Les Miz goes to Mother Russia, with Dr. Zhivago as Jean Valjean, Lara as Cosette and not just a civil war but a world war thrown in for taste. Claude-Michel Schönberg played by Lucy Simon and Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Herbert Kretzmer by Michael Korie and Amy Powers. Hugo is Boris. Wait, no, I went a step too far. Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserable” is one of the greatest novels of all time, the first chapter, the story of Bishop Myriel, is worth Dr Zhivago movie and musical and Les Miz movie and musical combined to infinity. There is no comparing Hugo’s genius to three hacks and a great movie director (David Lean).
Yeah, Les Miz and Dr. Zhivago the musicals are hack work. They steamroll to a lowest common denominator for a middle class world audience of indiscriminate ears and worst taste, willing to sit on their palliative and (quite literally) turn rebellion into money.
Dr. Zhivago is a bombastic Soviet revolution made simple. The Doctor in question, was orphaned as a child and moved to Moscow where he was raised by rich family friends, while writing poetry, falling for the families daughter and on his wedding day, discovering a beautiful young seamstress, Lara, attempting to murder the family lawyer.
On the frontlines of WWI, taking care of the wounded, he runs into Lara again, now a nurse. Back in Moscow, now run by the Red Army, the Czars family soon to join Elvis, Zhivago, his wife and son (and her pop) return to the countryside, where he runs into Lara again, and they have a wild affair. Captured by the Red Army, Zhivago is back on the frontlines saving soldiers . He returns to the countryside, writes some poems for his beloved Lara, and croaks.
The musical’s book is a wonder of condescension and simplification, and in its 166 minutes, crams in 24 lousy musical interludes, with dashings and dashings of exposition. It isn’t very moving but it does the job. Directed by Des McAnuff at a spanking pace, Des isn’t great with big set pieces but he is excellent at moving the story (the same as he was with “Jersey Boys” where the bigger the moment the smaller the payoff) , and of keeping you aware of the time and place, in a story that could easily become a baffling mumbo jumbo of big bangs and big songs. Tami Matu as Zhivago looks more like a brick layer than either a poet or a doctor, and his voice is too big for the story, the entire concept of the admittedly lousy Boris Pasternak epic novel, was the largeness of revolution against the smallness of a person against the largeness of art. If Zhivago is bellowing you are missing the point. Kelli Barrett as Lara strains credibility to the breaking point and beyond. Julie Christie exuded a ripe lusciousness; Kelli is a pretty but bland pro. The only performer to come out with his reputation in one piece is Paul Alexander Nolan as Lara’s husband Pasha, who becomes a leader of the red army. Paul seems too young and too naïve for the role he is playing, and , of course, he is precisely that.
Dr. Zhivago isn’t a good musical, and it won’t last long on Broadway, but it gets the job done without boring you to tears. And the book doesn’t deserve any better.
Grade: C