It was an absolute pleasure to be invited along to review “Let the people sing!”, The UK amateur premiere of Les Misérables at Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House. Presented by Leeds AOS, in collaboration with Buttershaw St Paul’s AODS, Leeds Insurance Dramatic Operatic Society and Wakefield West Riding Theatre Company, this production is a true community project, showcasing the very best talent that West Yorkshire has to offer.
Directed by Louise Denison and Musical Direction by Jim Lunt, this production seemed more like a full professional production in terms of scale and budget than an amateur show. “Let the people sing” features two fully independent principal cast, the “red” team and “blue” team. I was lucky enough to watch the red team. Robert Durkin starred as Jean Valjean, the heartbeat of this epic story. Durkin displayed his impressive vocal, with a falsetto sweet as a nut, and really grew into it as the show went on in terms of performance. Dan Smith played Javert, the antagonistic inspector to Valjean’s ex con. Smithwas strong, though sometimes tended to over emphasise phrases in songs, a small issue throughout the show, not just with Smith. Kirsty Townend was brilliant as Fantine, with a real believability to her plight and a vocal to die for in “I Dreamed a Dream”. Caitlin Magee was solid as Eponine, with a strong vocal throughout.
Jason Weightman and Helen Spencer were fantastic as Monsieur and Madame Thernadier, particularly the former with his sleezy character shining in this very serious cast. Harvey Dewhurst was very strong as Marius, with a mightily impressive vocal that was perfect for a score such as Les Misérables. This young man has a very bright future ahead of him, I cannot believe he can perform at this level in only his second year of training. Emma Burke was solid as Cosette, as was James Pegg as Enjolras. The ensemble and minor characters were all fabulous, with the group numbers being the musical highlights of the show in my opinion, and a big round of applause needs to be given to Jim Lunt the MD for getting this out of the cast. The absolute number one highlight in the show in my opinion however was the children’s principles. Renee Revell and Mia McGarry were both excellent as Young Cosette and Eponine respectively, with Revell giving a beautiful performance of “Castle on a Cloud”. Theo Rae stole the show for me as Gavroche, with an endearing charm and intelligence so brilliantly captured by such a young man. This is a name we are sure to see for many years to come.
My only nitpicks with the production would be the sound quality and a couple of possible oversights in direction of the production. It struck me as slightly odd that in the song “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” there was only one chair and one table, both of which occupied by Marius and nothing to signify his fallen friends within this scene. Similarly, when Valjean lifts the cart from the trapped man and Javert recognises him due to this superheroic display of strength, we don’t have anything to refer back to from earlier in this production, where Valjean would normally have carried out a great feat of strength in the chain gang scenes. This didn’t ruin the show for me by any means but just struck me as odd and broke the veil slightly. What did majorly affect my viewing experience was the sound quality. From crackling and popping mics, poor balance with the vocals to band and volume levels being all over the place, the sound really took you out of the story at times and while I could forgive this for any other amateur production, a production of this scale in a theatre such as this should not be having such simple issues. Again, not a complete deal breaker but this did have me wincing at times.
Despite this though, the performances were all well worth the ticket price and you will not want to miss this once in a generation opportunity to see this show with an amateur cast, not mentioning the fact that supporting local theatre in today’s age is a thing that is quite frankly priceless. Catch “Let The People Sing” at Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House until 12th April.
Reviewer: Adam Craddock
Reviewed: 3rd April 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
