Do You Hear the People Sing?

Last night I finally went to see that old theatrical warhorse,
"Les Miserables" in its second incarnation, at the Broadhurst theatre. Overlong, and densely packed with plot (and thank God I knew what to expect by reading Masterplots first!), it is salvaged somewhat by the intermittently beautiful score and the gorgeous singing of Lea "Miss Saigon" Salonga as the ill-fated Fantine. I also enjoyed the Playbill bio of the understudy Victor Hawks, who went on for the leading man: "He's not really famous, so unless you are related to him or a friend, you have not heard of him, but he promises he's not a hack."