Review: Les Misérables, UK Tour | Glasgow

Les Miserables ★★★★★

review: 26 November 2021 | Theatre Royal, Glasgow

The larger theatres in Scotland have been open for a few weeks, but this is my first show back after lockdown.

Rescheduled from June 2020, I was a little nervous to be sat among hundreds of people for the first time in 18 months...

But the moment the orchestra started playing the stirring Les Miserables overture, the sound filling the auditorium, every hair on my arms stood on end and I remembered what it meant to feel alive again.

This new touring production of Les Miserable is wonderful and has a brilliant cast. OK, there is no revolve on stage, and that was missed during the barricade scenes, but the performances more than made up for that small staging detail.

Dean Chisnall leads the show as a perfectly faultless Jean Valjean. Authentic and sympathetic - he had the audience in the palm of his hands.

With Nic Greenshields (Javert) and Nathania Ong (Eponine), I was honoured to witness world class performances of some of the best songs in musical theatre. “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 more. I'd forgotten how incredible Les Misérables actually is.

Special mention to Ian Hughes who was beyond brilliant as Thernardier. He stole the show with an epic performance and managed to fill the stage and steal our hearts at the same time.

What a performer; easily the best Thernardier I've ever seen.

Great cast, great production of a classic, epic book, and my first show in a theatre for 20 months.

What a joy. I'm so grateful.

To quote Mr Lin Manuel Miranda: "How lucky we are to be alive right now". Indeed. ★★★★★

[First published on Instagram 1 July 2022]