Peach State Summer Theatre

We are long-​time season ticket holders for PSST, and were so pleased when they announced they were doing «Les Miserables!» This is the 32^nd time I have seen the show onstage, including three times on Broadway, and it was one of the best productions I have ever seen, and definitely was one of the best I have ever seen at PSST. The talent onstage was amazing, and the leads were all perfect for their roles. I’m sorry if you missed this production – it only played in June this year because of some booking issues, but what a memory we will all have of it! Bravo to all involved! Can’t wait for the rest of the season next month: «Always…Patsy Cline» and «The Little Mermaid.» We even bought three tickets this year so that we could bring my mom along, and we sat on the front row and had a hearing enhancement device for her full enjoyment. PSST has moved into the big time!

Peach State Summer Theatre opened its 2015 Season with a musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables. Unfortunately, the play was staged in English. It really needed to be done in French with English subtitles as the sung English was mostly unintelligible. If it had been done in French, there would have at least been an excuse to print out the lyrics so one could have known what the blue Suzette was happening.
Like a lot of summer stock these days, the orchestration was taped especially for use in the theater and the thespians are expected to sing Karaōke-​style complete with tiny flesh colored headsets and wireless microphones. Instead of projecting their voices to the back seats of the theater they modulated them for the microphone and surrendered themselves to the mercies of the soundman who promptly buried them under recorded music.
By the end of the first act, you are supposed to care that Valjean remains free, that Marius and Cosette find love, and have sympathy for poor Éponine who is losing Marius to Cosette. I know all this because I read Wikipedia when I got home. If a play cannot stand on its own, then it has failed. It should not be a requirement that you read the play or read the book or watch the movie or have seen the play before in order to understand what is happening.