Review of Les Misérables at the Birmingham Hippodrome

Les Misérables is a story known and loved by many people throughout the world, from book to stage to film and even tv, the story has been displayed and loved on many different platforms. It shows suffering, love and hope with the political message of the social rankings in the world, and even though the musical is set in a 1815-32 Paris, all of these themes are still relevant today. On 2nd March 2019, I had the amazing opportunity to see a dress run of the touring musical at the Birmingham Hippodrome working towards my silver Arts Award event review.

Before seeing the play, I had seen the film, but I don’t think I truly understood the story at the time as I was only young. I think I was only interested in the love story back then, but going in to see the stage performance, I had a fresh and different mindset and more understanding, so going in to see it, I was fairly blind to the story but could sing most of the songs word for word.

 With this new understanding, I was mesmerised in every scene, the many overlapping stories were heart-breaking and beautiful and were portrayed beautifully by all actors. The child actors were brilliant and very professionally with Gavroche becoming one of my favourite characters on the stage. The singing, choreography and acting all worked together perfectly to bring the story to life. The singing was so incredible and it brought shivers to my spine and tears to my eyes on many occasions.

The set was also beautiful, with the buildings all in a dark grey/black and were transitioned on seamlessly, transporting the audience to a different part of 1800s Paris each time. The use of projections was also brilliant, making it look like Jean Valjean was carrying Marias through a sewer perfectly and in the suicide scene, it truly looked like they were falling into water.

Overall, I could not fault this performance, it is definitely one of the best productions I have ever seen and should be a must watch for everyone.