'Les Miserables' is still the musical we know and love

The turntable is revolving and student revolutionaries are once again mounting the barricades at the Benedum Center.

Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg's seemingly immortal "Les Miserables" has returned for its eighth Pittsburgh appearance, this time as a subscriber extra offering of the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series.

It still has the power to move audiences.

First timers will enjoy the intense, swiftly moving tale and its legendary turntable and barricade, the stirring songs and Andreane Neofitou's detailed period costumes.

Frequent customers of this nearly 20-year-old musical epic will find its melodramatic story of mid-19th-century French men and women locked in struggles with life-and-death consequences remains nearly intact. Only a few minor bits and pieces have been snipped away to ensure the drama runs just less than three hours.

Cosette still dreams of her "Castle on a Cloud," Javert continues to urge us to "Look Down," Enjolras, Marius and the students ask us again "Do You Hear the People Sing?," Monsieur Thenardier once more proclaims himself "Master of the House" and the entire company joins in a heartfelt, anthem-like plea for "One More Day."

Just when you think events can't get any grimmer, you can depend on the incredibly dysfunctional Thenardier family to lighten the proceedings with their shameless -- yet comedic -- larceny.

And yet, as is true of all live theater, you never step into the same show twice.

Over time, this production seems to have grown darker -- at least visually, if not thematically.

Bright white lights pick singers from the black void, surrounding them with pools of light as they face the audience and sing their heartfelt solos. Done, the performers drift into a dreamlike void on the ever-obliging turntable. The barricade remains a sturdy and richly complex jumble. But other scenic elements appear to have been simplified or maybe they're just hidden in the shadows.

It has gotten technically sloppy.

For the third time this season, the opening night of a PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh offering was marred with obvious technical errors. This time, they included misplaced spotlights, dialogue rendered inaudible either because mikes were not turned on or sound levels were not correctly set, a wig mishap and noisy scene changes.

The ever-changing mix of personalities and performances of each cast also alters the show we see.

Randal Keith's Jean Valjean warbles a moving rendition of "Bring Him Home" and Javert understudy Trent Blanton's "Soliloqy" is moving.

But this time, Javert's relentless pursuit of the former prisoner Valjean seems less compelling than the love triangle between Eponine, Marius and the grown-up Cosette. Credit for that lies primarily in performances by Adam Jacobs as the joyously smitten Marius, Melissa Lyons as the spunky but emotionally vulnerable Eponine and Leslie Henstock's demure Cosette. Jacobs does a fine job with "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" as does Lyons with "On My Own."

For repeat viewers, those moments and interpretations that bring a new interest to familiar material make the evening rewarding. Additional Information:

Details

'Les Miserables'

Presented by: PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh Series

When: 7:30 p.m. today; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Admission: $22 to $64.

Where: Benedum Center, Seventh Street at Penn Avenue, Downtown.

Details: (412) 456-6666 or www.pgharts.org .