On the first day of my Broadway Extravaganza trip to NYC, we saw the new Les Miz with Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean. First and foremost, let me just say that Alfie was magnificent. That voice was so full and moving. And the one who played Javert was Will Swenson. He was very good too. I was very happy with those two lead roles. Our Fantine was Montego Glover. She was good with a strong voice as well but we is black so it kind of threw me off to see her as Fantine who is traditionally white. Lea Salonga played Fantine too and she is Asian. It would have been weird for me to see her in that role as well. I do not care for blind casting. It is like watching Color Purple with white people. I prefer the race of the actors matches the race of the characters. Another unusual casting done was little Cosette being a black girl and the grown up Cosette was a white woman. Then the little Eponine was white and the grown up Eponine was a black woman. That was just too weird for me. Our Marius was Chris McCarrell. His dark haired young handsome appearance looks appropriate for Marius but his voice was not powerful enough. It was almost like a head voice. When he sang Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, it was not a riveting as I hoped it to be. It was still sad and poignant but I would have been in tears if the voice was better. Thenardier, Gavroche and Enjolras were all very good too. So pleasant and entertaining to watch.
This production was faster paced and the whole show was shorter than it was traditionally. I like it although if I was not familiar with the story, I would have been confused by it. The set was grand and it conveyed the scenes properly. A very gratifying show to watch in general. I give this a 4 stars out of 5.
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