A great classic, a great musical

The Hindu, Friday October 16,1998

A touch of period.... The chorus against the ramparts in "Les Miserables" staged at the Open Air Theatre of India Habitat Centre in New Delhi by Kids World.

"Les Miserables. " as presented by Kids World in New Delhi this past week, is a superb revival of Victor Hugo's classic. Romesh Chander writes…

Thanks to Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabherwal's concept and direction, Babush Joe Santana's music, Roysten Abel's lighting and set design, the talented young lot of 75 actors in the 12-22 age group and the ambience of the India Habitat Centre's open air theatre, "Les Miserables", presented by Kids World, was transformed into one of the best musicals that we have seen on the Delhi stage in recent years.

To set the ball in motion, some three months back Kids World sent out posters to a dozen schools and colleges inviting students for auditions. From about 200 students who responded, 75 were selected and thus began 10 weeks of gruelling training in acting, speech and singing. If the performance of some of the young actors like Rahul Pulkashi, Rohan Aggarwal, Neeraj Devraj, Khalil Joseph, Tara Baswani and the chorus is any indication, it is amazing how the MTV generation took to the classical style of singing under Babush Santana's guidance. It was a totally new experience for the cast and a pleasant surprise for the audience.

"Les Miserables" as presented by Kids World is a revival, if one may use the word, of Victor Hugo's classic. The directors, Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabharwal have by and large kept to Hugo's story-line. The thread to link the different scenes is taken from the original book and so is the language. About 20 percent of the lyrics to carry the story forward have been taken from the recently released CD and the rest written by Lushin and Bubbles.