Les Miserables: Arena Concert Spectacular.

Seeing Les Misérables at Radio City Music Hall already felt like it was going to be a pretty special night. What we did not realize until afterwards was that we had also happened to catch Alfie Boe’s final performance as Jean Valjean, bringing to an end around 16 years of playing a role that has become so closely associated with him. That made an already spectacular production feel like we had witnessed a little piece of Les Mis history.

Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular is not quite the traditional stage production and not quite a straightforward concert. It sits somewhere between the two, taking the music and characters of Les Mis and blowing everything up to arena scale. There is less scenery and movement than you would find in the full theatrical production, with much of the cast remaining on stage throughout, but in its place you get huge screens, impressive lighting, stage automation and an orchestra that is proudly visible rather than hidden away in a pit.

For us, that orchestra being on stage was one of the things we really enjoyed. The music of Les Mis is such a huge part of why the show has lasted for so long, and there was something lovely about actually seeing the musicians responsible for creating that sound. Radio City Music Hall was also pretty much the perfect place for it. This was our first time inside the iconic Art Deco venue, and you really are not prepared for how enormous and beautiful it is until you walk in. Even the seats deserve a mention. Compared with some of the rather cramped theaters we have found ourselves squeezed into around New York, having some actual legroom was very welcome!

The scale of the production really comes through in the lighting and visual design. Rather than trying to recreate a traditional theatrical set, the show borrows plenty from the world of stadium and arena concerts. Moving lighting rigs and automated scenic elements constantly reshape the stage, at one point creating the impression of buildings and at others helping form the barricades. During the battle sequences, the lighting becomes even more impressive, creating flashes of gunfire and giving the whole thing an almost cinematic quality.

The large screens also play an important part, particularly in a production designed to tour much bigger arenas where plenty of the audience will be a long way from the stage. From our orchestra seats at Radio City, however, they occasionally became a little distracting. We sometimes caught ourselves watching a close-up on a screen when the performer was standing right there in front of us. There were also moments when parts of the screens were obscured by other elements of the staging. Neither was a major problem, but it did highlight how differently this production needs to work depending on where you are sitting.

Vocally, though, this production is extraordinary. Alfie Boe was a fantastic Jean Valjean, bringing enormous power to the role and making his final performance an especially memorable one. Jeremy Secomb was equally impressive as Javert. The two have very different voices, but both have the scale and strength needed for these characters, and hearing them together was one of the highlights of the night.

Samantha Barks brought another powerful voice to the company as Fantine, while Shan Ako as Éponine, Beatrice Penny-Touré as Cosette, Jac Yarrow as Marius and Christian Mark Gibbs as Enjolras helped make this feel like a real gathering of Les Mis talent. One of the pleasures of this particular production is getting such a strong company together on one enormous stage.

Matt Lucas and Marina Prior were also a joy as Thénardier and Madame Thénardier. The audience was cheering before they had even really started, and it is easy to understand why. They bring some very welcome comedy into an otherwise pretty relentlessly tragic story, and both completely embraced the larger-than-life nature of the characters.

We were also really impressed by the younger performers. The children brought so much personality and confidence to their roles, and in a production packed with established Les Mis performers, they absolutely held their own. The young Gavroches, Cian Bhalla, Alfie Buck and Mateo Casado, and Little Cosettes, Lillian Alice Castner, Olive Ross-Kline and Ella Tokita, rotate in their respective roles, and the young performers we saw were charming, confident and full of energy.

The trade-off for all that scale is that the production can sometimes feel quite static. There is acting and movement, of course, but there are also long stretches where performers are essentially standing and singing. Daniel Hunt has seen Les Misérables in multiple versions before and is a big fan, so for him it was easy to fill in some of the theatrical gaps and enjoy seeing the story presented in this completely different way. Daniel Diaza, however, had never seen Les Mis before and still really enjoyed the experience. While some of the finer details of the story may be easier to follow if you already know it, the music, performances and spectacle are strong enough that being a longtime fan definitely is not a requirement.

And what a relentlessly sad story it is. Watching it now, the scenes of young people going into battle, families being destroyed and dreams disappearing because of violence felt particularly powerful. Les Misérables may be set in another time, but its images of conflict, loss and people temporarily putting aside their differences to survive something bigger than themselves do not feel particularly distant. The aftermath of the barricade scenes remains genuinely heartbreaking, especially as you see just how many lives have been destroyed.

At the same time, this is still Les Mis, so you know exactly what you are signing up for. It is long. Very long. We somehow briefly forgot there was an entire second act and were practically preparing ourselves to leave at intermission before remembering there was a lot more misery still to come. Thankfully, the second act contains some of the strongest moments of the show, and with vocals this good, we certainly were not complaining by the end.

Coming at the show from two very different perspectives, we both had a fantastic time. For Daniel Hunt, it was a chance to experience a show he already loves in a completely different format, while for Daniel Diaza, it was a first introduction to Les Misérables and one that still proved hugely enjoyable. This is less a replacement for the traditional stage production and more a huge celebration of everything that has made Les Mis so popular. It combines musical theater with the scale and visual language of a major arena concert, performed by an exceptional company of singers. Add in the experience of finally visiting Radio City Music Hall and unexpectedly witnessing Alfie Boe say goodbye to Jean Valjean after so many years, and this became a night we are unlikely to forget.