It’s the June Rebellion in Paris, 1832. Donning crimson vests with gold embellishments, student revolutionaries stand tall and proud atop a seven-foot barricade. They’re chanting songs of rebellion as they wave a red flag.
In Les Misérables, the famed sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, the red flag symbolizes defiance, revolution and, on a deeper level, love for the people.
That love — the focus of the musical’s source material, Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name — is the epicentre of the story’s conflict. The revolutionaries are fighting out of love for their oppressed social class, and the bread-stealing ex-convict Jean Valjean is ultimately redeemed by love.
Les Mis is familiar enough. If not for its universal themes of redemption and justice, then for its many earworm pop-opera numbers which Broadway Across Canada’s production put on display at the National Arts Centre Aug. 6 to 11. In keeping with the musical’s perfect orchestrations, the show spun its overarching tone to create a rendition that’s less grit and gloom, and more about love as the light in the darkness.
The plot lends itself to such interpretation. Jean Valjean returns to France and fails to shed his identity as an ex-convict (he stole a loaf of bread 19 years before the story starts, as a lengthy but profound prologue explains) until he’s rejuvenated by the empathy of others.
Traversing Valjean’s emotional journey with ease, Nick Cartell was determined when vowing to redeem himself in his “Soliloquy” and fused that determination with warmth when risking his life to protect another in “Bring Him Home.” Cartell added sympathetic charisma to his character as his vocals emoted tinges of softness in his growls and unwavering vibrato.
Schönberg’s epic score is elegantly rife with musical motifs that bridge themes scattered throughout the musical’s three-hour runtime. One of the most prevalent is the eloquent melodic parallel between Valjean and Javert’s respective soliloquies, representing the characters’ contrasting trajectories in response to acts of kindness.
Javert is an unchanging, insistent police officer who hunts Valjean for his petty crime. Standing under the street lamps casting a golden hue below the star-filled night sky, Preston Truman Boyd portrayed Javert with complexity in his gaze and torment in his vocals, particularly with the powerful “Stars.”
Javert’s relentless loyalty to authoritarian beliefs embodies what the revolutionary cause fought against. Devin Archer opened “Do You Hear The People Sing?” — whose unmistakably recognizable melody sings out to all oppressed people — with compelling persuasiveness and conviction as the young student revolutionary leader, Enjolras.
Jake David Smith’s Marius was equally captivating as a fellow student revolutionary and the unrequited love interest to Mya Rena Hunter’s hard-exteriored but sensitive Éponine. Her rendition of “On My Own” was heartbreakingly moving as she lamented her non-reciprocated feelings.
It’s Cosette, Valjean’s adopted daughter, at the centre of both Marius and Valjean’s love. In one of her only musical numbers, “A Heart Full of Love,” she duets with Marius about their evolving romance as the lovers stand in a golden spotlight, while Éponine is cast in a blue shadow.
Unfortunately, Cosette exists almost purely as an object of affection. However, Delaney Guyer played her character with blossoming virtuosity in spite of the underdeveloped material.
The love that Valjean extends toward Cosette is his ultimate self-growth, as he takes her in upon her mother Fantine’s early death (Haley Dortch’s “I Dreamed A Dream” reflected on her character’s shattered dreams with impeccably smooth belting).
As the orchestra flits organically between mighty brass and gentler woodwinds, a musical swell of uplifting hope always seeps through. And if Les Mis’s intricately woven themes are any indication, that hope mostly stems from one’s belief that they can change for the better when encountering love and empathy.
Featured image provided by Broadway Across Canada.
