No, this isn’t the kind of review that you would read in a newspaper – this are just my thoughts on the date Nancy and I went on last night. Last night was also the Great Rocky Hannity Debate at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall which isn’t too far from Pioneer Memorial Theatre so Nancy and I figured we would leave plenty early in order to get parking. We left the house about 6:30 and arrived at the theater at about 7:15 with excellent parking. We hadn’t had dinner so we walked a couple of blocks until we found a Subway and had a quick sandwich for dinner before walking back to the theater. The theater was packed and, although our seats were towards the back, we had an excellent view of the stage.
Marius and Enjolras
I was familiar with the plot and so it was easy to follow along and Nancy has every song in the muscial memorized so no surprises. I thought the scenery and staging were quite nice although I’ve never seen the musical before so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. We do, however, have the CD that Nancy has listened to a thousand times so we were able to compare the performers voices. We thought that Gavroche didn’t really sing his lines well – he sounded almost like a monotone to me. In addition, we both thought that Javert was undersuited for the part. It seemed as if he was out of his range half the time. The funny thing is that as we were walking out we heard a gentleman comment “That Javert, he sure had a great voice!”.  I guess that shows you how much an amateur like me knows.
Jean Valjean and JavertÂ
I thought that Marius and Cosette had excellent voices along with Enjolras – comparable to those on the CD. However, I think M. and Mme. Thenardier stole the show. The actor that played Thenardier is a local Utah guy and he carried the comedy parts off well in my opinion. My favorite line was when Thenardier showed up at Marius and Cosette’s wedding:
I forget where we met
Was it not at the Chateau Lafarge
Where the duke did that puke
Down the Duchess’s de-coll-etage?
I and a few others in the audience busted up laughing but probably 70% of the audience didn’t seem to get the joke.
The Thenardiers
The nicest thing about the play was that the chairs were comfortable and just the right height so that Nancy and I were able to hold hands the entire play. After the play we had a hot fudge sundae with nuts at McDonalds for dessert (hey, we’re on a budget) and drove home to find Emily and Anne asleep on the floor and couch (they were the babysitters for the night).
Marius and Cosette
All in all it was a fun evening and I’m glad we went to see Les Miserable while it is in town. I recommend Pioneer Theatre’s production to anyone in the Salt Lake Area – there are still tickets available for late June.