Image by Minke Wagenaar via Flickr

Carol M Creasey

                                Last Night of Les  Miserables Tour at the Barbican

The production of Les Miserables has been running for 25 years with great success.  This gave Cameron Mackintosh the idea to reinvent it, and take it on a nationwide tour. It  opened in Cardiff in December 2009, and then travelled around the UK, as well as  doing a run in Paris.

The tour has been a huge success, selling out at all venues, and the cast have enjoyed a standing ovation at the end of the performance. On Saturday 2nd October, I was present at the matinee performance at the Barbican, which was the last one with the current cast. Later it will be performed in Spain, and then there are plans to take it to Broadway in the autumn.

There is something  nostalgic about watching the final performance of a production, and it shows  in the  way the cast act and sing. There is no question of being tired of performing it, there was more passion and emotion in that theatre  than I saw at the first night last year. The cast are all amazing, and have grown into their roles, and made the characters their own.

I will never forget the entrancing little Cosette as a child, singing CASTLE ON A CLOUD, with grime on her face, as she swept the floor, and trying to dodge the blows from the strong arm of evil Madame Thenardier. How passionately Eponine loved Marius, and her song, ON MY OWN came right from her soul, her feelings of love tumbling out, for the man who loved Cosette, and not her.

Then there was Jean Val Jean, the man who turned his life around after being spared from arrest after stealing the silver, and because of that man of god who saved him, he decided to reform. His rendition of BRING HIM HOME  is so very moving.

Javert, the stern unbending policeman, who takes his own life by jumping from a bridge after he shatters his own principles , and cannot live with himself, is portrayed with great conviction, as is Marius, the dreamy, naive, and very dashing student, who falls in love with Cosette. When Marius sings EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES , whilst hobbling around in great pain, one can feel the pain and misery, which is etched into his face, as he sings about his friends who are perished in the revolution, and the guilt that he feels that his own life has been spared.

This is only a very small part of a mesmerising production, which had me in tears of laughter one minute, and anguish the next.  There was humour too, from the wonderful Thenardiers, who portrayed evil and debauchery with great gusto   It  is a story of poverty, degradation and evil, but it is also very uplifting when good ultimately triumphs over evil.

After the cast had taken their well deserved bows, Cameron Mackintosh came onto the stage and made a speech thanking ” This Amazing Cast” for the hard work they had put into their roles. I can only echo what he has said, as every performer absolutely gave it their all, and you cannot ask for any more than that.