Les Mis!

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to see productions of the iconic musical "Les Miserables" in Washington, DC, New York City, and Philadelphia. I've sacrificed myself to many a droning, donation-seeking PBS executive in order to watch the spectacular 10th Anniversary Concert special of the show, recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1995, and have listened to the cast recording countless times. Today, I had the amazing good fortune to attend in person the phenomenal 25th Anniversary concert at the 02 Center in East London. I still have goosebumps.

Friday, Chris's US boss and his wife arrived in London for a weekend of sightseeing before we all head to Brussels together tomorrow for a 3-day regional HR conference. Chris & I completely enjoyed our time with them from the time we sat down to dinner Friday evening until we dropped them at the hotel this afternoon. Saturday was spent touring Westminster Abbey, walking to Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament and having a lovely lunch at Fortnum & Mason (called the quintessential English store, opened in 1707). After some R & R back at the hotel, Kyle met up with us and we all had dinner at our favorite London pub, the Audley - it's near the hotel we stayed in and we wanted to make sure our guests tried some authentic - and good - pub food.

The big event for today was the Les Mis concert, and although I was exited to see the show again, I had no idea what we were in for. Our seats were amazing, on the floor in front of the stage in Row L. The concert version obviously doesn't have the staging that you would normally see in a musical, but the cast was huge, and was not only joined on the stage by the full orchestra, but also a choir of hundreds. The music in the show is stirring and emotional, as anyone who has seen or heard it knows, but to be able to view and listen to it from today's vantage point was truly special. One of my favorites was Lea Solonga who played Fantine (and has previously played the tragic Eponine); and this production's Jean Valjean was the best I've heard other than the man himself, Colm Wilkinson. You can imagine my initial horror to realize that Marius was being played today by Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers - surely the show didn't need a publicity boost? - but after a disappointing first act, he improved in the second and even made a decent go of it during "A Little Fall of Rain", thank goodness.

Following the finale was the best surprise: out on the stage marched the original cast of Les Mis, which debuted at London's Barbican Theatre on the 8th of October, 1985. And then, as if we could stand another spectacular theatre moment, out came 3 previous London Valjeans (including the original, Wilkinson) who all took turns singing "Bring Him Home". Goosebumps followed (or I should say continued and just got bigger.) The show's producer Cameron Macintosh was in the house to say a few words, as were the gentlemen who wrote the music & lyrics. Everyone on the stage seemed just as exuberant as we all were as audience members, and I think every person in the building had to have left with the sense that we had all been a part of something really amazing.

By the way, if you've never seen "Les Mis" and have survived this blog post, I hope I have encouraged you to see it one day soon. It's truly one of the best.

http://www.lesmis.com/about/25th-anniversary-year/