Review: Hale Centre Theatre's LES MISERABLES is a Stained Glass Spectacle

The only production of LES MISERABLES currently playing anywhere in the world is the one on Hale Centre Theatre's Centre Stage--an all-out spectacle with burnished visuals and vocals. Scene after scene amazes the audience with its artistry, lush lighting reminiscent of stained glass, and immense scale.

LES MISERABLES (a musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, with lyrics also by Jean-Marc Natel and Herbert Kretzmer) is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It is the epic story of Jean Valjean, who spends his life running from the law because he stole a loaf of bread to save his family, and those he comes in contact with, including the students involved in the Paris Uprising of 1832. It is a powerful, classic tale of love, strength, and redemption told through beautiful music that is now iconic in its own right.

The three members of Billboard-charting tenor trio GENTRI--Brad Robins, Casey Elliott, and Bradley Quinn Lever--met while performing in LES MISERABLES at Hale Centre Theatre in 2014. They've returned to their roles in this production, all three with trained voices that resonate throughout the hall. Casey Elliott is a soulful Jean Valjean (double cast with Kyle Olsen), Brad Robins is an awestruck Marius (double cast with Matthew Sanguine), and Bradley Quinn Lever is a daring Enjolras (double cast with Derek Smith).

Adam Dietlein, who was recently featured in BEAUTIFUL on Broadway and is also reprising his role from 2014, is a simmering, commanding Javert (double cast with Preston Taylor).

Jisel Soleil Ayon is a luminous, captivating Cosette (double cast with Rachel Bigler), and Rebecca Burroughs-Kremin is equally entrancing as Eponine (double cast with Haley Wawro).

Also deserving of high praise are Amelia Rose Moore (double cast with Clotile Bonner Farkas) and Josh Richardson (double cast with Daniel Hess) as the Thenardiers, Cecily Ellis Bills as Fantine (double cast with Amy Shreeve Keeler), James Kenny as Gavroche (double cast with Parker Burnham), and Jane Bonner as Young Cosette (double cast with Libby Despain).

As are director/choreographer Dave Tinney, music director Kelly DeHaan, costume designer Joy Zhu, hair and makeup designer Trisha Ison, and properties designer Michelle Jensen.

Scenic designer Kacey Udy has centered the staging around a large polished wooden set piece that moves cleverly and is inlaid with square glass windows and grates for light and fog. In some scenes, they gleam like jewels in superb interplay between the scenic and lighting designs. If that sounds familiar, it's because the core set is shared between the previous Centre Stage production, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, and this one. This was a brilliant decision, creating a spiritual connective tissue between the two companion musicals with redemptive stories set in Paris during times of turmoil only a few decades apart (both of which have starred the same two leading men).

Practically, sharing sets is a surely a cost cutting measure that will assist (along with the wild popularity of LES MISERABLES in Utah) in Hale Centre Theatre's ability to weather the significant decrease in revenue this past year as a result of COVID. But it also wonderfully allowed for budget and focus to be spent on creating a large number of additional larger than life set pieces to augment what was already there, including a massive bridge that stretches across the circular stage, which is utilized in many creative and impactful ways.

The lighting by Jaron Hermansen is elegant, moving, nuanced, eye-popping, and any number of other adjectives anyone could come up with to attempt to describe something so stunning, pleasurable, and meaningful. The stage is constantly awash in color and light that generates the feeling of a large and intricate stained glass window, befitting the epic size and spiritual overtones of the story.

From exquisite floating candles to a heart-stopping suicide to an awe-inspiring starry sky, this is quite possibly one of the most spectacular productions of LES MISERABLES ever staged.

The theatre is complying with all state and local government mandates for gatherings including a strict requirement for all audience members to be masked at all times. Other policies include rigorous testing and screening for actors and other employees, contact tracing, hand sanitizing stations and frequent disinfecting of surfaces, social distancing markers, and no paper programs or concessions. The theatre's COVID-19 Safety Guide can be found at www.hct.org.

LES MISERABLES plays through June 26, 2021. For tickets (in very limited supply), call the box office at 801-984-9000 or visit www.hct.org.

Photo Credit: Hale Centre Theatre.

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