Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for the newly opened production of Les Miserables.
The Metro: *** “Matt Kinley’s pictorial set, with projections from design company 59 Productions, is nicely immersive and the score is blissful. The finale, Do You Hear The People Sing? is still utterly heart-stirring. Not quite a rebirth then, but in its way still magnifique.”
The Stage: **** “Swift, slick, sexy, sounding better than ever and constantly spectacular, the posters that flood Shaftesbury Avenue are, to be fair, pretty much on the money: this is a Les Mis for the 21st century. Les Mis est mort. Vive Les Mis!”
The Guardian: ***** “This new version is less showy than the original; no longer a spectacle to lean back and admire but, instead, something more truthful and, ultimately, more moving. The battles, the poverty, the degradation and the danger: all feel more relevant and real.”
Evening Standard: **** “The tavern and brothel scenes blend comedy and brutality in a way that seems to have gone through political incorrectness and come out the other side to reflect harsh reality.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “It’s all very efficient and sharp. At its heart is Jon Robyns as a big-voiced and tender-hearted Valjean, catching the character’s tortured valour and bringing gentle passion to the quiet “Bring Him Home”, as well as boom to the bigger numbers.”
London Theatre.co.uk: ***** “it is also given a fresh 21st-century inventiveness with Matt Kinley’s sets being complemented by stunning painterly projections, inspired by Victor Hugo’s own paintings, that have been niftily realised by Fifty-Nine Productions and Finn Ross, all of which are lavishly lit by Paule Constable.”
The Arts Desk: **** “At the end of the day, you can either hate the bombast of the music or thrill to its open-souled and self-sacrificing idealism. It barely needs to be said that the picture that this musical paints of the poor echoes sights you can see in the streets every day, and so there is little point in denying its political punch.”
The Telegraph: ***** “Ardent Sondheim fans might further object that Les Miserables is too dissimilar from – and ranks below – the American’s groundbreaking oeuvre in artistic terms. Old-fashioned though it may seem in contrast, in its density and epic ambition, its mixture of high-powered ideas and gut-wrenching emotions, it’s a show that feels lastingly revolutionary.”
Time Out: **** “I don’t think anybody could realistically see this imperfect, absurd, magnificent show and suggest that its crown as London’s longest-runner is in any danger.”
The Sun: ***** “If you’ve not seen Les Misérables don’t wait any longer. It’s a must see and I’m not surprised it’s still delighting audiences.”
West End Wilma: ***** “This new production of Les Miserables really has to be seen to be believed and breathes a breath of fresh air into what was becoming a slightly stale show. The show has been running in the West End for over thirty years and this new production could see it live on for just as long.”
Les Miserables continues to play at the Sondheim Theatre. To book tickets click here or visit: Love Theatre.com, From the Box Office, Encore Tickets, Last Minute.com, See Tickets or Theatre Tickets Direct.co.uk.