Review: Les Misérables, With Scenic Design by God, in the Hudson Valley

Now that the ongoing North American tour of Les Misérables has closed, the musical is once again free to become the regional-theater cash cow it was always destined to be. And that freedom allows for a certain amount of experimentation: directors who have long dreamed of blowing the show off its turntable can finally do so once again. They can mount productions big enough to rival the original, or strip it down to a chamber piece, and the audiences will come regardless. After all, it’s Les Mis, one of those shows that has been passed down through the generations for 40 years.

Just an hour and change away from Radio City Music Hall, where the Les Mis “Arena Spectacular” concert tour played an extended run earlier this month, Hudson Valley Shakespeare has mounted an ambitious and thoughtful open-air Les Mis under the direction of Jenn Thompson at the brand-new Samuel H. Scripps Theatre Center, situated on a hill in Garrison, New York, with a view that stretches on for miles. The acting choices are detailed and specific; the voices and orchestra rise to the heavens. It’s small by Les Mis standards, but it’s still writ large, because the set, by God above, is the almighty Hudson Valley itself.

That means you watch former convict Jean Valjean (Josh Young) decide to “become an honest man” as the sun sets over the Hudson River. The sky explodes into fiery oranges and soft lavenders as the former 24601, now a wealthy factory owner, takes in the daughter of Fantine (Haley Dortch), a young mother who dies after being driven to sex work to support her child. Inspector Javert (Dennis Lambert), the zealous police chief who has spent decades pursuing Valjean, swears by the stars against a backdrop of actual stars.

There are moments of such extraordinary natural beauty that you’ll never be able to think of Les Mis the same way ever again. Lighting designer Matt Richards enhances this already awe-inspiring landscape with haunting subtlety. Once darkness finally falls, around the time that Enjolras (Dortch), Marius (Alex Ross), and their fellow revolutionaries take to the barricade and hatch their student uprising, Richards bathes the lawn in spectral white, the actors materializing like ghosts out of thin air. Every time you think that the imagery can’t be topped, Thompson and Richards provide another gorgeous moment, the emotional scope of the story enhanced even further by the sheer beauty of our surroundings.

Given that Hudson Valley Shakespeare is a repertory company (you can see most of these actors playing other roles in King Lear and As You Like It), Thompson builds this Les Mis as an ensemble piece. It might seem strange to see David Beach play both the Bishop of Digne, whose kindness toward Valjean prompts the thief’s reformation, and the dastardly innkeeper Thénardier, but the stark contrast creates a playful dichotomy of goodness and treachery, especially with the relish Beach displays as he sinks his teeth into the latter role. Company regular Nance Williamson is every bit as slimy as Madame T; their “Master of the House” is a work of art.

Dortch is an excellent Fantine, not at all surprising considering she was plucked from college to play the role in the national tour, but she’s a less compelling Enjolras, the role fading into the background amid the Marius, Cosette (Ana Paola Garcia), and Éponine (Haley Rose Ciaramella) love triangle, who find fresh, spunky ways into well-trodden characters.

Lambert’s take on the tunnel-visioned police chief is different from many I’ve seen; his fascinating Javert is more of a sad-sack who gradually comes to realize he’s wasted his life. Young’s Valjean is more along the lines of the character as we expected it to be played, but that’s hardly a detriment: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a conventional and excellent Jean Valjean. Young wraps his gorgeous baritenor around “Who Am I?,” then tops it with a simply angelic “Bring Him Home” that leaves the audience breathless. Together, he and Lambert, in costumes by Tilly Grimes that thoughtfully allude to the original without being direct copies, have a thoroughly enjoyable cat-and-mouse energy that hurdles the story forward.

The production doesn’t skimp musically, either, with conductor Alex Gutierrez leading a 14-player orchestra in a compelling, propulsive rendition of Claude-Michel Schönberg’s score, while Ken Travis’s sound design ensures that Boublil and Kretzmer’s lyrics are delivered with impressive clarity (the mixing of “The Confrontation” is especially thrilling).

What makes Thompson’s Les Misérables so enjoyable is the trust she has for the material. She lets the actors, the score, and the setting do all the work, proving that you can strip away all the excesses of design and the essential power of the piece will remain. It helps that she has the earth at her fingertips. In this Les Mis, that really is the doorway to paradise.