FANTASTIC, superb, brilliant, outstanding – add another dozen adjectives of a similar ilk and that still would not be enough to summarise this production of Les Misérables currently running at The Grand Theatre in Leeds.

Three hours of wonderful music, drama and choreography to a packed theatre made this one of the best theatrical experiences I have encountered in my many years of attending productions both here at The Grand and at many other theatres in West Yorkshire.

Boublil and Schönberg’s magnificent iconic score of Les Misérables includes the classic songs, I Dreamed a Dream, On My Own, Stars, Bring Him Home, Do You Hear the People Sing?, One Day More, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Master of The House and many more. Several of its songs have become real-life anthems of revolution wherever in the world people are fighting for their freedom. Seen by over 130 million people worldwide in 53 countries and in 22 languages, Les Misérables is indisputably one of the world’s most popular and contemporary musicals

The two lead characters of Jean Valjean and Javert played by Dean Chisnall and Nic Greenshields respectively were outstanding, and their singing was absolutely brilliant. Dean’s renditions of “Who am I” and “Bring Him Home” were superb and the latter made the hairs on my neck stand on end. Similarly, Nic performance of “Stars” was probably the highlight of the show for me and deservedly received the longest and loudest applause of the night from the capacity audience.

In the preview in this paper, we mentioned Rebecca Ferrin from Pool-in-Wharfedale one of the ensemble members. At the performance I saw this week she stepped up from the chorus to take on the role of Cosette and carried this out immaculately with an assured soprano voice, heard at its best in the songs “In My Life” and “A Heart Full of Love” with Marius played by Will Callan and Eponine played by Jenna Innes. Both of these actors too have excellent voices and Will’s rendition of “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” was one of the other heart wrenching songs in this show.

Great humour was brought to the production by Ian Hughes as Thenardier the innkeeper and Helen Walsh as his wife. Their number of “Master of the House” brought the house down and received a long and well-deserved applause from the audience. Further plaudits must be given to Lucas Melrose Steel for his role of Gavroche the young boy, a role he carried out that immaculately.

Finally, I thought that the technical side of the production was outstanding! A back projection screen at the rear of the stage transformed the various scenes and the sets on stage were simply out of this world. The orchestra under the direction of Giles Deacon created a great atmosphere for many of the scenes, particularly the horn and brass section and the production direction by Laurence Connor and James Powell was faultless. After the finale of “Do You Hear the People Sing” there was a five minute standing ovation by the audience, such had been the quality of the performance.

This production is so good that I am going to see it again next week which speaks for itself. There are still a limited number of tickets left for the final week of this run in Leeds which concludes next Saturday 10 December.