Hugh Panaro

"The show's chief asset is Broadway veteran Hugh Panaro's robust, passionate, and delicately sung performance as Jean Valjean, the convict who must make a new life for himself all the while running from the doggedly unforgiving Inspector Javert (rendered powerfully, if sometimes woodenly, by Paul Schoeffler). Panaro, who has long scraggy hair and a Robinson Crusoe-like beard as the show begins, transforms remarkably over the 17 years covered in the musical. After Valjean's release from prison, the actor emerges with matinee-idol good looks that eventually give way to an elder statesman hunkyness that brings to mind Charlton Heston before his NRA days."

- review from Theatermania.com