Les Miserables Reviews

Moises T from San Antonio, Texas

BAD SINGING

Although I have only seen the show live twice, i have seen the movie and the 10th +25th anniversary shows many times. I have also heard the songs a lot, but this show was a bit of a letdown as far as the musical parts go. At the beginning the actors were caught off guard and for the first two minutes they were entering a second or two late, which is quite a lot in my opinion. I also didn't like the voices of Eponine and Fantine, they seemed squicky, even though their acting was great.

John T from Kalamazoo, Michigan

A GOOD SHOW, BUT NOT GREAT

I will preface this by saying that I have seen so many iterations of this show. I have seen really amazing performances and relatively poor performances. For me, this particular show falls somewhere in between. The good: -The actors that play Valjean, Javert, and Madame Thernardier carried the show. The bad: -Sounding: It was VERY difficult to understand a lot of the words being sung, and the orchestra was far too loud. I feel my girlfriend (a Les Miz first-timer) missed a lot because of this. -Lighting: WAY too dark. Hard to watch at times. -Singing: Everyone had great voices, but the singing all lacked emotion. When Fantine feels hopeless, I want to hear it in her voice. I did not. Thernardier was pretty inanimate. Marius did not sound sad in "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." -A personal peeve: Gavroche without the accent. I never understood that. When I go to see Les Miz, I expect to be on an emotional rollercoaster ride. I didn't quite get there with this cast.

Jay Steger from Indianapolis, Indiana

STUNNING BRING HIM HOME…

While I agree with the reviews below that the sound system made it difficult to understand a lot of the words. But setting this aside, the performance was powerful. My wife and I saw it first on broadway. But in this performance I heard something I had never heard before in my life. Late in the solo of Bring Him Home, the lovely sound of both the soloist and the violin were indistinguishable, one to the other, to my ear. I had never such a thing in my life. I’m not sure if this was because the vibrato of both were perfectly in sinc, but it was quite a moment! Well done!

RKL from Cleveland, Ohio

LES MISERABLES

My wife and I have seen like 15 different performances over 25 years and this was the most disappointing. The person playing Cosette was probably on par of all past performances but on the final show on 11/18 in Cleveland, we got the understudy for Javert who was ok, and and the understudy for Eponine, whose vocal range was limited and she wound up screaming vs singing. Fantine was lifeless and the singing was not up to par for this performance. Jean Valjean was decent but he had strong competition compared to the various actors we have seen over the years. In addition the staging without the revolving stage looks cheap as they only displayed one side of the barricade compared to past performances with the revolving stage which made it more dramatic. It also seems like there a lot fewer members in the ensemble. The ensemble group numbers were the best numbers of the show as the overall quality was comparable to past performances.

Mimi from Baltimore, Maryland

THIS ‘LES MIS’ MISSES!

This is one of our favorite musicals of all time, so we were so excited to be able to see it at the Hippodrome! But unfortunately we left very disappointed with this production. The staging of the show was terrible. The lighting was so poor that most of the time the performers could not be clearly seen - and we had orchestra seats! The sound quality was often muffled & distracted from the song quality. I also did not like the ‘echo’ sound effects included in some of the songs. Some of the costumes lacked historical accuracy. Les Mis is a show that fills me with emotion. But unfortunately I never felt any of that from these performers - especially from the most tragic character - Fontine!

Don Amon from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

LES IS NOT MORE!!

This was the 6th or 7th time I've seen Les Miserables dating back to London in 1990. I always see the touring productions and have never been disappointed until Wednesday, September 19, 2018. Everything seemed cramped on stage. The reveals during the battle sequence weren't reveals and lost their emotional connection for me. The actors were wonderful singers, but wanted to "act" there way through the numbers to where sometimes they were inaudible. Empty Chairs and Empty Tables on a bare stage makes no sense!! I love this musical and the music that tells the story, however, this minimalistic production is at the bottom of my list.

Ms. Cactuswrenz from Marana, Arizona

SERIOUSLY DISAPPOINTED

The sound and acoustics were so bad, most of the songs were just noise. I had an awfully difficult time understanding most of them, even after the show was stopped so the sound system could be adjusted. I actually fell asleep for a few minutes. Being that it w as such hard work, I left at the intermission and headed home to watch the movie version. Very disheartening since the voices were so lovely sounding, the costumes and scenery were outstanding, and the cast energy was brilliant. Something needs to be done with the horrible sound system in that theater!

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