"Les Miserables" presented by Casa Manana Theatre

The Travelling Toe and 4 other friends attended the Sunday matinee performance of "Les Miserables" at Casa Manana Theatre.  

This musical is based on a French novel by Victor Hugo, of the same name that was published in 1862.

Victor Hugo

Several of us have seen various road show productions of the play, even a production on Broadway and of course the 2012  film made of the play  However, this is the first time we have seen a local community theater mount this production as it is a very emotional, grueling play and requires a rather large cast.  

The Travelling Toe and friends all thoroughly enjoyed this performance because of the great acting, the beautiful singing, the inventive stage setting and the costumes. Plus there did not seem to be one weak voice in the entire cast.  And of course the story line.

The two main actors, Craig Schulman as Jean Valjean and David McDonald as Javert were outstanding in their parts portraying hardship, loss and even redemption.

When the entire ensemble sang together the sound was heart stirring.  The Travelling Toe even looked up a time or two to see if the the roof was still sitting on the building as the sound was so vibrant and floated out over the audience and then upward.

A live orchestra directed by John Cunningham provided the right musical accompaniment to the cast. They kept the tempo going and did not over play the singers.  

Stephanie Umoh as Fantine brought so much real emotion to her role.  As she walked off stage, down the stairs to the aisle, she passed by me and was wiping tears off her cheeks. Now that is real emotion.  Eponine played by Kirstin Tucker, was brilliant in her solo "On My Own:.  

It is hard not to mention all the leads and supporting cast as they were marvelous.  Additionally there were 3 charming kiddos who were excellent in their roles.  With these 3, the future of musical theater will be in good hands.

What a great production!

Casa Manana has set the bar high to start their new season with this production, so it will be interesting to see if the next selection will meet those same high standards.