Thirty years before Hamilton took Broadway by storm and rewrote the modern musical, another epic production with historical roots was taking over the world. Les Miserables ran on Broadway from 1987 to 2003, for nearly 7,000 performances. It has been staged in London and Toronto, touring companies have traversed the globe numerous times and we all know the award-winning 2012 film adaptation with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.
Though not as richly layered and constructed as Hamilton, Les Miz is a bigger and more conventionally musical show. It is a sung-through production, that is, it contains no actual spoken dialogue. On that score, Hamilton contains very little, and most of its dialogue is in verse.
Les Miz brims with classical melodrama and sumptuous songs for solo artists, small ensembles and large choruses. In this way, it is more like opera than musical theater. And like the best of French or Italian opera, Les Miz has great songs for the tenor hero.
This song -- Bring Him Home -- comes mid-way through Act II. Jean Valjean prays for the safety of the young liberator Marius, whom Valjean has grown fond of. The opening of the song is pitched quite high and the piece has a wide dynamic range so it's a true vocal workout. Nick Cartell starred in the show's recent national tour and he pours it on in this cabaret performance of the showstopper.
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