C'est Fantastique (From Swindon Advertiser)

C'est Fantastique

5:21pm Monday 19th July 2010 in

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I ONLY have one thing to say about Les Miserables – go and see it. Today.

Anyone who has been within 10ft of me for the last week (okay six months) will know how excited I was about going to see this musical in Bristol.

It is my favourite show and I’m not ashamed to admit I know all the words...and the harmonies.

So I’m delighted to say that the 25th anniversary tour lived up to, and exceeded, my high expectations.

This is an incredibly strong and talented cast and it is impossible to pick any one person out as a star.

John Owen-Jones shines in the role of Jean Valjean. Each song is perfectly sung – Bring Him Home deserved the rapturous applause it received.

Earl Carpenter as Javert and Rosalind James as Eponine gave brilliant performances, as did everyone else.

And Toby Prynne raised laughs from the audience as the cheeky young Gavroche.

I’d had my reservations when I heard Gareth Gates was going to be playing the role of Marius but I needn’t have worried as he did the role justice.

Personally I would have liked a little more “oomph” during Empty Chairs At Empty Tables, but that’s just me.

I did have to chuckle when the factory foreman in the French town of Montreuil-Sue-Mer sang his lines with a Yorkshire twang, but we decided it was a means of demonstrating the grim conditions of the industrial age working classes in a way audiences would easily understand.

There are some absolutely stunning moments visually in this show. For those who have seen it before, gone are things such as the turning stage – instead the backdrops are based on paintings by Victor Hugo, who wrote the book the musical is based on.

One of the stand-out scenes for me was when Valjean was carrying an injured Marius through the sewers, and the other was Javert’s tragic demise.

I won’t spoil it for those of you who are going to see the show over the next couple of weeks – suffice to say it is very well done.