The Daily Beast agrees: “ ... several rounds of applause and a standing ovation later, Les Misérables proved all the naysayers wrong. It hits all the right notes and is, in this writer’s estimation, the newly minted frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar.”
Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience wrote, “By the end of Jean Valjean's lengthy prologue with Hugh Jackman lending a thrilling haunted immediacy to "Valjean's Soliloquy" / "What Have I Done?" my eyes were watering and I had chills everywhere. The audience at Alice Tully Hall was similarly elated with spontaneous applause breaking out right then.” Kristopher Tapley of In Contention tweeted: “ ... wept. Film's a triumph. They're on their feet here. NYC crowd ate ... it ... up.”
The Hollywood Reporter noted that, “Universal's Les Miserables was met with unabashed enthusiasm on Friday (the best notices were reserved for best supporting actress Oscar hopeful Anne Hathaway's performance).”
Russell Crowe, who plays Javert, saw the film for the first time himself and tweeted, “I saw Les Miserables tonight. I am so grateful to be in that ensemble led by a remarkable performance by Hugh Jackman.Valjean is AWESOME” as well as a call-out to the production sound mixer: “Simon Hayes, you are on here somewhere. What an achievement man, miraculous in the environments ... much respect brother”