Les Misérables

The Complete Symphonic Recording

Starring Gary Morris, Philip Quast, Michael Ball, Anthony Warlow
Concept by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
3 CDS, 44 Tracks

This is the CD to get if you want to be introduced to Les Mis. It has every line from the whole show on 3 CDs, and a really stellar cast. This was my first Les Mis CD, and it was how I became familiar with the show.

Gary Morris is Jean Valjean and does a great job. He really has the range for the part. Philip Quast is a really excellent Javert. I am completely at a loss to decide whether I like him or Terrence Mann better; it's a different interpretation. He has a great voice, anyway, and puts so much emotion into the part. Debbie Byrne as Fantine is very good; "I Dreamed A Dream" is beautiful and emotional, just as it should be.

Tracy Shayne makes a pretty good Cosette. Although I'm a bad judge of Cosettes because, frankly, the character of the grown Cosette annoys the hell out of me. (I love Young Cosette though, and she is great on this CD.) Barry James and Gay Soper are fantastic and hilarious as M. and Mme Thenardier. They are so funny.

The wonderfully talented Michael Ball is Marius. His "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is incredible. It's rare to hear a singer who's able to put that much emotion into the piece, but he manages it beautifully. He also goes well with Kaho Shimada as Eponine, and their duet "A Little Fall of Rain" is beautiful. Shimada's "On My Own" is very nice, especially since I've heard she didn't speak any English at all!

And of course, we have the incredibly talented Anthony Warlow as Enjolras, whom I could listen to happily for the rest of my life… :-) "Let others riiiiiiiiiiiiiise to take our place…" ::swoon::… oops, sorry about that.

This CD is the one you have to own, just because it's complete. In fact, it is now more complete than the show! Since they moved the show to a smaller Broadway theater, they made some small line cuts here and there to cut down the running time. So if you go to the real show after having memorized this CD, you'll notice that they "skip" lines. This CD also has the collection of the most great singers on one CD. I may prefer Lea Salonga as Eponine or Terrence Mann as Javert, but this CD set has the greatest number of awesome people all together. I would definitely buy it if I were you. In fact I would buy it even if I were not you. :-)