Find out what the critics had to say about Allam’s performance as Inspector Javert in Les Misérables at the Barbican Theatre…
Roger Allam is formidably upright and censorious as Javert.
– The London Standard, 9 October 1985
This is not a company celebration like Nickleby, but an application of those values along with the musical experience gathered by the team on Cats and Starlight Express. To that extent the show is an important one, bridging gaps between musical and opera, and subjecting rock musicians to RSC tutelage while last year’s Clarence, Roger Allam, is unveiled in the role of Javert as an outstanding performer in the musical idiom. (…) The score also underpins such exciting production moments as the arrival of the barricade, the suicidal leap of Javert (done by the bridge flying up as Mr. Allam free falls on the spot) and the descent to the sewers with lots of dry ice and naked banks of light not equalled in impact since Mr. Hersey did something similar in Evita.
– Financial Times, 9 October 1985
Colm Wilkinson sings well for the long-suffering Valjean, as does Roger Allam for his policeman enemy, who in the end is so confused by the ex-criminal’s obvious goodness he drowns himself.
– Daily Telegraph, 10 October 1985
This [mood-lightening gaiety], coming midway through the first act, is a vital moment because it is the first time you feel the real tang of individual personality on stage; and this is because Thenadier is richly embodied by Alun Armstrong with a face like Bardolph’s, all “bubukles and whelks.” Mr Armstrong, along with Roger Allam who lends Javert a haunted rectitude, is one of the two RSC regulars in the show, and it is conspicuous how they bring on stage with them an extra-textual depth mostly lacking in the cartoon-like characters.
– The Guardian, 10 October 1985
And Roger Allam – rare among the cast of this RSC production in actually being a member of the RSC – brings glowering weight to Javert, eventually hurling himself into a splendid, Irvingesque suicide.
Les Misérables is everything the musical theatre ought to be doing, and within the inevitable limitations of its pageant there are some striking performances(…) But we also get some very strong RSC classical support from Roger Allam as Javert, plunging into the swollen Seine (…)
– Punch, 16 October 1985
Colm Wilkinson and Roger Allam, representing mercy and law respectively, bring a steady and unpretentious power to their conflict, and Alun Armstrong is marvellously sly and toothless as Thénardier, the scavenging opportunist forever lurking on its fringes; but then the cast as a whole is surprisingly strong, considering many performers have been recruited from outside RSC ranks.
– New Statesman, 18 October 1985
Javert, given an impressive, implacable presence by Roger Allam, faces the audience, jumps from the bridge into a rippling circle of shadows and, as the bridge rises, he sinks, drowning before our eyes.
Sir Allam,
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I saw the original cast perform this magnificent musical five times while living in London. Took my kids; took our visiting parents; took European customers when they came to London. We also saw the 25th anniversary concert performance live at the Barbican. My absolute favorite characters were Thenardier and Javert, due not so much due to the characters but to the magnificent performances of Armstrong and Allam. Ever since I have relished watching anything else Alun Armstrong does, marveling at his wondrous versatility. Somehow, over all these years, I never noticed the name of the actor who played Javert. And then today, listening to the original cast recording on my iPhone while working out I noticed … ROGER ALLAM? What? Inspector Thursday? Impossible! No two characters in the history of the genre could be more different … what an astonishing actor this man is. I’m in awe of his prodigious talent.