'Les Miz' returns to Robinson with familiar tale, new view

Les Miserables will once again storm the barricades this week at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall.

It's the touring production of Cameron Mackintosh's recent long-running Broadway revival of the even longer-running very operatic Broadway musical. (Two previous tours of the original version played at Robinson before reconstruction made it easier for big shows to load in, load out and occupy the stage.)

Mackintosh and directors Laurence Connor and James Powell, in recently reimagining the show for the Broadway stage, removed some of the signature staging elements -- including the turntable that has heretofore made it smoothly possible for audiences to see both sides of the barricade in the Paris uprising of 1832.

In its place is new scenery, inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, who in addition to writing the novel on which the show is based, turns out to have been a pretty noteworthy artist.

Les Miz, as it's popularly known, started out as a French concept album with a 16-week stage edition. When Mackintosh decided to put it up on a London stage for the first time 32 years ago (it premiered Oct. 8, 1985), it became necessary to write a prologue to introduce the situation and characters to English-speaking audiences (the French, of course, already knew the story well).

Jean Valjean, having spent nearly two decades on a chain gang for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family (five years for the theft, 15 because he tried to escape the authorities), finds his parole so restrictive that he is moved to steal again -- a pair of silver candlesticks from a small-town bishop, who refuses to press charges and makes him a gift of the silver if he promises to use it to start a new life and dedicate himself to godly pursuits.

Subsequently the mayor of a small town, but still the object of pursuit by the dogged Inspector Javert for having broken his parole, Valjean promises an abused and dying woman that he will care for her little daughter, Cosette. They escape to Paris and she grows into a ravishingly beautiful soprano who draws the attention of a student revolutionary named Marius, on the eve of what the students hope will be a popular uprising in the Paris streets.

Nick Cartell, who plays Valjean on tour, is a tenor with a baritone extension, so hitting the final high note in which he reveals himself to Javert as prisoner "24601" isn't that much of a stretch. "It's a pleasure to sing it, as is the score," he says. "It's an honor to get to do it every night."

Cartell saw the new version of the show on Broadway, "and it's one of those shows wherever you've seen it, if you've seen the original production or a recent [one], it's still standing the test of time. This new version definitely keeps up with the legacy and the history of this show and people are loving it."

Audiences who have seen the original version do initially miss the turntable, he says. "That's what people notice first; however, you immediately forget there ever was a turntable.

"We have a much more cinematic feel to our version. When the creators were starting to look at this show and figure out how to make it a little bit different, they figured out that Victor Hugo was [also] this incredible artist, and so they've taken his artwork and created these beautiful projections that are used throughout that really help put us in a place and time, to bring the story even more to life; it helps the audience's escape into our world even more."

Also missing are the "time stamps" -- projected places and dates that help the audience find their place in time and space as the story proceeds.

In their place, Cartell says, "When [the students] are marching down the street, the projection is actually moving, so it looks like you actually are marching down the streets of Paris, that you are marching with us.

"When we're on the barricade, when you look on the back wall you can see what the street in Paris would have looked like."

The set, he says, is not appreciably smaller because the turntable isn't there.

"It is a pretty epic show," he explains. "We have huge towers. They definitely did not spare any expense and really made it feel majestic. In the size and scope of the set. I don't think that audiences will miss the turntable." The cast, "an amazing crew" and automation help the sets move incredibly smoothly.

Cartell has previous Broadway experience -- in Cirque Du Soleil's Paramour, in Scandalous: The Musical and the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar -- and was on the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera.

This, however, is "truly the biggest thing I've taken on. I have some pretty big shoes to fill.

"But I'm finding my own Valjean, and connecting with this character not only through the music but the story."

Style on 11/26/2017