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Review: Broadway’s ‘Les Misérables’ finds new colors in its record 16th return to Minnesota

Inspiring and full of humor, the show continues to capture hearts and spirits.

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The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 21, 2024 at 7:00PM
The students are still inspired to rise up even if the people don't in "Les Miserables," which remains fresh and vibrant as it returns to the Orpheum this week. (Matthew Murphy)

It hasn’t gotten old.

The record 16th return of the national tour of “Les Misérables,” Claude-Michel Schönberg’s and Alain Boublil’s musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel, stirs all the feelings in Minnesota. It teems with inspiring music, beautiful performances and transporting stagecraft.

The production now up at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre vividly summons a 19th-century France caught up in struggles over love, salvation and justice, situations and themes that speak readily to today.

Lo these many years ago, Jean Valjean (Nick Cartell) stole a loaf of bread, was sentenced to an initial five years in prison that got extended to 19. Now out, he has broken parole and reinvented himself as a respectable businessman with a heart of gold.

But his old lawman nemesis, Inspector Javert (Nick Rehberger), holds Valjean to who and what he was — prisoner No. 24601 — not what he has become, and tracks him like a bloodhound, even at the cost of his own life and health.

Throw in some student idealists ready to die for a just social order, lovers with confusing feelings, prostitutes, factory workers and the colorfully craven Thénadiers, and you get a layered, rich story with a high body.

This vivid version of “Les Miz.” is not the same as those that have landed here over the past decade or so, but it boasts the same directing team, Laurence Connor and James Powell, and other similarities. What’s exciting about the show is that they keep it fresh, with a full orchestra led robustly by Will Curry.

True, one might quibble with specific elements of some of the players’ performances. Lindsay Heather Pearce acted “I Dreamed a Dream” more than she sang it, injecting drama in her big opening song even at the expense of lyricism and musicality.

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Mya Rena Hunter is powerful and heartfelt as Eponine, and her “On My Own” is a showstopper, even if emotion overpowers diction.

But the musical holds an audience rapt and sometimes cuts to the quick, with Rehberger giving Javert stout, exacting control to contrast with Cartell constantly negotiating his humanity. Cartell is flawless and affecting on “Bring Him Home,” the show’s biggest number.

Christian Mark Gibbs brings a shot of elegant adrenaline as student leader Enjolras, delivering with poise on “Red and Black” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?”

There also are lovely turns by performers in iconic roles of Marius (Jake David Smith) and Gavroche (Jackson Parker Gill alternates with Jack Jewkes).

On every return, “Les Miz.” seems to bring out new colors, with the show’s religious iconography and imagery, including of fallen people trying to find their way back, playing large today. Of course, the story also rejects a central tenet of Christianity, that the meek inherit the Earth. No, it’s the cunning, tenacious and ever-adaptable Thénadiers (Matt Crowle and Arianne DiCerbo) who survive it all.

Crowle and DiCerbo are delightful as these opportunists, with great comic timing and physical comedy. In fact, with his bulging eyes and occasionally hunched gait, Crowle looks like he’s leaning toward a human cockroach. And as lofty and evolved as we humans may think of themselves, “Les Miz.” says it’s these insects that come crawling out in the aftermath of our wreckage.

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‘Les Misérables’

When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1 & 6:30 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 1.

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $40-$179. hennepinarts.org.

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about the writer

about the writer

Rohan Preston

Critic / Reporter

Rohan Preston covers theater for the Minnesota Star Tribune.

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