LES MISERABLES, the worlds most popular musical and jugging by the full house at this matinee performance and almost sold out for the evening proves that this is a musical masterpiece!

I have only seen this show once which was on its first reginal tour at the Palace Theatre Manchester. I fell in love with the musical then so I was more than interested to see the London staging. Unfortunately the show had moved from The Palace Theatre down the road to its new home of the Queens Theatre. I know that the Queens is a smaller theatre but I knew we were in for something very special.

We took our seats in the stalls for the performance which was to last almost 3 hours! The story concerns the French revolution where bravery and love were high on the agenda.

Set in the 19th Century the story begins to unfold following Jean Valjean a prisoner and a thief of 19 years who is out cast. He starts to build his new life and to try and gain respect, however he meets again a face from the past "Javert" who is keen to put Jean Valjean (24601) back to the life he knew.

To say that this musical is more powerful with the change of theatre I think is an understatement, towards the end of the first act several people around me were very emotionally involved myself included. The theatre is very intimate and its done Les Miserables proud!

The cast were as good, no I would say better than I had first seen in 1991. The part of Jean Valjean was played by (Sean Kingsley) to me he seemed to start a little weak, however this was short lived and his performance was both moving and enthralling. I don't think you can point out any individual for an outstanding performance as all put in solid and moving performances. I would praise Gary Tushsaw as Marius he was so intense and living the part

Javert was played by Michael McCarthy he had a superb strong voice and gave a great performance. The set design by Stephen Brimson Lewis is very clever and moves seamlessly from one scene to the next. I would congratulate the young members of the cast they were wonderful. In fact the whole production is a wonderful piece of musical theatre. Get your Tickets Now!!!

(Gary Mack)