Last Updated on January 17, 2024, 9:39 PM | Published: January 17, 2024
In the world of musical theater, there’s everything else and then there’s “Les Misérables.”
And if that seems like unnecessarily high or lavish praise, a viewing of the new touring production running now through the 21st at OKC’s Civic Center Music Hall is likely more than enough to make you see the light.
Marrying a boundary-pushing, multimedia production design with a fearless cast capable of even the show’s most infamously challenging vocal feats, this new national tour from directors Laurence Connor and James Powell towers over other recent stage musicals in both its grandeur of scale and its sheer magnitude of mammoth emotion.
The story of “Les Misérables” – originated in Victor Hugo’s classic novel, adapted for the stage in the mid-80s by Boubil and Schonberg, and modified into the English language by Herbert Kretzmer – is by now as well-worn as a tattered red battle flag, but never any less relevant.
In the 1800s royal France, Jean Valjean is granted parole after 19 years in slave labor prison for stealing bread. After a fortuitous run-in with a man of God and a vow to live a virtuous life, his path crosses with the women and children on the bottom fringes of society, the lawman that’s sworn to expose his secret past, and the young men and women on the forefront of revolution.
While Hugo’s characteristically cold, bleak prose paints a colorless, hopeless picture of French society at the time, the unique language of musical theater allows the characters to open their hearts and minds and pour out the grief and beauty in some of the most heightened emotional song of theater history.
To capture those nigh-on unscalable emotional heights, the music here is big, and the vocal requirements arguably bigger.
The cast that takes the stage at Civic Center in 2024 is more than up to the task. They nail every histrionic moment, every near-infinitely sustained high note.
Preston Truman Boyd brings gravitas and command to the unstoppable force of lawman Javert, not to mention his own powerful pipes.
Matt Crowle elevates the slimy, sneering Thenardier to standout status with a fluid and animated physicality that threatens to steal the stage every time he emerges. Motion capture cartoonists should be taking note of him.
Fantine – one of the show’s most iconic and enduring roles – is brought perfectly to heartbreaking life by Haley Dortch whose “I Dreamed a Dream” is as effectively gut-wrenching and eye-watering as ever.
But in this sprawling and unyielding pitch-perfect cast, the two showstoppers were clear.
As the heroic Eponine, Mya Rena Hunter caused an explosion of cheers and applause before even finishing the final lines of “On My Own” when the audience was collectively overcome by the passion and reach of her solo.
And of course, there’s the night’s Jean Valjean, Nick Cartell.
The power and effectiveness of “Les Misérables” rests squarely on the shoulders of the actor portraying Valjean, and at opening night in OKC, you’d have thought the role was written exclusively for Cartell.
After more than 1,000 performances in the role, it’s no surprise that he’s got it down to a science, but to see – and more importantly hear – what Cartell can do with the famously advanced, devastatingly challenging vocal and emotional arc of Valjean is truly a can’t-miss opportunity. His “Bring Him Home” — in particular his lingering, near-unbelievable sustained note that closes the song — will be etched onto your brain for hours after the curtain comes down.
Though this cast could probably perform the show in a black box with floodlights, and it still be incredible, it’s the full production — the lighting, sets, costuming, and staging — that raises this tour to “absolute best” levels and reminds you why it’s “the world’s most popular musical.”
The lighting by Paule Constable is unlike any other, favoring mood, atmosphere, and even strategic darkness over a focus on spotlights or hero lighting. Shafts of light break through barred windows with fog or starlight or moonlight illuminating an always believably dreary, engulfing, miserable world on the streets.
An exciting hybrid use of projection, backdrop, and detailed sets creates a stunning sense of movement and transition that’s only brought to the fore late in the second act, sidestepping any risk of gimmick and instead serving to increase the dreamlike immersion of the climactic scenes.
On opening night, you could feel the audience’s awe at the production’s creativity at two pivotal, transitional moments.
Those moments are much better left to surprise than to be spoiled here, as is the opening-capping smash to the title that resulted in an eruption of cheers from the audience.
To that end, be warned: you MUST be in your seat promptly by the show’s beginning. The doors into the theater are closed, and all seating held for the first 14 minutes in order to preserve the intensity and immersion of the brilliant, heart-swelling opening. It is absolutely not to be missed, so be sure to arrive and find your seat early.
It’s a huge show, in the scale of the production and staging and in the bombast and heft of the performances and vocal stratospherics. But somehow more outsized than all of that is the relentless emotional core of grief, redemption, and revolution.
The story’s classic themes of revolutionary hearts bleeding among the poverty and greed of the time, and of the struggle to live by honesty in a dishonest world, are as tragically relevant now as they were in 1980, as they were in 1862.
Just like last year’s touring production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the sad continuing timeliness of these stories only serves to reinforce the systemic depth of the problems they’re railing against.
Whereas that “Mockingbird” staggered ever-so-slightly under the weight of its own idealism, this “Les Mis” makes no such misstep.
Its revolutionary spirit is infectious. Its power undeniable. Its message of resistance and hope, like the number branded across Valjean’s chest, is likely to be both painful and lifelong.
It’s the greatest, grandest stage musical in the world, and right now at the Civic Center, you have as good a chance as ever to experience exactly why.
“Les Misérables,” presented by OKC Broadway, is running now through Sunday, January 21st at Civic Center Music Hall.
For show times, tickets, and more information, visit okcciviccenter.com or okcbroadway.com.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
