conradd's Full Review: Les Miserables by Original Broadway Cast
Personal Prologue:
Victor Hugo's epic work Les Miserablés has been a defining influence in my life. After reading the book countless times, seeing every movie version available, and viewing the stage show 3 times, I've wondered why I reach for the original Broadway cast recording by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg again and again as I work on projects, grade student papers, or simply relax with a cup of tea. Some music entertains, other selections relax or energize, but this score provides a rich tapestry of music and message that speaks to my soul and renews my spirit every time I hear it.
Interestingly, the forces behind this magnificent production originally attempted to portray Hugo’s epic work with no spiritual emphasis, leaving all mention of God completely out of the score. They quickly realized that a multi-faceted view of God was essential to the story line. And the result has been amazing. In order to appreciate this work, it requires some concentration. Sit down in a comfortable chair, pour a glass of fine French wine, and pay attention.
Disc One:
As I place the first of this two-disc set in my CD player, the opening music takes me back to early 19th century France as men on a prison work detail lament the hopelessness of their situation. As individual voices wonder about misplaced blame, whether love transcends prison walls, or look ahead to life beyond prison, each is met with a chorus of voices advising "look down, look down", with the final realization that "you're standing in your grave".
Question: How often do we, in real life, advise others to look down instead of up? How is the view of a disinterested uncaring God relevant to anyone?
Jean Valjean, played by Colm Wilkinson, is paroled after 19 years of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread. Admonished by Inspector Javert (Terrance Mann) that he needs to "learn the meaning of the law", he quickly realizes that the law is designed to keep him in bondage.
Question:What is the role of law in religion? Should religion be viewed primarily as a collection of laws designed to maintain civil order?
After being rejected a number of times, the hungry Valjean is finally taken in by the loving and kind Bishop of Digne (Norman Large). He repays the Bishop's kindness by stealing his silver but is quickly captured by local authorities and returned to the Bishop who defends him, makes a gift of the silver and sends him, once more, on his way.
"Yet why did I allow this man
to touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other.
He gave me his trust, he called me brother.
My life he claims for God above,
can such things be?"
Astonished and humbled, Valjean decides to leave his past behind and start his life over again with a new identity. Rejecting the harsh punishing worldview of Inspector Javert, Valjean looks for "another way to go".
Question:Is God a God of love or of law?
Fast forward nine years. Valjean, now living under an assumed name is a successful businessman and the mayor of a small town. One of his factory workers is a young single mother. Fantine (Randy Graff), knowing the consequences of revealing her past, boards her daughter Cosette in the country and sends her earnings to pay for the child's keep. One day, her coworkers find out about the child and demand her dismissal. They sing of the same zero-sum gamesmanship that characterizes many contemporary workplaces.
"At the end of the day, there's another day dawning
and the sun in the morning is waiting to rise.
Like the waves crash on the sand
Like a storm that'll break any second
There's a hunger in the land
There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and
there's gonna be hell to pay
at the end of the day."
At any rate, a foreman who could be a poster child for sexual harrassment realizes that Fantine is a threat to his position and fires her. As she leaves her job, scorned and humiliated, she laments:
”I had a dream my life would be
so different from this hell I’m living"
"now life has killed the dream I dreamed”
Question:Where is the trade-off between condemnation and compassion? What does God require of us?
With no safety net, the desperate Fantine sells everything of value that she owns and finally resorts to prostitution in order to earn money to support her daughter. When she becomes ill, she appeals to Valjean who is appalled to learn that he is the indirect cause of her downfall. He promises to care for her daughter and comforts Fantine as she dies.
Question: If extending the love of God through our own personal life can change the heart of a man, how often do we do so?
At the same time that Valjean discovers Fantine, he is discovered by Javert who has relentlessly searched for him ever since he broke his parole and assumed a new identity. Valjean frantically bargains for a bit of time in order to see to Cosette’s future:
”Before you say another word, Javert,
before you chain me up like a slave again,
Listen to me. There is something I must do.
This woman leaves behind a suffering child,
There is none but me who can intercede,
In mercy’s name, three days are all I need.”
but Javert is implacable in his demand that justice be served.
"You must think me mad!
I’ve hunted you across the years.
Men like you can never change,
A man such as you."
The next scene introduces Cosette who, sent out in the dark to collect water for the innkeeper’s wife, is desperately fantasizing a better life where ”nobody shouts or talks too loud” and where ”crying at all is not allowed”. Valjean finds her, scared and alone, and escorts her back to the inn. The innkeeper, Thenardiér (Leo Burmester), is playing the expansive and jovial host; a facade which hides an opportunistic and vindictive spirit. Although Thenardiér and his wife (Jennifer Butt) are comic characters, there is a dark element to the comedy. When he assures his guests that ”seldom do you see honest men like me” he reveals his true motivation to the audience and is, in turn, mocked by his wife. Beyond helping himself to his guests’ belongings, he waters down the wine and pads their bills with questionable charges:
”Charge ‘em for the lice
Extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror
Twice.”
Despite the Thenardiérs’ poor treatment of Cosette, she suddenly becomes a favored child when Valjean proposes taking her off their hands. As Cosette becomes an article of commerce, they piously described their “Christian” motivation:
”Dear Fantine, gone to rest
Have we done for her child what is best?
Shared our bread. Shared each bone.
Treated her like she’s one of our own.”
Disgusted, Valjean pays the agreed-upon price of 1500 francs and they leave the Thenardiér’s inn for a new life.
Javert, in his relentless quest to see justice served continues to search for Valjean. His view of redemption centers around works and he assures his God that:
”He knows his way in the dark
But mine is the way of the Lord
And those who do follow the path of the righteous
Shall have their reward.”
