Les Miserables

***
It's been on 23 years and I've fiiinnnalllyy seen it :) I was sat in the upper circle, so couldn't really distinguish the different faces and that doesn't help as Les Mis confused the hell out of me to begin with. Yet understanding isn't everything, it's a very character based story.
Every character is a brilliant one, although not all played so. David Shannon is unimpressive as Valjean (although he has a very good voice) and Javert, Earl Carpenter, equally so (he was also the first person I saw play the Phantom and I looooaatthhed his interpretation). The main problem is it's a sung through show and you can't understand what singing alot of the time. Eponine (Nancy Sullivan) was brilliant, her rendition of On My Own truly moving and capturing the torture of unrequited love, Cosette (Leanne Dobinson) had one of best soprano voices I've ever heard, and their love interest Marius, wins the audience's hearts. However, the person who stood out for me was the understudy Enroljas, Mark Dugdale. I'd join his revolution any day.
The songs make the show, there isn't as much dancing as you'd expect in a musical, but it does use theatrical techniques such as slow motion to great effect (and I plan to steal them for my GCSE).
I can see why it's been running so long, it's a fabulous show - my reviews are becoming lazier aren't they?
Veronica Grubb