{"id":308358,"date":"2026-07-29T04:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/308358\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T04:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:37:06","slug":"review-les-miserables-arena-spectacular-at-radio-city-is-a-glorious-farewell-to-a-bygone-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/308358\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Les Mis\u00e9rables Arena Spectacular at Radio City Is a Glorious Farewell to a Bygone Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LesLes Mise\u0301rables: The Arena Concert Spectacular is presented on a grand scale.
(\u00a9 Danny Kaan)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo love another person is to see the face of God,\u201d the ghosts of \u00c9ponine and Fantine sing with the dying Jean Valjean at the end of Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/a>. If that\u2019s true, then the Les Mis \u201cArena Concert Spectacular,\u201d concluding its two-year world tour now through August 9 at Radio City Music Hall, is about as close to a religious experience as musical theater can get. And it\u2019s every bit as spectacular as its subtitle promises.<\/p>\n

This edition of the genre-defining mega-musical is duly inspired by producer Cameron Mackintosh\u2019s 25th anniversary concert that played London\u2019s O2 in 2010, as well as the all-star \u201cStaged Concert\u201d that ran in the West End in 2019. It\u2019s Les Mis, Encores! style, with the focus placed on Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Sch\u00f6nberg\u2019s score, majestically played by a fully visible orchestra. If all you\u2019ve ever wanted out of Les Mis was for the actors to come downstage center to send power ballads like \u201cI Dreamed a Dream\u201d and \u201cStars\u201d soaring up to the heavens, have directors James Powell and Jean-Pierre van der Spuy got a show for you.<\/p>\n

Traditional staging elements are kept to a bare minimum, and thus, certain plot elements are either abbreviated or jettisoned. You\u2019re going to be at a relative disadvantage if you\u2019ve never experienced the psychotic police chief\u2019s dogged pursuit of the rehabilitated bread thief through 19th century France, so here\u2019s a brief rundown, with apologies to Boublil, Sch\u00f6nberg, English lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, and, most especially, novelist Victor Hugo.<\/p>\n

Jean Valjean (Alfie Boe, Killian Donnelly, or Ger\u00f3nimo Rauch) is paroled after 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister\u2019s child. When the kindly Bishop of Digne (Philip Quast) inspires him to reform, Valjean reinvents himself as a wealthy factory owner under an assumed name, only to be recognized by his former jailer, Inspector Javert (Bradley Jaden or Jeremy Secomb), now the police chief. They continue this cat-and-mouse game for well over a decade.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, factory worker Fantine (Samantha Barks) gets fired for being an unwed mother, becomes a prostitute, and dies after entrusting Valjean with the care of her daughter, Cosette, a child servant for the grifting Th\u00e9nardiers (Matt Lucas and Marina Prior). Years go by and adult Cosette (Beatrice Penny-Tour\u00e9) falls for idealistic Marius (Jac Yarrow), who doesn\u2019t love Th\u00e9nardier daughter \u00c9ponine (Shan Ako) the way she loves him. Joined by student revolutionary Enjolras (Christian Mark Gibbs) and adorable urchin child Gavroche, they\u2019re swept up in the wind of a coming revolution. Go have a pee; that\u2019s just Act 1.<\/p>\n

\"LesMarina Prior as Madame The\u0301nardier and Matt Lucas as The\u0301nardier
(\u00a9 Daniel Boud)<\/p>\n

Powell knows his way beyond the barricade: he co-directed (with Laurence Connor) the now-standard, economically more viable production that replaced Trevor Nunn and John Caird\u2019s brilliant original. John Napier\u2019s storied turntable is long gone at this point, replaced by Matt Kinley\u2019s distressed wood and cinematic backdrops inspired by Hugo\u2019s paintings. Kinley\u2019s design for the arena tour is somehow both grander in scale than it\u2019s ever been, and even more stripped down, with many of the key moments achieved either through Finn Ross\u2019s video design or Paule Constable and Warren Letton\u2019s flashing lights. The costumes, however, have remained largely unchanged across the decades. You can still spot Andreane Neofitu\u2019s iconic tailcoats, supplemented by longtime collaborators Christine Rowland and Paul Wills.<\/p>\n

The performers are basically a Les Mis(h)-mosh of greatest hits, some of whom have been associated with the property for decades. This iteration serves as Boe\u2019s farewell tour; he\u2019ll play Valjean one last time on August 4 having done the role on and off for 16 years. Donnelly is, according to expert Rosie O\u2019Donnell<\/a>, the best Valjean ever. And Rauch is an Argentine hunk with the dreamiest falsetto, an innate sense of compassion, and the slightest hint of a Latino accent that adds some unexpected flavor.<\/p>\n

Our Valjeans are paired with two vastly different Javerts. Jaden\u2019s youthful anguish is a stark contrast to the older Secomb, whose pathological intensity burns so bright that he doesn\u2019t even blink while he\u2019s singing. You\u2019re in excellent hands no matter which cast you get, but Rauch and Secomb are the pairing that can only be experienced live. Donnelly and Jaden lead the recent 40th anniversary recording, while Boe\u2019s work lives on in pro-shots from 2010 and 2020.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re supported by an equally Les Mis-proficient ensemble. Barks, who played \u00c9ponine in Tom Hooper\u2019s motion picture, is a glowing Fantine whose smile isn\u2019t even dimmed by death. Ako\u2019s \u00c9ponine is a tenacious foil for Penny-Tour\u00e9 and Yarrow\u2019s young lovers Cosette and Marius. Gibbs is fervent and charismatic as Enjolras, a revolutionary leader whom anyone would follow to their grim death. Lucas and Prior (the original Australian Cosette) steal the show as the scheming innkeepers, finding surprisingly fresh comedic moments in \u201cMaster of the House\u201d and \u201cBeggars at the Feast.\u201d Quast, the original Australian Javert, brings gravitas to the cameo role of the priest who changes Valjean\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Undeniably, the evening belongs to sound designer Mick Potter (using the venue\u2019s completely enveloping Sphere Immersive Sound system), orchestrators Stephen Metcalfe, Christopher Jahnke, and Stephen Brooker, and the symphonic orchestra of 26 (playing 36 instruments) conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo. You can hear the heavenly pluck of every violin string during \u201cBring Him Home.\u201d The brass section booms throughout Radio City Music Hall, those evocative opening horns echoing off the vaulted ceiling. The lyrics and harmonies are delivered with crystalline precision.<\/p>\n

Given the precarious state of theatrical economics these days, we may not see a Les Mis\u00e9rables of this scale again for a long time. So, go hear the people sing, and drink with them to days gone by. It is dramatic, epic, and a glorious throwback to a time when budgets felt irrelevant. In short, it\u2019s everything Les Mis should be.<\/p>\n

\"LesGer\u00f3nimo Rauch as Jean Valjean
(\u00a9 Danny Kaan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Les Mise\u0301rables: The Arena Concert Spectacular is presented on a grand scale. (\u00a9 Danny Kaan) \u201cTo love another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-308358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}