Les Misérables – The Staged Concert, available as a digital download
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In a time like this, when ghost lights are often the only illumination on theatre stages worldwide, casting my mind back to actually seeing a performance feels like a very long journey back in time. However, there was a time, in the not too distant past, when people were able to gather in large numbers, sit in beautiful places, watch their surroundings darken and experience electrifying live performances. Les Misérables – The Staged Concert, on digital release, captures the very best form of recorded theatre.
I saw the concert at the Gielgud Theatre in September of 2019 on what was probably the best night at any kind of live event I have ever attended. As is mentioned on the ‘Bring It Home’ featurette that accompanies the release, every night felt like the gala: each person in the audience knew how special what they were experiencing was and each member of the cast thrived on that extraordinary energy.
Next, when the filmed version of the concert was streamed to cinemas, I, with my addiction to this show, went again. This time I knew what was coming and yet it still didn’t disappoint. Now, with the same recording available at the touch of a button, the pull is irresistible once more.
The beauty of any professionally filmed production is, of course, the democracy with which it’s imbued. In any theatre, even a small one, there are some better seats than others. Thus, differing views, often more spectacular ones, cannot be accessed by those on a budget or simply unwilling to spend significant amounts of money on tickets. The £9.99 it costs to buy unlimited access to the concert (£5 of which is to be donated to the NHS and charities supporting the theatre industry) offers the same views to everyone.
Many of these are not only inaccessible in most seats but in all of them: the close-ups offered on the faces of the cast give a unique perspective that is exclusively available to a camera. Similarly, the additional encore performances and speeches that were only witnessed that one night, are preserved for any who wish to see them.
The exclusivity of having been in the room when Michael Ball (the staged concert’s Javert, having originated Marius in 1985) and Bradley Jaden (Enjolras in concert and the main cast Javert in the full West End production) performed ‘Stars’ in duet lives on, not only in the minds of those lucky few who were there, but the rest of the world now has some inkling of that moment too.
As regards the production itself, the review of the original show still very much applies. Alfie Boe and Michael Ball absolutely shine in the lead roles. Once again, as is emphasised in the ‘Bring It Home’ featurette, the cast have such history with the show, making every moment all the more special knowing how much it means, not only to the audience, but shared with the company.
Boe’s extraordinary musical performance, recorded and beautifully preserved here, cements him as one of, if not the most, vocally accomplished Jean Valjean ever. Ball’s turn as Javert is so surprising and yet so satisfying. Still, nothing impresses me as much as Carrie Hope Fletcher as an unexpectedly brilliant Fantine who manages, each time I see this production, to remind me just how far she surpassed my expectations.
Both onstage and in the behind the scenes featurette footage, there are clearly two comic duos at play. Ball and Boe, bound not just by their Les Mis record, have such wonderful repartee, only outdone by the Thernardiers. Matt Lucas and Katy Secombe, who appeared together in Les Mis in 2012, have seemingly never changed in eight years. They slip back into their perfectly dynamic pairing with unparalleled ease, setting them as easily my favourite of all the iterations of the couple I’ve seen.
This, of course, is not the complete production of Les Misérables. But, in a way, that makes it all the more suited to this format. Without the need to follow action, the camera’s inclination to focus on individual performances really brings out the emotion of the character and music. And for those who do want to experience Les Mis on stage, but perhaps can’t see it in the flesh, this production, compared to the much larger and less dressed 25th Anniversary Concert, is very close.
The production design, costume and make-up builds a very near picture, alongside some of the most astonishing performances in the show’s history, viewed as you would never be able to see them in a theatre.
Tom Martland
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