Les Misérables Revolutionizes Radio City With a Vengeance

Here’s a fun fact. The first Broadway musical adaptation of “Les Miserables” was not the almost unbelievably successful 1980 show by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Jean-Marc Natel, with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, which currently is being seen in a colossal new production at Radio City, and soon enough, worldwide. Rather, Victor Hugo’s classic French novel of 1862 was written around 1940 by a completely different team, namely Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein. And it was considerably shorter; in fact the whole thing lasted exactly three lines:“Jean Valjean, no evil doer, Stole some bread ’cause he was poor; A detective chased him through a sewer — the end!”This routine was part of a musical parody sketch titled “The Reader’s Digest,” by the troupe known as the Revuers, which also included mini-musical spoofs of other classics like “War and Peace,” and “Wuthering Heights.” The authors later worked the bit into their show entitled “A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green.” This comedic effort is worth contemplating because the other, infinitely better known “Les Misérables” musical has been seen in every format except anything that could be classified as small scale. The Boublil-Schönberg-Natel version began as a French language “concept” album in 1980, and that same year it successfully played as a theatrical production in Paris. Kretzmer’s English language adaptation debuted on the West End in 1985 and two years later, became a blockbuster hit on Broadway. The show has played almost continually in all of the major cities of the world over the last 40 years, as well as in the form of Tom Hooper’s lavish film version in 2012. ‘Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular.’ Danny Kaan“Les Mis” as the musical version is affectionately known, is a literal formal example of the term “melodrama,” which is derived from the Greek roots mélos (“melody”) and drâma (“deed” or “act”), and it is indeed melodramatic in every sense of the term. It opened on Broadway in between two other long-running imported adaptations of classic literature, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” (Broadway 1982) and “Phantom of the Opera” (1988). Like those other two blockbusters, “Mis” was a major hit with audiences especially the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, while alternately thrilling and repulsing the intelligentsia. Even now, on YouTube, there are two videos side by side, one making a case for “Les Mis” as a musical theater masterpiece comparable to “West Side Story” and another describing the music as “worse than you think.” No less a persona than George Costanza identified the most memorable tune as “Master of the House,” an earworm which he couldn’t stop humming in a well-known episode of “Seinfeld.”Just when you might think that the world finally had enough of these overexposed works, they have all reappeared in yet other new forms, although, admittedly, nothing as creative as what Betty and Adolph had wrought. Both “Cats” and “Phantom” were back this season, in the form of the recently-closed “The Jellicle Ball” and “Masquerade” which is still running.The key difference is that the Lloyd-Webber shows have been revitalized in smaller and more immersive productions. The new “Les Mis” is precisely the opposite: rather than make it more intimate, they have made it more epic and have appropriately titled it “Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular.” There have been “concert spectacular” editions of the show before, but this has got to be the most expansive: it’s a hybrid of an “Encores!”-style concert production, with full costumes, and creative lighting taking the place of traditional fully-constructed sets, a full chorus and fuller orchestra. It’s essentially a “pro-shoot” version of the show, like the successful Disney+ streaming version of “Hamilton,” crossed with a rock concert. Geronimo Rauch as Jean Valjean in ‘Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular.’ Danny KaanIt’s playing at Radio City through August 9th, and in that well-upholstered cavernous space, it’s impossible to see the faces of anyone singing, let alone acting. So, as when you go to see Beyoncė or The Rolling Stones in a stadium, there are giant video screens. You spend most of your time gazing at those four big screens; only those in the first 20 rows or so of the orchestra will notice that the actors are playing principally to the cameras. Even when Cosette (Beatrice Penny-Touré) and Marius (Jac Yarrow) are singing a love duet, they’re not looking at each other.It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a full production of “Les Mis” and even longer since I’ve read the book. You could be forgiven for having forgotten that it takes place against the backdrop of the 1832 Paris Rebellion, which was, to put it mildly, not a success rather than the more iconic French Revolution in the 1790s. (Turn to “A Tale of Two Cities,” not yet a musical, for that.) Your memory could also have you believe that the lead character, Jean Valjean (Gerónimo Rauch) is an escaped convict, also inaccurate. In actuality, the obsessive law enforcement officer Javert (Jeremy Secomb) spends the whole play, decades in dramatic time, chasing poor Valjean for what is essentially a mere parole violation. This seems like overreach to me.The overall effect is to make “Les Mis” even more like a traditional opera, not a rock opera like “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It’s something even grander than Grand Opera. In the end, when the bad guy throws himself off a bridge, you can’t help but think of Don Giovanni being dragged down to the underworld at the end of his own final act. Experiencing “Les Mis” at Radio City (which I am told is the only time this production will play in the United States) is hugely overwhelming, much larger than life, whether you regard “Les Miserables” as kitsch or as a classic.

Les Misérables Revolutionizes Radio City With a Vengeance

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