Redundant and unnecessary.

Better than most people think

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like most Americans, I first saw the 25th on PBS. I had read the book and seen the road show in Chicago many years before. When it first aired, I was distracted and it barely registered. But the second time, I wandered into the room as Alfie Boe began "Who Am I?" stopped dead in my tracks and didn't move for the next three hours.Alfie Boe is magnificent, he may be the best Valjean in Les Mis' thirty year history. (That includes the movie too). His voice is angry, vengeful, baffled, pleading, commanding, tender and loving. Boe has a bright tenor voice that snarls or rings out with all the nuance of speech. Les Mis is a tough sing that would tax any tenor, but you never worry if he'll hit a high, only wonder how stunning it will be. The four minute standing ovation (cut down to one minute on the DVD) for "Bring Him Home" was completely deserved. The song is a prayer, and you feel Boe isn't singing a prayer, he's praying on stage.The other cast members are equally impressive. Norm Lewis' Javert is all menace and malice. He despises this peasant and thief, and will wipe out the one blot on his record. Norm's baritone can be completely chilling, and "The Confrontation" is practically a duel. Another singer might have drowned against Boe, but each meeting is tense and powerful.Lea Salonga and Samantha Barks as Fantine and Eponine are each heart breaking, doomed by fate and love. They pour themselves into "I Dreamed a Dream" and "On My Own" and bring down the house. Ramin Karimloo is a passionate, charismatic Enjorlas. Matt Lucas and Jennie Galloway seem like comic relief until you see the sinister charm behind them, very well done.Much has been written about Nick Jonas and Katie Hall. Nick was only 17yo for the 25th, and their voices blend well. Nick can't quite keep up with the older, more powerful singers, but he makes "Empty Chairs, Empty Tables" his own. They are sweet lovers here.A show this big deserves big encores. They bring on the Queen's Theater cast, the 25th Anniversary Touring cast, and the original 1985 cast. And the crowd goes wild, with good reason. The rewritten "Bring Him Home" for the four Valjeans (and the key change), is almost worth the price of the DVD by itself.A huge orchestra and choir, a massive stage, spectacular lighting and effects, three screens for a crowd of 17,000, cameras everywhere, costumes, and sensitive editing. Les Miserables as it should be done.

The 25th Anniversary concert of Les Mis was put on at the 02 Centre in London in front of an enthusiastic crowd. The production was outstanding in almost every respect. The lighting was dramatic and set the mood, the costumes brilliant, the orchestra and chorus were brilliantly directed and there were some wonderful surprises at the end.Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean and Norm Lewis as Javert were perfectly cast. Mr. Boe mastered a very difficult role requiring great range, sensitivity and feeling and he nailed the performance. American-born Norm Lewis, a Florida native, captured the tormented essence of a man obsessed with a mission that never ends, that is relentless and life-draining, with grace and style.Katie Hall shone brilliantly as Cosette and Samantha Barks brought Eponine to life in a series of brilliant duets and arias. Their voices were clear and pure and could not have been more stellar. Matt Lucas and Jenny Galloway tried very hard to steal the show as the conniving but comical Thenardiers.The only weak spot in the production was the casting of Nick Jonas as Marius. In a show when one is surrounded by professionally-trained and experienced West End and Broadway performers, Jonas' lack of training, experience as a garage band musician propelled to "stardom" by the "magic" of Disney was the dinosaur in the room. His voice was weak, nasal and frequently off-key. Even the young boy who played Gavroche, Robert Madge, outshone the Jonas Brother. Mr. Jonas was clearly out of his league, good intentions notwithstanding.Overall the production was brilliant and vastly entertaining, a performance to be savored over and over. If only Mr. Jonas stuck to performing with his brothers ...

