Throughout his impressive career, English tenor Alfie Boe has been defined by the music he’s made his own. This has included the starring role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, which he has performed on and off for the better part of two decades. But who is the real Alfie Boe? Here, we finally have the answer – the complete portrait of not just the singer and actor but the man. And it’s impressive.

Alfie Boe. Photo © Ray Burmiston

Hot on the heels of his latest and largely self-penned album, Face Myself, Boe has decided to step out of costume and makeup to reveal the true colours of the Lancashire lad who first grew up listening to his father’s albums of opera, Canzone Napoletana and Swing Italiano. Accordingly, the concert opens with a medley of songs Boe’s father serenaded his mother with – his rousing rendition of Mambo Italiano setting the tone for the evening and the best version of the song this writer has heard (there have been many).

Boe’s musical world extended well beyond his father’s records into the indie scene of northern England, where he regularly travelled to Manchester to see bands like The Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets, soaking up the energy of the Haçienda and the Northern Quarter.

Reflecting Boe’s nostalgia for that formative period, the songs on Face Myself include references to the Burnage suburbs that gave us the Oasis brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, and a tribute to his hero Mani – the late bassist of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream – whom he acknowledges in this concert.

However, while the album and his Northern heritage provide the backdrop to his Australian concerts, Facing Myself, this isn’t just a promotional tour. Far from it. Charting his entire career, the set list reveals his chameleonic ability to transcend genres – his voice adopting myriad colours as he chops and changes between styles. From balladeer to crooner, rock ’n’ roller to (p)operatic tenor, there’s nothing he cannot do, and it’s always done with humility and vocal rigour.

His training at the Royal College of Music and experience in opera – be it Savoy, Classical or late-Romantic – have put him in good stead. His exemplary breath support and elegant phrasing are testament to his roles in productions for the New D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and the English National Opera, including as Nanki-Poo in Jonathan Miller’s iconic staging of The Mikado and Rodolfo in Baz Lurhmann’s groundbreaking production of La bohème when it transferred from Opera Australia to Broadway.

Meanwhile, Boe’s musical theatre background underpins his knack for interpreting a lyric. He inhabits each song body and soul, and where he’s penned it himself – as in the Act II opener White Lily Fields (co-written with Nick Bradley and Paul Whalley) – the performance is even more personal than the potent interpretations we are already accustomed to.

Along the way, we are treated to a healthy dose of skiffle with Lonnie Donegan’s Don’t You Rock Me Daddy-O, Boe then picking up the guitar for an earthy rendition of Roger Miller’s King of the Road and Ned Miller’s 1962 country classic From a Jack to a King.

Having occupied the same dressing room as Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, Boe also treats us to his version of Suspicious Minds, part of a medley he and Michael Ball have often performed together. Another ‘Ball & Boe’ showstopper is He Lives in You from The Lion King.

It takes a lot of guts to tackle classics associated with singers like Elvis, but Boe more than rises to the challenge. Frankie Valli and Freddie Mercury also get a look-in, with a medley of songs from Jersey Boys and the song Grease is the Word honouring the former, while a medley of Queen classics, including A Kind of Magic, Radio Gaga, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions, has even the octogenarian members of the audience on their feet during the encore.

Of course, no Alfie Boe concert would be complete without Bring Him Home for Les Misérables, and he reprises his breathtaking performance of that song from last year’s 40th-anniversary tour. Boe will shortly return to the musical’s ‘arena spectacular’ at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Radio City Music Hall in New York alongside our very own Marina Prior as Madame Thénardier.

Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular. Photo © Danny Kaan

It is hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Boe’s reading of Bring Him Home definitive, but given the song borrows heavily from the Humming Chorus in Madama Butterfly, it could well be that Boe’s own experience singing Puccini affords him the diction and lyricism required to convey the vulnerability and desperation one hears in both Puccini and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s writing. Whatever the reason, Boe’s version of Jean Valjean’s prayer has never sounded better, and the audience hangs on his ethereal falsetto, rising to its feet in the first of several mid-show standing ovations.

There’s plenty of humour too, and Boe recounts how, during his Broadway season of Les Mis, his theatre adjoined the Richard Rodgers Theatre where Hamilton was and still is playing. Before leaping into a hugely entertaining reading of King George III’s song You’ll Be Back, Boe paints a vivid picture of how he and Lin Manuel Miranda would play darts in their costumes before each performance.

It’s through such bon mots that Boe endears himself to his audience, breaking the fourth wall to engage with them directly and getting them to sing along at certain points throughout the concert.

Guest Artist Amy Manford delivers delightful renditions of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis with Steve Holness on keyboard, and a solo version of All I Ask of You from The Phantom of the Opera, in which she has starred around the world – most recently in this year’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.

She also joins Boe in two of the evening’s many highlights – the duets Come What May from Moulin Rouge! and Falling Slowly from the musical Once (also featured on the album Face Myself).

Alongside Holness, the other band members – Musical Director Murray Gould and Randall Breneman on guitars, Dan McKinna on bass and Craig Connett on drums – are all top notch, with some fine shredding on the guitars as the final number, Boe’s Run (Light up), reaches its crescendo.

Few stars burn as brightly as Alfie Boe, and Australian audiences are extremely fortunate to bathe in his light for a second time in as many years.

Alfie Boe performs at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne on 6 June; Festival Theatre, Adelaide on 7 June; and QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane on 9 June. His album Face Myself is out now.