Les Misérables - chilling resonance in our world of wicked war

Exceptional courage and supreme self-sacrifice on the barricades in the face of overwhelming odds… has Les Mis ever felt more chillingly resonant than it does right now?

With the sheer wickedness of the war in the Ukraine, it’s inevitable that we see almost everything through its prism. Certainly Les Mis has never hit home harder than it did tonight.

And how splendid it was to see Dean Chisnall step out of role of Jean Valjean right at the end – after the ovations had finally faded – and underline the cast’s solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

How right it was, in the context of the journey that the cast had all taken us on, that Chisnall should then urge us all to pick up the donation QR code in the foyer on the way out.

This is how theatre connects with the real world and why it matters. It was the appropriate conclusion to a mesmerising night which burned brighter than ever in the current climate.

What can you possibly say about Les Mis that hasn’t been said a billion times before, though?

No musical is more epic in its sweep; no musical is more intensely intimate. We go from war on the streets to the tenderest of love scenes – love in all its forms in fact, from protectively maternal to adoptively paternal, from unrequited to ugly and acquisitive, from righteous to coup de foudre.

Chisnall is a terrific Jean Valjean. I am not sure I have ever seen finer. Nic Greenshields is a commanding Javert, maybe the more interesting character of the two leads – the man who sees everything in black and white and yet is undone by a simple act of kindness and mercy.

Read out interview with Nic Greenshields here

Katie Hall is a hauntingly beautiful Fantine; Nathania Ong is a wonderful Éponine; and the staging, as ever, is exceptional – and seamless. As for the music, you go home knowing it will go round and round your head for days.

One oddity, though. Towards the end of the first half the show was stopped… and resumed seven or eight minutes later. No explanation was given – surely a mistake on the Mayflower’s part. They simply had to say something. Even something artistically vague would have done.

As it was, it certainly broke the spell for a while at least…

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