Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand new 25th anniversary production of Boublil & Schönberg’s legendary musical, LES MISÉRABLES, with glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. This new production has been acclaimed by critics, fans and new audiences and is breaking box office records wherever it goes.

Les Misérables
Ahmanson Theatre
June 14 - July 31
For tickets call 213.972.4400
or visit http://www.centertheatregroup.org
Performance Schedule: Tue – Fri at 8, Sat 2 & 8, Sun 1 & 6:30
Added Thursday matinees: Thursday June 23, 30 and July 28 at 2pm
Tickets: $20 - $150

Based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel, LES MISÉRABLES is an epic and uplifting story about the survival of the human spirit. The magnificent score of LES MISÉRABLES includes the classic songs “I Dreamed a Dream”, “On My Own”, “Stars”, “Bring Him Home”, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”, “One Day More”, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”, “Master Of The House” and many more.
“A five star hit, astonishingly powerful and as good as the original.” - The London Times

“Les Misérables is the stuff of theatrical legend.” - The New York Times

“Far more than entertainment, Les Misérables is a thrilling emotional experience.” - Time Magazine

Hi, intern!

How come your regular seats cost almost as much as a "premium" ticket on Broadway? I find the pricing absolutely ridiculous with this show AND God of Carnage.

I'll be there! But I will be rocking the show on Comp tickets!

One does not go to CTG shows to save money.

I'll be there on June 16, 8:00 p.m. Expect a long review.

I think I'll do that too.

I haven't listened to the whole thing since I bought it - I've been too annoyed by the fact that they directed JOJ, whose Valjean was the kindest, gentlest father when I saw him in New York, to yell at Cosette during "In My Life" - but it probably would be worthwhile to really prepare myself for the tour's new orchestral sound.

No matter what the show sounds like, though, I'm excited, especially because I'm taking a friend who's never seen "Les Mis" before. I hope she likes it.

Going to the opening night dinner/show tonight. Beyond excited, not as much to slog through traffic to get to downtown though.

Well now that I'm back, I honestly felt like the donor dinner was an absolute waste of $80.

The cast had its ups and downs. Michael Kostroff was, in my opinion, the best of the group. I really liked J. Mark McVey when I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl concert, because I thought he acted really well, and he did last night, but he must have had an off-day singing because his voice cracked 3 times - during the high note in Who Am I, when he confronts Javert coming out of the sewers, and again in the finale. Andrew Varela is a tremendous singer, but his Javert wasn't menacing at all. In the Confrontation, after he and Valjean fights, he scampers away from him towards the wall. It was a weird sight, because Javert really shouldn't scamper. Betsy Morgan has the tendency to enunciate each letter of every word when she sings, thus she ended up like 3 beats behind the music throughout I Dreamed a Dream. She pretty much screamed through that song too, and Lovely Ladies. She did look the part very well though, all young and pretty, and acquitted herself quite nicely when she died and again in the finale. Chaston Harmon was great acting out Eponine. She's one of the few that really understood the Victor Hugo version of the character. Again, though, her singing was god-awful. Well, I thought so, but after On My Own, someone yelled Bravo! and the applause break lasted for almost an entire minute. Jeremy Hays was very good, not much to say, Justin Scott Brown was decent. He doesn't wail like Gareth Gates does when Eponine dies, which is a plus. He broke down into sobs, and then pounded the floor, which is acceptable, I guess. The one off-putting thing about his performance is his affection towards Eponine. I feel like Chaston Harmon put so much effort into making Eponine undesirable that when he kisses her on the cheek during Eponine's Errand, or lifts her up and twirls her around in In My Life, it's just really...strange. Jenny Latimer is better than Katie Hall. Shawna Hamic was great as Madame T. I really liked how she found humor in completely unexpected places. She didn't really show the darker side to the character that well, but I thought she was still really good.

One thing about last night that I really didn't like was how slow the tempo was in the first half. Usually the complaints are that Les Mis rushes through the songs, but the first half last night clocked in at a ridiculously long hour and forty minutes, mainly because the music was sooo slow. The second half seemed a bit more rushed to make up the time, but there were still points in the second half where you kinda felt they should just hurry up - ie. Javert loitering around the barricade for what felt like half a minute after Valjean tells him to go.

Other things happened that took me out of the show - the sewer gate popped open during the barricade scene and one of the barricade boys casually strode over and closed it. So it made Valjean struggling to open the gate to rescue Marius a bit...laughable.

The production is what it is. Some like it (like me), while others hate it. The audience enjoyed it immensely, and the standing ovation came really quick, before the bows even started. All-in-all, it was a great night of theater. I'll be seeing it again 2 more times during its LA run.