Les Miserables

When I was ten or so, my family went on vacation to California one summer. Les Miserables was touring, and my parents decided to take my older sister and I to it. They left my two younger sibling with a sitter, and I don't know why they didn't dump us with a sitter too. But they brought us along, and this one decision instilled in me a fascination with the story and the music of Les Miserables for the majority of my childhood and adult life . It is an obsession really. I learned to play all the Les Mis songs on the piano and eventually read the 1000+ page novel in high school.

After the vacation was over, I came home and sought out everything associated with it. I sung, in the solitude of my room, "On My Own," imagining myself as the pure, broken-hearted Eponine, walking the lonely streets of France, looking for an unrequited love in the midst of the French Revolution. I fancied myself as having moved into the realm of adult matters after seeing the show. No longer could I sing solos from Little Mermaid, for imagining oneself as a mermaid was now silly and childish. How could one take themselves seriously, I decided, when they sang about sea urchins transforming into humans? No, there were more important things in life to worry about, things like winning the heart of Marius and somehow getting Cosette out of the picture.

No one seemed to understand the power the play had over me. My best friend Melinda politely listened to my synopsis of the story but then went to play Nintendo when I told her that because she now knew the story, we must naturally act out and sing the entire thing.

My obsession faded, but I still found ways to incorporate the play into my life. Once when I misbehaved, my dad made me "stand on the wall," which was my parents preferred method of punishment. Standing with my nose touching the wall, I wasn't allowed to move until an alloted amount of time was up. I remember that this particular time, I continued to make sounds, with each noise or word adding a minute to my sentence. After being released nearly double the original time, I headed straight for the piano, where I pounded out "Master of the House" in the most loud and vulgar tone I could manage. My fingers ached, but my act of defiance was not without satisfaction. "I know that was aimed at me," my dad said, and I smiled smugly.

I read the unabridged version of Les Miserables in high school. It took my a year to finish, but i have since proclaimed it as my favorite book of all time. This time around, I fell in love with Jean Valjean and his character development. I was fascinated by the way he changed from a embittered, desperate convict to a compassionate, humble man, willing to forgive those who had wronged him, and the reasons for this change (the priest who gives him the candlesticks and implores him to turn his life to God). Javert, on the other hand, stalks Valjean, believing that people should must forever pay for their mistakes and be labeled by what they have done wrong. I went to a fireside my first year of college and the speaker talked about Les Miserables. "The one book that is not scripture or something written by a prophet but IS THE CLOSEST THING TO SCRIPTURE is Les Miserables." "I knew it!" I thought triumphantly and proudly.

On Saturday, July 7th, my dad and I went to the Pioneer Theatre Company and stood in line for several hours, hoping to score tickets to what would be the last regional showing of Les Miserables before it was snatched back up by Broadway. There were tremendous odds against us getting tickets, but we were able to get 4, and so my dad went home and let me, my brother, my sister, and my mom see it. Ironically, there were 4 empty seats behind us the entire show. The ticket office manager got hasty and had ended sales too quickly. My dad could have joined us. Our seats were incredible. The were 5 or 6 rows back, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE. It was a perfect view.

All the leads had beautiful voices. Eponine was incredible; she was cute and petite and had such a rich, strong, emotion-filled voice. The Thenardiers were awesome, as always. Although Jean Valjean is the protagonist, he's never really captured my attention as much as the supporting characters. This time, however, I loved him, especially after "Bring Him Home." The song gave me chills.

The last scene of the play, in which Valjean reveals Cosette's history to her and then is escorted to heaven by Fantine and Eponine has always touched me deeply. I began to cry as Fantine and Eponine entered and started singing. By "To love another person is to see the face of God..." I was sobbing into my hands. I was a little embarassed, but then when I looked up, Jean Valjean was looking RIGHT AT ME. My heart skipped a beat, and I couldn't breathe. "Is he looking at me?" I wondered briefly, and he was. Our eyes were locked, as if he was singing right to me. I do not say this with any exaggeration or delusions of grandeur sort of crap. Jean Valjean was looking straight into my eyes as he sang, with tears running down his cheeks. It touched me straight to the heart, and any composure I had disappeared. When he stepped forward for his curtain call, the applause was thunderous and lasting. William Solo (the actor who played Valjean) stood, tears running down his cheeks, his body shaking gently. I believe he was emotional because this was his last performance as Valjean at PTC. That last scene is so heart-wrenching anyway, I would have been emotional no matter what, but because Valjean had looked into my eyes and had cried with me, it was one of the most touching things ever.


Valjean and Fantine