|
From the Palace Theatre production:
This you either love or hate. Opera buffs of this monkey's acquaintance
complain the blend of theatrical / opera / pop that comprises the music is tinny
and pretentious. Others find the interwoven storylines too much work for an
evening out, and the completely sung score a tad relentless.
For the millions of Les Miz fans worldwide (including theatremonkey); this
remains a story of immense hope and humanity and we leave the theatre happily
deluded into thinking we have discovered just that bit more about people,
including ourselves.
The current London production was cut by fifteen minutes in March 2001.
Viewers will not notice since the cuts were the bits 'restored' a year ago -
those same bits originally cut from the very first production! Frankly, the
monkey is just glad not to be on the score copying team.
Theatremonkey advises first timers read the programme notes before the
performance starts, and be prepared to concentrate - this show does not come
easy. Hugo fans should know that the original novel has been filleted to
produced a focused three hours, and characters and connected relationships do
not appear as written. No worries though, the novel survives the
adaptation very well to this non literary monkey's mind.
|