Show Broadway magic Capitol Theatre I I Ken Hardy Contributing Writer HE mega-hit mega musical Les T THE has been packing packing packing pack pack- ing in patrons since its American opening on Broadway Broadway Broadway Broad Broad- way playing regularly in inT T theaters from Tokyo to San Fran Francisco and touring to every other US U.S. city ty that can accommodate accommodate accommodate its 34 square foot turntable turntable turntable turn turn- table stage Les as it is affectionately affectionate affectionate- ly called is the brain child of Alain Michel Claude-Michel and Cameron Mackintosh who are currently grabbing headlines for the controversial Broadway openIng opening opening open open- ing of their latest musical Miss Saigon The touring company was brought to us by the newly- newly formed Theater League of Utah in a subscription package with A Chorus Line Tickets to the first week of shows were sold last October by mail order and phone The Theater League was not prepared for forthe forthe forthe the overwhelming response They were manned with a small staff in a small space ticketing by hand instead of computer For the audience tickets were more than worth the fight and the wait Les was a stop non-stop glide through about 20 years of revolutionary France and took tooka a long two hours and forty minutes of stage time As with Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves people hardly felt they were there one hour Some were skeptical that a touring group could have the same calibre of acting as a true Broadway show The cast proved those skeptics wrong Especially impressive were Brian Lynch playing repentant repentant repentant tant convict Jean Valjean former BYU Young Ambas Ambas- Marchese playing the unfortunate lovelorn Eponine Taylor Johns John's innocent child of the street and of course the swindling innkeepers innkeepers innkeepers inn inn- keepers the played by Diana Rogers and JP J.P. Dougherty It ran almost perfectly and criticism requires examining technicalities Early on it was hard to comprehend some of the lines of Javert avert and during the cast number One Day More when the come up through the floor there was a slight hum from the microphones quickly eliminated by the sound tech tech- ni ans Both mistakes were probably due to the than less-than- Broadway calibre sound system system system tem at the Capitol Theatre Neither was too distracting Les was the most extensive production that has been seen in the beehive state arid and it may remain that way for a long time to come Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps Per Per- haps the best indicator was the audience response Their jaws were dropping their hands were clapping dapping the tears were falling and they emphatically stood reluctant to leave If you missed it you'll have to wait until 1992 when Tri-Star Tri Pictures will release a motion picture of the award winning musical and in August of that same year the Theater League will bring Les back for a two week encore encore encore en en- core run |