REVIEW ROUNDUP: 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables Opens at London’s Barbican Theatre

The new 25th anniversary touring production of Les Misérables has officially opened in its London engagement at the Barbican, where it continues through October 2. Laurence Connor and James Powell have directed the production, which features design by Matt Kinley.

Based on Victor Hugo’s classic humanitarian novel set in 19th-century revolutionary France, Les Miserables has a book by Alain Boublil, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

The company features John Owen-Jones (Jean Valjean) and Earl Carpenter (Javert), both of whom have played the roles in the West End production, as well as Gareth Gates (Marius).

The engagement at the Barbican precedes the show’s 25th anniversary. Les Misérables had its world premiere at the Barbican on October 8, 1985. This original production, adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird and designed by John Napier, continues to run in London at the Queen’s Theatre.

Initial reviews of the new production have been posted by three British online publications and one newspaper, all of which are praising the new physical production for the show and the two principals.

The reviews include:

Evening Standard
Les Miserables (25th Anniversary Production)
“The defining feature of this production is the superlative singing. The star is John Owen-Jones, who’s breathtakingly good as the hero Jean Valjean. But there is expert work all around him — from Earl Carpenter, Rosalind James and a crowd-pleasingly passionate Gareth Gates.”

“Almost as arresting are Matt Kinley’s fresh designs, which draw on Hugo’s own artworks and are gorgeously lit by Paule Constable.”

Variety
Les Misérables
“Instead of the thuddingly literal projections that have bedeviled recent stage designs (most egregiously in “The Woman in White”), Kinley’s work is more suggestive. Instead of dully setting up precise locations, the projections of Hugo’s paintings splashed up against an angled back wall have a hazily impressionistic Turner-esque quality. And unlike most projected scenery that looks flat when lit, these imaginative images take light and color exceedingly well.

“The result is richly atmospheric. The intense warmth of Constable’s painterly light turns the riotous scene after the prologue into something out of a Dutch old master painting and her fiercely directional light adds poetic loneliness to isolated characters.”

“Mackintosh’s new version smartly walks the line. There’s enough new vitality to justify the re-think without losing the sensibility of the original.”

London Theatre Guide
Les Misérables
“Starring the excellent John Owen-Jones as Jean Valjean, Earl Carpenter as Javert and former teen poster boy Gareth Gates – proving there is far more to his performing bow than Pop Idol as the idealistic Marius – Les Misérables, fuses despair and hope, humour, hardship, triumph and humiliation to highly successful effect.”

“The Barbican production features spectacular new set designs, inspired by Victor Hugo’s paintings, incorporating impressive CGI special effects to bring the murky underworlds and stricken streets of Paris to vivid life. A sequence where Valjean carries the wounded Marius through the swirling, pungent city sewers is particularly memorable. The lighting too, transports the visual experience far beyond the ordinary.”

The Stage
Les Miserables, Barbican, London
“…significant changes, not least to its physical scale, with beautiful painterly projections (inspired by Victor Hugo’s own paintings) replacing some of the larger setpieces – the epic revolve, in particular, has gone.”

“…the show comes with a new propulsive momentum, uninterrupted by lumbering set changes. That usefully refocuses the emphasis on the narrative rather than the spectacle. But if the scale has shrunk a bit, there’s nothing small about John Owen-Jones, who brings the same serious dignity and vocal heft to Valjean as Colm Wilkinson originally did. As Valjean is relentlessly pursued by Earl Carpenter’s Javert for a crime he committed long ago and has already served time for, Claude-Michel Schonberg’s music once again offers a soaring accompaniment.”

Whatsonstage.com
Les Misérables (Barbican)
“In this version, designer Matt Kinley has a lighter two truck system, replicates the garden wall where Cosette lives with her supposed father, Jean Valjean, and supplements the scenography with some evocative paintings. The Paris sewers are done by projections, too. And all is bathed in the brilliant, painterly lighting of Paule Constable, quite different from that of the original’s maestro, David Hersey.”

“The central symbiotic relationship of Jean Valjean and the sinister Javert is superbly sung by John Owen-Jones and Earl Carpenter. Marius is well sung, too, but weakly played by former Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates (not enough ardour), while Jon Robyns is an outstanding Enjolras and Rosalind James an irresistible Eponine blessed with a big new bluesy sound.”