Okay, so I'm nuts about Les Miz. It's just such a powerful story that I keep coming back to it.

I got the BluRay disc of the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables, and I got around to watching some of it recently, with the volume turned up just a little bit. (I was home alone!) I'd just like to point out a couple of standout performances.

• Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean - he steals the show with his performances of "Bring Him Home", "Who Am I?" and in the encore version of "Bring Him Home" with Colm Wilkinson and two other Valjean players.


• Samantha Barks as Eponine, who gives it her all in her solo "On My Own"


• Ramin Karimloo as Enjolras, whose strong voice gave me chills in "Red and Black" and in his parts of "One Day More"


• Nick Jonas as Marius (yes, Jonas as in Jonas Brothers) for his performance of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. Nick does not have the theatrical voice of his co-performers, not by a long shot, but he stays right on key and puts himself into the role. Much criticism was heaped on Jonas in various reviews of the DVD and of the concert itself, but I felt it was overdone. Yes, he's not as good at Broadway style songs as the others in this and many other productions, but he's not THAT bad. He hits the notes he needs to hit. And he actually does a very good job on the previously mentioned song.

There were other good performances also, such as that of Norm Lewis as Javert and Lea Salonga as Fantine. But the ones listed deserved special mention, I think.

*****