Killian Donnelly in Les Miserables: The Arena Spectacular at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield and on world tour. Picture: Danny Kaan
Les Misérables: The Arena Spectacular was reviewed at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield. The UK leg of its world tour continues in Aberdeen (17-20 October 2024), Manchester (26–29 December 2024) and Newcastle (2-5 January 2025).
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Some 40 years after it first opened in London, Boublil and Schönberg’s theatrical juggernaut Les Misérables has certainly stood the test of time. After a successful UK theatre tour in 2022, a worldwide arena tour is now underway, reinventing the production to bring the much-loved and enduring show to a large-scale audience.
Billed as The Arena Spectacular, the presentation faces the dual challenges of making the scale of the production grandiose enough to fill huge arenas, yet intimate enough to allow the audience a connection with the story and characters, and it seems to have taken inspiration from the 10th and 25th-anniversary concerts by presenting itself as a hybrid of both a stage performance and concert.
Whether this works for the audience or not largely depends on their expectations. The arena setting means that there is a loss of the intimacy that you have in the confines of a theatre. The use of three video screens set high above the stage is necessary to allow the audience to see the emotion portrayed on the actors’ faces, while reliance on projections to convey the differing locations instead of a traditional set means that there is a lot more left to the imagination and a lot less of the spectacular which comes with a stage presentation.
But the concert format allows the audience to focus on the music itself, essentially distilling the musical’s format down to its most essential element – something which well suits the sung-through nature of the show; and as each of the actors make their way from the tiered seating adorning the stage to the row of microphones from where they perform, it certainly showcases the score and highlights the power it still holds, as it causes your emotions to swell and your skin to tingle.
Amongst the cast of 65 actors and musicians, several Les Misérables alumni are performing according to their schedules, including Alfie Boe, Michael Ball, Bradley Jaden and Killian Donnelly.
Donnelly and Jaden, playing Valjean and Javert respectively on this occasion, are both in superb voice. Jaden brings real gravitas to the role of the conflicted policeman, stopping the show with his rendition of ‘Stars’ and holding the closing note of the song to perfection. Donnelly is phenomenal as Valjean, with a voice conveying every single emotion of the character, a superb vocal range and the ability to make it look and sound effortless on his part.
Emily Bautista sings beautifully as Éponine and breaks our hearts in both ‘On My Own’ and ‘A Little Fall of Rain’, Channah Hewitt conveys Fantine’s desperation in ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ and Jac Yarrow’s performance as Marius captures the character’s idealism and romanticism.
Light relief is brought deliciously to life by Gavin Lee as Thénardier, who is clearly having as much fun as the audience. ‘Master of the House’ is terrifically jovial, if a little stifled by the staging, and he has solid chemistry with Bonnie Langford as Madame Thénardier.
However, it feels unfair to single out individual performers when the cast and the orchestra are universally outstanding. There is not one poor performance amongst the actors, and when singing as a company the sound is stunning, nowhere more evident than in ‘One Day More’ and in the closing finale.
Despite the challenges of the show’s format, the technical presentation is well thought out. Credit is due to the sound design, as the mix between the music and vocals is perfectly balanced, ensuring that one never drowns out the other and every single word can be heard clearly. The lighting rig descends from the rafters to cleverly form the barricades and during the battle scene, flashes and beams of light permeate the slightly smoky atmosphere in the arena to simulate the bullets exchanged, while large explosions boom out which reverberate in your chest.
While some may have reservations about the concert-style format, Les Misérables: The Arena Spectacular far exceeds expectations. As the show reaches its denouement, swathing the audience in the red, white and blue of the French tricolore, and asks the audience “will you join in our crusade?”, the answer, from a crowd on their feet, is a resounding “yes”.
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