Les Misérables is one of my all time favourite books and musicals. Up until this year (and roughly a month ago) I had never actually seen the musical on stage. I know, I know, I call myself a fan and yet have never seen it. In my own defense, I have tried. So many trips to the box office only to be told the show was sold out for the next few nights and that I would not have any luck in gaining tickets. Sigh. Why the change this year? Well, it just so happens that I have friends who happen to have amazing luck at getting tickets for this show, and who happened to be going to see it one of the days I was down in London. They bought me a ticket, and well... I don't need to go into any further detail here because it's really rather obvious now, isn't it?
So, joined by two dear friends, I went for the first ever time to see Les Misérables properly... and promptly spent the majority of the second act in tears because all those highly charged emotional moments? Yeah, so much more so when you're in the theatre seeing it played out in front of you. Especially all the deaths - Gavroche and Jean Valjean's in particular had me welling up. But, as many of the cast members said when we took a visit round to the stage door, if they didn't have us crying, they wouldn't be doing the show any justice.
And... there's actually nothing I can say that sums up the show any better than that, actually. If the cast do not have you in tears at least once during the point of the show, it has not been a good production. I can share a story of what happened at the stage door though. We had an understudy on for Grantaire - and he was fantastic, by the way - and at the stage door, he was delighted to hear another Scottish accent. He was from an area of Glasgow that I know vaguely well, and that the Dad knew better, and he was just pleased to hear the accent. You find that a lot when you're Scottish and anywhere outside Scotland - hearing the accent just cheers you up.
All in all? What else can I say about Les Mis other than it's a fantastic show that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime? I'd close out this review with some lyrics from Do You Hear the People Sing (which would be very apt considering the UK political situation right now) but I don't need to say that.
You will hear them sing, so go join in.
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