STAGE REVIEW : ‘Les Miz’ Still Spectacular as Run Nears End

If you haven’t seen “Les Miserables” yet, you’d better hurry. As the “Les Miz” ads have been saying lately, “in nine weeks, we’re history.” This sentimental, soaring musicalization of the remarkable Victor Hugo novel closes July 23, so time is running out.

As it is, some of the principals have already left. Most notably, William Solo as Jean Valjean.

Replacing him in the lead role of the convict on the run is Jordan Bennett. Bennett has a big voice and a large store of exquisite tenderness and an enviable ability to sustain it in the high notes. He can be touching in the musical’s plaintive scenes (of which there are many), but he lacks the size and stature that Valjean requires.

Valjean is a man of enormous strength--enough to single-handedly lift a loaded carriage off a man’s leg or knock out his nemesis, Inspector Javert, with a single blow or carry the unconscious Marius through the Paris sewers for what seems like miles. The actor who portrays him has to convey a sense of this tremendous power.

Bennett, though chunky enough to provide a measure of credibility, is less prepossessing than he should be and less than his taller predecessor was--not through any fault of his performance, but strictly because of physical constitution.

Peter Gantenbein, the new Marius, brings the requisite elan and bland good looks to the revolutionary young student who falls in love with Cosette (Karen Fineman) and is saved by Valjean to become her husband. Like that of the grown-up Cosette, his is a role that demands compliance with the stereotypical attributes of all heroic young men: bravery and nobility under fire, a head carried high and a valiant heart. Gantenbein delivers them. So does the stalwart Raymond Saar, as Marius’ equally fine friend Enjolras.

The rest of the original company continues in peak form, with Elinore O’Connell memorable as a fragile and moving Fantine. Michelle Nicastro’s gutsy Eponine makes up in characterization for high notes that sometimes sound like too much of a reach.

Kay Cole and Gary Beach as the sly and sloppy Thenardiers, those sometime inn-keepers who lie and cheat and steal everything in sight, very nearly walk away with the show as well. Their cartoon performances are broader and more looney tunes than ever.

But the real star of this show remains John Napier’s mega-set. It spins when people walk. It delivers tables and chairs. Its massive halves lower and lock together to become the student barricades. Or fall apart up-ended to create a Paris slum. Or slide away to reveal an echoing Paris sewer. And when Inspector Javert jumps off a bridge to death in the river, he doesn’t have to fall far.

Napier’s set rises to meet him.

There’s no end to the technical wizardry. Just as there is no end to the heroism and the three-hanky drama and melodrama of this fervent extravaganza. Well, almost no end.

That July 23 closing date holds.

At 2020 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, Tuesdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. with matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $27.50-$47.50; (800) 233-3123).