I had mixed feelings about this rendition, but after much thought, I think my opinion is rather favorable. Alfie Boe was definitely a strong point, and is definitely a rival to Colm Wilkinson in fitting the roll. Norm Lewis is also very good, though when compared to the 10th anniversary version, I'd have to place him below Philip Quast in his solo songs (Stars and Javert's Suicide), but otherwise, he is much better, especially in The Confrontation, and he did incredibly well in Javert's Intervention.Jenny Galloway really is the only person I've ever seen do Mme. Thenardier as well as she does, so I'm glad they brought her back. Matt Lucas does very well as Thenardier, though I prefer Alun Armstrong for Dog eat Dog, since he seems much more slimy and sociopathic. Also, though Matt brings a better personality to the role, Alun more looks the part.I have never really liked the Marius-Cosette-Eponine characters, in any of the times I've seen them in the musical or in the book, though I think this does better for Eponine, as this is the first time I've actually felt anything for her other than contempt. Not much to say about Cosette. She's as boring as ever, and for that I blame Victor Hugo, for making her character just so boring. Katie Hall did well in the role, but for me, it's still not enough. Nick Jonas was pretty awful in the role. I'm not going to say anything like "I hate Nick Jonas" "He's a terrible singer" or anything like that, since I just don't really care enough about him to see what else he's done, and see is he is any better, but I do think the role was wrong for him. He doesn't harmonize with any parts he is traditionally supposed to, and he is about as stiff as cardboard, but that also may be the character of Marius in general.On to L'Amis de ABC: I don't understand the reason everyone seems to love Ramin Karimloo as Enjolras. To me, his voice didn't seem to evoke the idealism, passion and god-like strength of personality that defines his character. His voice seemed much more human and more romantic than that. In the 10th anniversary version, when ever he started his part, it felt like a call to arms, whereas here, he doesn't have nearly the charisma for that. Grantaire here was alright, though he's not all that memorable. The rest of L'Amis are decent too, but non-distinct. I don't really count Gavroche as one of L'Amis, though I know other people sometimes do, and I will include him in this paragraph: I really liked the portrayal of Gavroche in this one; The only thing that would have made it better would be Ten Little Bullets. I don't understand why they never use that song. It's not a very good song, but it is much better for the story.But the thing that I think really sold this for me was the story. The story of Les Miserables is really incredible, and there's a thing to be said about having such a multi-faceted story work in a musical, like this. The changes they make from the 10th anniversary version are for the better, be they adding songs (the Robbery/Javert's Intervention) or fixing up lines (ie making Marius the one who asks who the "swells who run" the slums are, rather than Enjolras, since Enjolras is supposed to be leading the revolution). Most of my mixed feelings were in comparing it to the 10th anniversary version, but in a vacuum, it's well worth the 8 I gave it.

Les Misérables has been around for a long time, pleasing audiences around the world - its songs are recorded by an vast array of singers and its impact on audiences is justifiably powerful. Though this filming of the concert production of the musical as performed at London's O2 Arena in January 2010 is hailed as the 25th anniversary of the musical, it is too frequently forgotten that the show, based on the Victor Hugo novel, was originally written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil with Herbert Kretzmer and Jean-Marc Natel and produced in Paris, France in 1980 (it closed after 3 months). This English Adaptation is by Trevor Nunn and John Caird (with additional material by James Fenton) was brought to England and the world through the efforts of Cameron Mitchell in 1985. The concert version is performed with orchestra and chorus in the top of the platforms in O2 Arena and the characters in the musical are in costume standing before microphones at the edge of the performing structure. The light crew performs spectacular effects with the enormous facilities at this 23,000 seat arena. Some action is projected on screens above the performers (the lifting of the cart by Valjean, the barricade, etc) and at other times the screens offer the audience huge close-up view of the performers. It works well under the direction of Nick Morris. The celebration of the birthday of the show is accompanied by prolonged appearances by past members of casts of the show, a light show, and much confetti and self congratulation speeches. As for the production itself it is populate by a generally strong cast. Alfie Boe, a 37 year old British tenor who studied opera but now sings the big demanding musicals, is a very fine Jean Valjean. Norm Lewis, and American actor/baritone is one of the strongest Jauverts on record: he is a talent to watch. Lea Salonga brings years of experience to her interpretation of Fantine, Samantha Banks is a very strong Eponine, the Iranian-born Canadian musical theater singing actor Ramin Karimloo makes a striking impression in the role of Enjolras (he has been playing the role of Phantom in the 'Phantom of the Opera' in England for years), but the performance of Katie Hall as Cosette sounds strained, the Monsieur Thénardier of Matt Lucas is completely unfocused (Jenny Galloway fares better as Madame Thénardier), and it is obvious the producers elected to play to the young audience by miscasting pop star Nick Jonas as Marius: he tries very hard but is out of his league here. In all this is an entertaining memento of a birthday celebration - heavy on audience screaming and special party effects - and rewards the creators of this lasting fine musical with due respect. Grady Harp