You guys I saw the current tour of Les Miserables and it was FUCKING INCREDIBLE

I have seen Les Mis like ten times since I was ten years old and the things they did to revitalize it were STUNNING and the cast just utterly spectacular. I want to hear the man who preformed as Valjean sing the original end note from Glöckner’s Wie aus Stein/Made of Stone very much.

Songs I never cared for and background stuff they enhanced, just, WOW, I enjoyed it all so much. There was personality and care put into every one of the barricade crew and you could kind of follow their little stories in the background of the larger main beats. The drunken existential dread delivered in a panicked flamboyant way I hadn’t heard before, with Gavroche following him and him getting clearly attached with hugs and big brother protective buddies stuff and then after Gavroche is shot the guy is just there, holding him. Stuff starts happening around him and is like you see everything in strobe light slo mo as the deaths for this man hit like fireworks while he clings to a dead boy. Do you see him rush in a the last because he finally thinks it is worth it to fight or is basically suicide? I don’t know, but watching it come together is magnificent. They clipped a few songs short or entirely (no more Little People beyond The first line used to tell off Javert) and they changed the speed of a few of them just slightly, and there were some lyrical modifications in places, but nothing made me mad it’s always just like oh so they’re doing this that’s interesting!

Glad to see some race blind casting with our Black Fantine who wasn’t wearing a blonde untextured wig. Korean Eponine. I think with what things are and what many people would benefit from seeing is a character we believe was unjustly treated and put in prison and then put on a parole which basically makes him a pariah which then makes him steal and lash out, who is then finally treated as a human and it lets him finally be what he deserved to be as a man who tried to help a starving child. I think a proper touring company would do good things for how people are seeing real people lately with a black man as unshakeable “doing right” Valjean. Ours was not, but I couldn’t stop thinking that I would love to see a black performer get the chance to do the role and also see what his presence there could show and mean for people. Nuance would need to be investigated by people qualified to speak on such things further, but my strong feeling while watching was that a prominent production should explore this.

Back to the show I saw, they did some spectacular stuff with spotlighting. The barricade coming into stage just.. looms up over Eponine and all the shapes from these broken pieces of furniture are stark black and white because of the lighting and that’s all that’s there except for her bright red hat and she’s there just standing in the middle staring at the audience and it is so fucking cool. Beautiful composition of individual big shots. A digital background that knows exactly when it is needed and doesn’t over power or over stay its welcome.

Anyway hi I usually talk about dolls and Yu-Gi-Oh and distant levels of Star Trek but please consider going and seeing a really spectacular tour of Les Mis if it is hitting up your neck of the woods, especially if it’s been a while since you saw it. I feel like I experienced it brand new even though I’ve known all the words for 25 years or so.