean.
When the constables return Valjean for stealing the bishop's silver, the bishop quietly hands Valjean two remaining silver candlesticks and says, "You forgot I gave these also / would you leave the best behind?"
Elsewhere the sense of hope in the face of oppression is theatrically palpable, surely another reason why audiences return. A revolving turntable stage sets motion to the feet of students rallying in the streets of Paris chanting "Do you hear the people sing?"
The grandiose first act finale, "One Day More," features the entire cast marching in unison, singing "Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in heaven has in store" while a massive red protest flag rises in the fog behind them. It is the show's ultimate dramatic moment.
The quality of the show at the Imperial has never been higher. Cassidy as Valjean was not merely a vocal stalwart, but his acting finesse inspired audible sobs in the audience during his death scene.
"Les Miz" is also the story of the hunter and the hunted. The hunter, the zealous Inspector Javert, has always been one of my favorite characters.
He steals each scene with the presence of unstinting order. Tony-award nominee Terrance Mann, who originated Javert on Broadway in 1987, has returned to the cast.
His stern, barking orders were true to the rigidity of the character. He delivered "Stars" with aplomb.
Most importantly, Mann excelled because he did more than go through the motions of Javert's commanding stage directions and solos.
In his suicide scene, he provocatively brought his hands to his face and then held them out in front of him with a look of horror as though he was guilty of murder for pardoning Valjean.
This expression of horror morphed into the facial expressions of a madman as he continued to stare at his shaking hands while asking "And must I now begin to doubt / who never doubted all these years?"
This effect of self-loathing and emotional collapse made his suicidal plunge into the Seine convincing.
Diana Kaarina, another lead, owned the show each time she graced the stage as Eponine. Her titanic, yet beautiful vocal chords blasted "On My Own" into the stratosphere.
This is not to say, however, that the show was without its flaws. Lauren Kennedy playing Fantine could neither muster the notes for her solo "I Dreamed a Dream," nor did she balance the delicacy and degradation needed to play the "whore gone to the bad."
Nick Wyman as Thenardier also missed the mark. Thenardier is a comic villain, not a mere fool, a distinction that Wyman failed to grasp.
His Chevy Chase delivery left "Master of the House" flat, and his goofiness was out of sync with the sinister side of his character.
He is, after all, a man who robs corpses in the Parisian sewers. Moreover, Aymee Garcia's Madame Thenardier solidly upstaged Wyman as his corpulent and vulgar wife.
Aside from these quibbles, I did not want the show to end. To one who first saw the show at age 10 and remained equally mesmerized and far more moved viewing it at age 21, I believe "Les Miz" is a transcending experience.
Credit is due both to Victor Hugo and to the show's creators. The production melds drama, sweeping music and an epic story perhaps second only to the Book of Job or "King Lear" in its teachings about faith and love into the most compelling three hours.
Even if 16 years on Broadway has led to uninspired performances here and there, the current cast ensures a production in its prime.
When the barricade turns after the massacre to reveal the corpse of Enjolras, the slain student leader, lying lifeless across the show's iconic red banner, I still get the chills.
The show is as powerful as ever. As Cosette says to Valjean before he departs the earth, "Its too soon, too soon to say goodbye," so it is with "Les Miz."