Question: Is redemption based on works, forgiveness, or both?
Meanwhile, life for many Parisians bordered on desperation. There was a marked difference in the lifestyles of royalty and the working poor, who saw their meager resources dry up in the tense political climate had finally had enough. While they plead with an indifferent God,“Look down and show some mercy if you can”, others realize that action is necessary to change the plight of the poverty-stricken masses. Needing a symbol, they combine the colours of red ”the blood of angry men” and black ”the dark of ages past” into a banner which calls the people to a common goal of ending misery. In a charming counterpoint, Marius (David Bryant), one of the students who has fallen in love compares the red of desire with the black of despair.
This ends the first disc and is a good time to stretch, fill your wine glass, and walk the dog.
Disc Two:
Cosette, now a young woman played by Judy Kuhn, sings of her love for a student that she has never met and her growing realization that there are many unanswered questions about her life and the man she calls Papa. Yearning for answers and truth, she is met with the platitude that:
”You will learn
Truth is given by God
To us all in our time
In our turn.”
Question:As we mature, emotionally and spiritually, do we seek truth or wait for it to be revealed?
In an ironic twist, one of the Thenardiér’s daughters is in love with Marius, the same young student who loves Cosette. Realizing that there will be no happy ending for her, Eponine (Frances Ruffelle) expresses her love for him by helping him contact Cosette and protecting Cosette from the treachery of Thenardiér who plans to rob the house where Cosette and Valjean stayed. Her bittersweet reward is hearing Marius sing:
”It was your cry sent them away
Once more ‘Ponine, saving the day!
Dearest Cosette – my friend ‘Ponine
Brought me to you,
Showed me the way.”
Torn between his love for Cosette, and his loyalty toward his country, Marius chooses to stand with his fellow students. He convinces Eponine to carry a letter to Cosette and she does so, lamenting her situation in one of the most beautiful ballads of lost love ever written:
”Sometimes I walk alone at night when everyone is sleeping
I think of him and then I’m happy with the company I’m keeping”
“I love him
But everyday I’m learning
All my life I’ve only been pretending
Without me his world will go on turning”
“I love him, I love him,
I love him, but only on my own”
Question:When love is not returned, is it misplaced?
Returning to the barricades, Eponine risks her life to be part of the student revolution, and tragically loses it as the bullets fly. Javert acts as a spy for the ruling forces and is unmasked by street urchin Gavroche (Braden Danner) who reminds us all that size doesn’t matter:
”I know this man my friends
His name’s Inspector Javert
So don’t believe a word of it
Cause none of it’s true
This only goes to show
What little people can do”
Enraged by Javert’s treachery, the students place him under arrest and valiantly defend their barricade. Pondering the meaning of death and life, the remaining students drink the “wine of friendship” and return to the barricade where many, including Marius, are hit by bullets.
Question:Which of my beliefs would I be willing to die for?
Knowing that the Inspector faces a death sentence, Valjean sets him free. Javert is unable to reconcile the merciless attitude of judgment that he has maintained through the years with the love and forgiveness extended by Valjean:
”I am the Law and the Law is not mocked
I’ll spit his pity right back in his face”
“And now my thoughts fly apart
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?"
Javert, who has a black and white view of sin and judgment, sees no alternative to a world that has turned his lifelong views upside down. The same stars on which he pledged his life to bring Valjean to justice hold no comfort now and he ends his life by jumping into the River Seine:
”And the stars are black and cold
As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold”
Question: When a cataclysmic event shakes my world view, do I reject the possibility that I’ve been wrong all along?
Valjean, knowing that Cosette loved Marius, finds the wounded student and desperately tries to strike a bargain with God:
”You can take
You can give
Let him be
Let him live
If I die, let me die
Let him live, bring him home."
Question:Can we ever bargain with God? What does He want from us?
The Thenardiérs show up again, robbing the slain fighters of any belongings of value. They cynically sing of a God who is ”dead as the stiff at my feet” which somewhat explains their outlook on life.
Question: Is God dead? What would life be like if there were no God?
As Maurius mourns the loss of his friends in the poignant “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”, he finds consolation in his upcoming wedding to Cosette. Once again the Thenardiérs, like two bad pennies, show up at the wedding reception in full regalia, marveling at their ability to “stay on top”.
Question:Which is more important to me? Riches and glory in this life, or the hope of seeing heaven during eternity? Are they mutually exclusive events?
The finale brings back Fantine and Eponine to welcome the dying Valjean into the Lord’s presence. As Cosette weeps, mourning the loss of the only parent she has ever known, she is comforted by her new husband, Marius. Valjean, in turn, is comforted by the realization that “love is everlasting” as Fantine and Eponine ask him to remember:
”The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God”
Question:Is God love? What else can inspire such a pure force?
The final chorus assures us that:
”Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise
They will live again
In the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the plough-share
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward”
This score demands that we examine our own views of religion and relationship, both with God and with other people. At least the first time you listen, do clear your calendar of any distractions. The not-quite-two-hours will be time very well spent.
Personal Epilogue:
This review is part of a write-off honoring Father Kurt Messick on the occasion of his one-year anniversary to the priesthood and to help him celebrate a confluence of events which have the number 500 as a commonality – days, trusters, and reviews. Please join me in reading reviews by eplovejoy, frazzledspice, jankp, jcvsmom, jenninca, KateTPZ, kurt_messick, Lisa_J, naphtalia, nicholmere, prettyinpink, Psychovant, Redlass, and telefrog (a quick link to all reviews can be found on eplovejoy’s home page: http://www.epinions.com/user-eplovejoy).
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