Skip to main content
Les Misérables 

Les Misérables— despite its title which means  “the wretched” —  is wondrous! 

This new production of the phenomenon known as Les Miz brings a much needed spark of hope of the possibilities of love to hearts that have been broken or whose hopes have been dashed by the exigencies of life. 

 Les Miz’s music is haunting as befits the life journey of selfless sacrifice leading to salvation for one man and the tragic ending of the obsession of another.  It calls for a complex web of characters employing wide vocal choices  to follow the stories of these two men who are engaged in a life long bitter tug of war.  The dramatic tenor role of Jean Valjean is most poignantly sung by Nick Cartell.  Valjean has suffered a great injustice in  being imprisoned for 19 years for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread.  He escapes for a  life of hiding from his relentless pursuer, the conflicted  officer of the law,  Javert,  sung  with operatic intenseness by baritone Andrew Love.

For those who know Les Miserables well,  there are a few surprises in this  production  with this exciting new staging and scenery. Not only was the story inspired by Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel,  but the scenery has been reimagined, inspired by Hugo’s  drawings and paintings (over 4000).  

This celebrated opera-musical has broken records at the box office (in 32 years, seen by 70 million people in 44 countries and in 22 languages around the globe). What  is not measurable is how often its songs—“I Dreamed A Dream,”“On My Own,”“Stars,” “Bring Him Home,”“One Day More” —have lifted  human spirits.   

At the National Theater in Washington DC,  until January 7, 2018—  Les Miz is the ultimate Christmas gift.



Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want...
Read more
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)...
Read more
From EUGENE ONEGIN  to  DER ROSENKAVALIER  (Or Everything you want to know about love is at the MET OPERA) Great music and great literature meet on a great stage at the Met Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin on the big screen on April 25, 2017.  The words are Pushkin’s from his  Russian novel-poem.  The music is by Tchaikovsky  for what he termed “lyrical scenes.” Tchaikovsky’s music is forever embedded in our consciousness  with his fantasy ballets like  Nutcracker   and Swan Lake .   Pushkin’s work has provided the inspiration for dozens of musical works, including another famous Russian opera, Boris Godunov.     This team of Tchaikovsky and Pushkin is a sure thing but while there are many scholarly interpretations of Pushkin’s work, there is none that so gets it at its core as this opera. Using the very words from Pushkin’s poem,  Tchaikovsky built the opera through a series of powerful co...
Read more