Article: Hold the spectacle; Director Michael Brindisi hopes his scaled-back staging of "Les Miserables" emphasizes the story instead of spectacle.(ENTERTAINMENT)

Byline: Graydon Royce; Staff Writer

His theater doesn't have a turntable stage, so that was an easy decision. But Chanhassen's Michael Brindisi hinted that even if he had a turntable, he wouldn't use it for "Les Miserables." Take that, Cameron Mackintosh!

Chanhassen's "Les Miz" opens Friday in what Brindisi hopes will be a crystal-clear production, absent some of the big effects that mark touring and Broadway renditions. It's a gambit he's used before to overturn preconceptions about a show, principally with 2003's "Cats." And it's true to the mantra he never tires of repeating: Does the staging help tell the story?

Brindisi caught one of the ...

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