Les Miserables 5.31.2011

Last Tuesday we had the opportunity to go see Les Miserables in Salt Lake City with our season tickets we have to Capitol Theatre. I love this musical. This may in fact be my favorite musical. I think I have only seen it live three times now, but I have heard it, or seen it on PBS a bout a million other times. I know all the music and have sung along to it a thousand times… any yes, each time I get a little teary eyed (all through the second act) when I hear the music.

Before the show John and I went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Let me just say… I wasn’t impressed. Sure the menu is like 40 pages long, and the portion size is on the side of  ridiculous. It was so over priced. I really don’t think I should have to pay $15 for a salad. Granted, the tostada salad I had was pretty good (and fed me for two days,) but it wasn’t THAT good. Oh, and it was totally full of Cilantro. I hate Cilantro, I just don’t see why everything has to be covered in it recently. Yuck. John had the Sheppard’s Pie and that really wasn’t that great. The cheesecake was good though. We tried the Apple Strudel Cheesecake. It was pretty good. Not as great as I expected it to be. Will I ever eat there again? I doubt it unless someone insists that we go with them… besides, that’s way out of our way to go there.

On to the show:

I love the Capitol Theatre. I love going to the theatre. There is just something so fancy about it that even though I’m in my nice clothes I feel underdressed and find myself looking down my nose at those that show up in their shorts and work grubbies. I think that going to the theatre should be a special occasion that demands a little bit of formality.

We of course arrived early, as good manners dictate and while we waited for the doors to open my cute husband bought me a souvenir shirt that has “24601” across the front (it’s awesome.) and a magnet for our fridge. Usually I don’t think we need to buy the over priced souvenirs in the lobby, but this time he convinced me that I needed something.

And then I really just have to complain about the people that have their season tickets behind us. Wow they are annoying. First of all, it seems like they know everyone that walks by and then they talk about their holidays in Spain and their weekends in Kittybunkport, and their yacht and blah blah blah… Okay, not really, but they might as well be. That’s about the same idea. Basically they’re rich obnoxious people that we just want to turn around and smack. We like to mock them in our spare time. They were especially annoying that night. What with the loud candy wrappers and talking. I did turn around and give the father (of all people to be so disrespectful of others) a nasty look that stopped his candy wrappers for the rest of the show.

Okay, now I’ll tell you about the production…

This performance was… mediocre. The voices of the performers were weak and not very memorable. The only person in the production was the adult Eponine. She was a very lovely African-American woman with such a beautiful voice and she just belted out the tunes the way they were meant to be sung. Too bad she had such a short amount of stage time. I wanted more from Little Gavroche, and Cosette but I was disappointed there too. I will say that this Marius was a million times better then that Jonas brother that played him in the recent “Dream a Dream” Production on PBS. (That production, by the way, it totally worth watching.)   

One neat thing about this production was that this touring season they have redone all the sets to more closely resemble the original drawings by Victor Hugo that were made for the book. Everything is grittier, and darker. I loved how the projections on the rear curtain would move to give the illusion of marching through the streets or slumming through the sewers. That impressed me.

There were some sound problems with the microphone’s and the heads of the people in front of me were annoying, yet over all, I suppose the production was just fine, but I have seen better.