Les Misérables - Sondheim Theatre

I hope she does it every night, though i hope she slides down into it slowly, like she's tipsy or something, rather than leaping off a table and landing full splits!God bless Bonita. Her resurgence in recent years has been fantastic to watch.

I did end up booking, but only at about 6.00PM yesterday once some of the decent stalls seats reduced in price a bit. Still cost a lot more than I’d like, but not paying much for Mischief Movie Night or the Hello Dolly front row takes some of the sting out.

I’ve only seen it once, the summer theatres reopened and hotels were dirt cheap. Usually time in London is limited and short runs have priority, but then I was able to stay for nearly a fortnight and saw a bunch of the long-runners. Even though I’m not religious I remember I found it incredibly moving.

Expecting to be similarly affected second time around is a mistake as I wasn’t. I still enjoyed it a great deal, but it hits differently when you’re waiting for everyone to die.

But the main reason I booked: Bonnie and Jac. Bonnie looks like she’s having a ball up there, loads of mugging throughout, has her leg stretched up in the air when she’s hauled off on the cart and does the splits at the wedding. It’s all very OTT, but weirdly it works and the audience absolutely love her.

I really like Jac Yarrow’s voice and he gives a good performance. But, and I feel unkind saying this, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables could do with being more anguished IMHO. Possibly nitpicking though as that’s the song I was most looking forward to, and a vague memory of Eddie Redmayne in the film might be colouring my perceptions of what that scene ‘should’ be. Regardless, hope to see him in something again soon. Bit of extra fun spotting him popping up as random background characters throughout act one.

Covers on for Javert, Eponine and Thenardier. I know it’s the way of live theatre, but I was disappointed not to see Luke Kempner. It must be 10 years ago now, but one of the very first things I saw in London was his show The Only Way Is Downtown, downstairs in the old Trafalgar Studios. Was really nice seeing Adam Pearce back on stage though.

Had a great night. I’d give it 4 stars.

Is Will staying? That's a bit surprising, because even though he's amazing in the role his attendance has been far from perfect... I hope he's OK and can be on more next year.

I do agree. Will is a fantastic Marius - probably one of the best I’ve seen. But yes he’s off for large amounts of time. In the year on tour and the year in the west end he was off for about two thirds of my trips to the show.

Hope he does stay though. As well as being great in the role he comes across as very sweet and humble.

Milan just announced that his last show in Les Mis will be 12/10, which is kind of weird since the presumed last date would be 21/9, a year from when the 2023/2024 cast began performances. Does anyone know if it's just him or if they are delaying the entire cast change?

Blimey! I’ve a long-standing booking for the following week so it’ll (hopefully!) be good to see the new cast, although I’m sad to be missing Milan.

I'm not sure if this is a pun/joke but in case it isn't - long-standing usually refers to an arrangement or agreement made a while ago. Nothing to do with standing tickets in theatres.

Anyone else think this altered production i.e minus the revolve is just way too dark. I watched it the other week and it felt like the stage was perpetually in darkness for most of the scenes. The most illuminated scene "The wedding banquet" I remembered being very bright in the revolve days. Not now, I suggest they use a few more candles.

soon: entire theatre being listening seats

Haha - so I thought the original production was even darker - you could barely see beyond the middle of the stage most of the time.

Agree the Wedding Feast scene was very bright though - so much so that it almost looked out of place with the rest of the design I thought.
(Still a Napier epic triumph; obvs).

Caught the penultimate night for Jac and Bonnie on Friday.
The last 2 visits to the show were the staged concerts so I had forgotten how long the full show is.
The show is still in great shape and they have a good cast. I especially liked Milan as Jean Valjean who had a really powerful voice. The only one I wasn't too impressed with was Enjoiras as I felt his voice wasn't strong enough.
Bonnie was having an absolute ball and you could see she was loving it, a real crowd pleaser. I was most impressed with Jac who was one of the best Marius's I have seen. Good acting and great voice. It was also fun spotting him in the background early in the show. I spotted him 3 or 4 times as different characters.
I took a friend who had never seen the musical before. She wasn't won over at the interval but by the end she really enjoyed it.
I don't have a need to see it again for a while but if the arena tour comes to London next year then I will go.
Can't believe it was 39 years ago insaw it for the first time (still have the programme).

Stewart was very good indeed.
I do feel a big bad saying I didn't like Djavan especially as I saw him today at West End Woofs and he seemed a lovely young man. I just didn't think his voice had the power especially towards the end of phrases and, maybe wrongly, I'm comparing him with Bradley and Ramin who I've seen in that role.