Updated ‘Les Mis’ still wears its heart on its sleeve

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – It may be the most emotional musical ever staged, a work that wears its heart on its sleeve for the entire three-hour length of the work.

The national touring production of  Cameron Mackintosh’s presentation of “Les Misérables”  is  now in Boston at the Citizens Bank Opera House  through Aug. 25. The show has had a lengthy absence from the city, in part forced by the cancellation of a planned run here in 2020 during the pandemic.

 “Les Mis” debuted in the West End of London in 1985 and on Broadway in 1987 and heralded an era of big-budgeted, mega-cast, sprawling musicals that ran literally for decades. And while the Tony winners of recent years have been smaller, more intimate works, “Les Miz” has held its own as a great theatrical spectacle.

The work does have what theater calls “good bones.” It is based on the novel by Victor Hugo widely regarded as one of the most important works of the 19^th Century and one of the greatest books ever written. It is a tale of death and despair, poverty and punishment, but also of redemption and an unquenchable human spirit in the face of unbearable suffering.

It is the life story that unfolds over several decades of Jean Valjean (Nick Cartell), the 19th Century Frenchman sent to prison for stealing bread for his sister’s starving son. After 19 years of hard labor in prison, he emerges and tries to make his way through the world, only to find almost-constant heartache; he tears up his parole ticket and begins a life on the run.

Eventually his journey will have him and his ward, Cosette, crossing paths with a group of young student revolutionaries in Paris, setting the stage for a battle royal on the barricades.  

Preston Truman Boyd as Javert makes for a worthy foe. He is the self-righteous lawman who pursues Valjean through the years, and his basso profundo on “Stars” and “Soliloquy” are two of the evening’s vocal highlights.

The score by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer will assign a show-stopper or two to each of the principals in the cast. Two of the best-known are “I Dreamed a Dream,” sung by the doomed young mother Fantine (Haley Dortch), and “On My Own,” the second-act paean to unrequited love performed by Mya Rena Hunter as Eponine, whose love for the student Marius goes unreturned.

Both songs have been performed so often by so many that the trick at this point is to make the song your own; both renditions are perfectly fine, but Hunter is a tad more successful in putting her own stamp on her song.

Two of the more stirring anthems ever written for the stage are here in their full glory: “Do You Hear The People Sing?” and “One Day More,” the Act I closer that will have you marching out into the lobby.

As Marius, the student revolutionary who finds loves with Cosette (Delaney Guyer), Jake David Smith shines in the sadness of  the aftermath of the failed uprising – “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” — and also has some lovely duets with  Cosette, including “A Heart Full of Love.”

There have been all kinds of actors of playing the part of Jean Valjean, and Nick Cartell is the sturdy leading man type, a strong physical presence with a voice to match. He easily passes the can-I-sustain-the-falsetto test on the iconic, show-stopping “Bring Him Home.”

Matt Crowle and Victoria Huston-Elem effectively fill the comic relief roles of the Thenardiers, the nightmarish innkeepers; Crowle makes the innkeeper a fey sort while Huston-Elem’s Madame Thenardier is his beleaguered but no less evil spouse.

The production values remain spectacular, and updated since the last time “Les  Mis” made it to town. For instance, there have been major advancements made in the use of projections; Fifty Nine Productions and Finn Ross’s work in this show shines in Valjean’s scene carrying an injured Marius through the sewers of Paris or Boyd’s Javert making a tragic leap as he descends into despair.

Because the show is sung through, it can be difficult to keep up with the story. So if you are seeing the show for the first time and aren’t familiar with the story, you might want to read an easily available on-line synopsis before you visit.

All the elements that have made “Les Mis” an enduring classic since its American debut are here in this latest updated revival, a stirring, uplifting, worthy successor to the earlier versions.

The National Touring Production of Cameron Mackintosh’s presentation of  “Les Misérables.” Book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Based on the novel by Victor Hugo; Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel; Additional text by James Fenton. Adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. The production is directed by James Powell and Laurence Connor, designed by Matt Kinley inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, with costumes by Andreane Neofitou, additional costume designs by Christine Rowland and Paul Wills, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter, projections realized by Finn Ross, Jonathon Lyle and Fifty Nine Productions, musical staging by Geoffrey Garratt, music supervision by Stephen Brooker and James Moore, and casting by Tara Rubin Casting. At the Citizens Bank Opera House through Aug. 25. BroadwayinBoston.com