Les Miserables Reviews

Pete Masters from Austin, Texas

DON’T UNDERSTAND THE HYPE

Having never seen this show before I had let the hype falsely set expectations. The music was good, the actors were difficult to understand, and what I could make out of the story was uninteresting. If you already know the ropes to this musical I suppose it would be enjoyable (the woman next to me hummed the whole thing). Disappointed in it, but maybe it’s a shortcoming if mine. Wouldn’t recommend

Debbie Brink from Austin, Texas

A DISAPPOINTMENT

I’ve seen Les Mis in NYC, London, and here in Austin years ago previously. I didn’t expect this performance to be as good as the others, and I was still disappointed. The two main male characters rushed their lyrics to the point of not being understandable or on the beat. The actress playing Fontaine sang what should have been the most beautiful song of the show so softly that it fell flat. Frequently the orchestra drowned out the singers’ voices. That being said, the talent of all of the performers certainly seemed ample. It was the direction that was lacking.

Frustrated from Austin, Texas

TERRIBLE SOUND & LIGHTING

Impossible to understand the singers bc orchestra was too loud and singers were not enunciating. Lighting was much too dark. I knew what was happening bc I've seen it many times on Broadway, but my poor husband was lost. Solos were mostly excellent. Also tempo was sometimes off in non-solo singing, and sometimes notes were changed or not hit. Very disappointing especially for the cost of the tickets. Javert and JVJ were excellent but often unintelligible. Eponine's solo was magnificent, but much of her singing before then was off and her voice was all wrong.

Barb from Orlando, Florida

DISAPPOINTING

We were so disappointed in this production here in Orlando. The set was dark and made it difficult to see very well. The singing was very hard to understand. We heard about one-fourth of the words. Gave up after intermission. Would not recommend.

TrackSuit from Birmingham, Alabama

DISAPPOINTING

I’ve saw Les Mis in New York 25 years ago. I was awe struck with the production and pure vocal quality of the cast. From top to bottom it went high on my “best of” list. Having the opportunity to see the touring cast in Birmingham on 1/9/2020 was going to be the first time for my significant other. She lived in New York for a time and saw many original cast productions but never got to Les Mis. I was excited and pumped about letting her experience what I did many years ago. Unfortunately this show was a major let down. I’m not going to highlight (or in this case lowlight) all the disappointments but as high on my list the first experience was, this one now occupies the bottom end of my “worst of”. It gets 2 stars because there were a few bright spots vocally but the entire production was sub par. Valjean was particularly bad, the lighting and sound stage was awful. I’ve never been so disappointed and we left at the first intermission. Bad night? No, it was plain terrible.

Adam Patterson from Birmingham, Alabama

DISAPPOINTING

I went to to Birmingham, Alabama show on January 10th. This was my 8th time seeing Les Miserables in person and was by far the worst. While the set was impressive, the dark lighting made it difficult to see what was happening. I know the show pretty intimately, so I could forgive that. The pacing and voices of certain characters is what was most disappointing. The whole production was rushed and the tempo was much faster than it’s supposed to be. This led to the more emotional key moments falling very flat. It became quite boring, so I found myself distracted and looking around the the theatre quite a bit where I noticed quite a number of people leaving early. By the end of the final battle, I was considering joining them. My date had never been and walking out she said, “I don’t understand why everyone loves that so much”. I could only apologize and explain that that production did it no justice.

Kyle Y from Kalamazoo, Michigan

POOR SOUND, UNDER-LIT ACTORS AND SET

This adaptation’s run at Miller Auditorium has an excellent cast with amazing voices. However, the technical aspects (sound, staging, and lighting) leave much to be desired: Thin, weak sound by an underpowered PA system at times literally makes lines unintelligible, and an awkwardly quiet mix of the pit orchestra shuns away the detail and nuance the musicians work hard to produce. From the middle of the orchestra section, I’m pretty sure we were hearing most of the show from 1 or 2 small front fill speakers way down at the front of the stage. Shadowy, spotty lighting inconsistently illuminates lead actors and leaves extras in total darkness throughout the show, while overbearingly-bright TV confidence monitors for the actors on the balcony literally light up the theater more than the dim, murky stage. SO much set and costume texture was unseen due to the lack of accent lighting and basic backlighting fundamentals... not to mention a digitally projected backdrop so dim it was nearly invisible and added no aesthetic value to scene changes. The Miller’s grand stage is choked by a claustrophobia-inducing set design, limiting stage blocking to only a small area in the middle for any and every scene. This greatly limited the audience immersion of the show and created an impression, overall, that the show is better played to a crowd of no more than 300-400 tops.

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