When I was a freshman in high school, I was still attempting to figure out where exactly I belonged. I took Honors classes and was in the chorus. I was connecting, but I still wanted to join more clubs and be a part of the school experience. That spring, I went with two of my close friends to see our high school’s musical. Every spring the drama teacher would select their musical of choice. In 2004, that just so happed to be Grease. Popular at high schools throughout the country and so catchy it hurts, Grease is one of the best shows for high school students to perform. It does, after all, center around them. I vowed, after watching the show, to become a part of drama club. Seeing students singing, dancing, and smiling on stage made me yearn to be a part of it.
When Mr. Colangelo, the drama teacher, tacked a flyer to the bulletin board outside of the theatre announcing our sophomore musical, we all scurried to see what he had chosen. And… then we continued to stare at the paper in utter disbelief. “No,” we muttered amongst ourselves. Those murmurs carried throughout the halls. “He’s gone crazy,” some said.
Mr. Colangelo had chosen Les Miserables as the 2005 spring musical.
I’ll never forget the first rehearsal after the show had been cast. In spite of being selected, a lot of us were extremely apprehensive. Les Miserables is perhaps the most renowned musical of all time, and certainly one of the most beloved. Furthermore, it is one of the most DIFFICULT as nearly the entire play is sung. We thought Mr. C was overambitious or too zealous or maybe just insane. When we all sat on stage, legs crossed, and listened as the drama teacher instructed us to close our eyes. Imagine, he said, that you left rehearsal and drove home. Picture, he instructed, turning onto your street but instead of houses, you saw nothing but flattened debris where your home once stood. We saw the images in our minds. We felt the pain as he described how we would have known, in that moment, everyone – our families, our friends, our neighbors – was gone.
When we opened our eyes, some of us had tears in them. Mr. Colangelo motioned to the script he was holding and told us that what we had imagined was a mere glimpse of the pain those young French revolutionaries felt. And from that point forward, we didn’t doubt our director’s vision again. Les Miserables was the most successful musical in my high school career. It sold out both weekends and was a wild success. We didn’t know that we could do it. It took a lot of hours of work, rehearsals, blocking, costuming, and singing to make the show what it was. But because I was a part of the musical, I fell head-over-heels for it.
That’s why when I heard that there would be a movie version of my beloved musical… well, I just knew that I would have to witness the experience in theatres. Because the truth is that Les Miserables IS an experience. It’s an emotional journey of not one, but multiple characters. It’s centered around love and family and God and sacrifice. The characters are woven together in this brilliant patchwork – they’re nearly all connected to each other in some way – which makes the overarching story that much more powerful.
Before seeing the film, I was a tad bit nervous. But excited. And a tad worried. After seeing the film, I applauded with the rest of my theatre and felt relief – it had lived up to my expectations. So I thought I would discuss the characters/actors and the music of Les Miserables, since I haven’t been able to fully emotionally process the weight of the film quite yet.
(Bear in mind that if you know absolutely nothing about Les Miserables – or how to even pronounce it – this post WILL contain spoilers. So. Yeah.)
