Beautiful Misery

It's hard for me to imagine that there are people out there who have never seen or heard "Les Misérables".  The musical has been playing somewhere in the world for decades.  It holds a huge place in my history of musical theatre.

The first musical I ever saw was, strangely enough, "Cats", another long-running musical.  My parents took me to see it when I was pretty young, maybe 8 or 9 years old.  Let's just say, I didn't understand all of it, but it got me started.  I went to see it again later as an adult and the people I went with thought it was the craziest thing they'd ever seen.  As much as I'd agree that it has the feel of an acid trip (not that I've ever been on one), I kind of found that I understood it better the second time.

Les Miz was introduced to me when I was 12.  We spent the entire school year learning the story, singing it in four-part harmony in choir, and then finally seeing it at the theatre.  To this day, I still remember the words to almost all of the songs, not to mention the two-part harmony for "Castle on a Cloud", which you never hear in the musical because Cosette sings it solo.

When they announced that they were making a huge film version, I can't tell you how excited I was.  This was going to be epic, which means only one thing: you were going to absolutely love it or absolutely hate it.  Today, on opening day, I went to see it with a friend from middle school who experienced Les Miz with me.  When it was over, I found myself in the category of absolutely loving it.

It's a depressing story, to be sure.  But it's not a surprise.  I mean, couldn't you guess that from the title?  And anyway, just because it's a sad story doesn't mean it's not awesome.  Romeo and Juliet, Ghost, Titanic - you know how these stories end before they begin.  But the ending is not the point.

Anyway, back to the film.  I'm surprised to say that I liked Russell Crowe's singing more than Hugh Jackman's.  Anne Hathaway deserves all of the praise she's being given.  And as for Amanda Seyfried, I swear I kept thinking to myself that this girl is not going to be able to hit that note, and then she does.  She's a crazy soprano, but I kind of knew that from "Mamma Mia".  (Actually, my favourite song of hers from that musical was during the credits, when she sings "Thank You for the Music")

I've seen countless different musicals, both on stage (Phantom (we don't need to use the whole title), The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, Wicked, Billy Elliot, Chicago, etc.) and screen (Rent, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, to name a few).  Les Miz is still my favourite.

I have two tips for you if you're going to see the film:
1) Don't drink anything (unless you're willing to miss part of the film for a bathroom break)
2) Don't sit too close (everyone gets an extreme close-up)

"When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums..."

A White-ish Christmas

I left my parents' house late last night and then had to stop for gas.  As I was filling up, it was around midnight, and it started to snow.  It was a beautiful, magical kind of feeling.

I woke up this morning and looked outside.  Enough snow had accumulated to cover the grass with a light dusting.  For the first time in a long time, we had a white Christmas.

Okay, a white-ish Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

"Just like the ones I used to know"