Do You Hear The People Sing!

For the second show of our little trip, I surprised Tom with tickets to our absolute favourite (I didn't tell him until the next second, the look on his face when he saw the huge Cosette on the Queens was priceless!).
Talk about different from In The Heights (click here) which we saw the night before...!

Based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name and with music and lyrics by Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer, Les Miserables was first shown at the Barbican Centre in London in 1985, it wasn't a big hit with the critics - though the word got out, and thousands of overnight ticket sales saved the show from closing there and then! Ever since then, it has become a worldwide phenomenon, winning 5 Oliviers, 8 Tonys and countless others - and has stayed in the West End ever since, having celebrated its 30th birthday last year!

I said that it is mine and Tom's favourite show, but amazingly, it was the first time seeing it the West End for both of us (with Tom only seeing the 2012 film adaptation and me seeing the 25th Anniversary Tour when it came to Salford in 2010), so it was really exciting for both of us to see the original version, revolve and all! And hearing that score live is just something else - easily gave me goosebumps all over!

Now please excuse me while I hope onto my Soap-Box as I think this needs to be said - I apologise to anyone behind us as we were trying to see what was going on. Why did we have to do that you say? Because there was someone in front of us who for ages WOULD NOT LEAN BACK - well he did but only for a few minutes in the entire thing! - and so his head was blocking part of the stage!!!! It was incredibly annoying as it sometimes took away from what was going on and really annoyed us both. Moral of the story - SIT BACK PLEASE!!!! 

Ok, I have put the Soap-Box away now, so we can get back to the good stuff! Yay!!

The whole cast was just brilliant, and it is hard to pick out just a few names to mention; there's Peter Lockyer, who has a beautiful voice, with such a pure tone and incredible range; there's Jeremy Secomb, who while having a slow start, was on fire from Stars onwards; there's ex-Miss Saigon (click here) co-stars Rachelle Ann Go and Eva Noblezada who broke everyone's hearts as Fantine and Eponine respectively (this was especially great to see as I didn't get a chance to see either of them in Saigon); or Bradley Jaden, who was an INCREDIBLE Enjolras (and as Tom said "Most epic death ever!"); the sweet voices of Little Cosette and Gavroche; or the brilliant surprise of Phil Daniels as a particularly menacing Thenardier...! Arrrggh they were all so good!!!! Along with all that, the ensemble worked together wonderfully, and kicked up the whole production a whole production to a whole other level! No wonder both Tom and I agreed we needed to go to the stage door afterwards and get our programmes signed!

What else to say... It was powerful, moving, hopeful - everything you would want Les Mis to be! It was wonderful to hear numbers such as Bring Him Home, I Dreamed A Dream and On My Own again as they soared up right to the rafters; but it was the Epilogue which was my favourite of the night (saved the best till last I guessed). I had managed to hold back the waterworks until then (anyone who knows me knows I do not cry easily at films etc), but when it came to the ending, I couldn't hold it back any more - it was almost as if hearing the lyrics for the first time again!

There is just a handful of material which I believe everyone should experience once and Les Mis is certainly one of them - there is someone everyone can relate to, and a story that everyone can connect with in some way, and I guarentee it will move you. It is not going to go anywhere any time soon, so get yourself down to the Queens Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue and catch this masterpiece.