‘Les Miserables’ Tour Keeps Getting Better Everything Came Together Perfectly

“Les Miserables” Wednesday night, Spokane Opera House

After seeing “Les Miserables” four previous times, I thought I had run out of superlatives.

Apparently not, because as I sat through No. 5 on Wednesday, the word “best” came kept running through my mind.

Not only am I more convinced than ever that this is the best musical of our era, but also that this production was the best of the five versions I’ve seen.

That’s remarkable when you consider how long this tour has been running. It just keeps getting fresher the longer it tours, which is exactly the opposite of the usual trajectory of the long-distance runner.

It helps that this version has an absolutely brilliant Jean Valjean (Ivan Rutherford), a dominating Javert (Stephen Bishop) and an exceptional cast all around. It also helps that this show itself is a nearly miraculous collaboration between composer Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyricist Alain Boublil, English lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, designer John Napier, producer Cameron Mackintosh and directors John Caird and Trevor Nunn. And let’s not forget Victor Hugo.

This show is one of those fortuitous instances where everything - story, staging, songs - comes together perfectly in some kind of magical theatrical alchemy. This may happen only once in my lifetime which is why I will never get tired of seeing it. Did baseball fans in 1927 or 1998 get bored with the New York Yankees? No, because the exceptional is worth savoring.

Rutherford gets a huge amount of the credit for making this version so satisfying. Talk about range, this man can go from baritone to tenor to above, with control and emotion. His “Bring Him Home” was an utterly heartfelt prayer, and his deathbed reprise, (with “Bring him home” replaced with “Take me home”) was unbearably tender and beautiful. His acting range is just as wide as his vocal range. He is convincing as a criminal, and just as convincing as the saint he becomes.

Stephen Bishop is a booming, implacable Javert, the very embodiment of a rigid, self-righteous, tyrannical state. Fantine (Joan Almedilla), Eponine (Sutton Foster) and Marius (Tim Howar) were right up there with the best I’ve seen.

I was particularly pleased to see J.P. Dougherty back as the leering, grasping Thenardier. Dougherty was Thenardier in the first tour to visit here in 1991, and none of the actors who followed had quite the same tongue-wagging delight in dissolution. Dougherty’s enunciation of the lyrics seems to have slipped a bit over thousands of performances, but his stage presence and flair for physical comedy were as strong as ever.

“Les Miserables” is a particular treasure in that it uses art for higher purposes. Its depiction of poverty in France in the 1820s and 1830s is chilling, but it shows people who are idealistic enough to do something about it.

And in Jean Valjean, we have a truly selfless hero to emulate. Here’s a man who was abused and beaten down by the system. And what did he do in retaliation? He became generous and loving and responsible. Now, that was a subversive act.