All 36 actors in the cast are highly skilled. Ivan Rutherford is a superb Jean Valjean, believable as the fiercely rebellious convict and later as the fatherly savior of Cosette and Marius. His high voice extension is extraordinary, even to a listener accustomed to opera countertenors. Aymee Garcia and J.P. Dougherty are simply marvellous as the Thenardiers, whether they're thieving innkeepers, corpse robbers, or hilariously gussied up nouveaux riches. Because this is a musical and the singers are miked, the smallish voices of Joan Almedilla as Fantine and Regan Thiel, the winning little Cosette, come through very audibly, which would not happen in opera.
Action is propelled realistically on a giant turntable and by means of swift scene changes.
Most impressive were the two large scene sections rolled in from the wings to form a bridge in Paris or high-piled to become the revolving barricade. On it the revolutionaries, led with fine fiery singing by Stephen Tewksbury, climb and shoot until they are defeated, and then their bodies are shown draped over the barricade in dramatic tableau. When I was in high school many many years ago, one of my classmates was Bucky Fuller's daughter Allegra, so I knew about this unique American visionary, though I was too young and too dumb to understand what an extraordinary man he was. Later his Geodesic Domes became fairly familiar, but the all-embracing extent of his creative mind still reaches beyond the understanding of most of us. Now a provocative one-man play based on Fuller's life and work is coming to San Francisco.