Les Miz

Back in January we got en email from this fancy theater in San Francisco where we saw Wicked a few years ago that our all time favorite musical, Les Miserables, was coming for a short run this summer.  I snagged 4 of the quickly-selling-out tickets and we've been looking forward to this for 7 months now.  Our family has been obsessed with Les Mis forever.  Dave and I have loved the music before we even loved each other.  In college, he took me to see it in Chicago.  He has read the entire 1261 page Victor Hugo original; I've read the abridged; Ella read a young readers version this year.  The kids have grown up listening to the soundtrack and can both explain the beautiful story to you and sing every word.  We were SO EXCITED to share a viewing of the actual Broadway production with them!  It was the most grand of finales for our summer.

The Orpheum is an old and ornate theater.  I loved everything about experiencing this through the eyes of the girls-- one of the highlights being taking in such a fancy place!

The musical was phenomenal!  As soon as that first big "Bum-BUM" for the song "Look Down" came from the orchestra pit, I had chills.  What we especially loved in this performance was a combination of lavish production value, like real gunshots, strobe lights and smoke during the battle at the barricade scene, or lots of elaborate moving sets and interesting lighting and choreography, paired with several times where the actors were alone on an empty stage singing their powerful solos (like "I Dreamed a Dream" or "On my Own" or "Who Am I?") and letting the amazing music speak for itself.

I LOVE that the girls loved it as much as we hoped they would.  I have never been able to avoid the tears that come at the end of this story.  As I was wiping my own eyes, Ella next to me grabbed my handkerchief to mop up the tears streaming down hers as well.  We leaped to our feet in a rousing standing ovation, screaming cheers and clapping till our hands hurt when it was done and left the theater all goosebumpy for the rest of the night!

It was something I hope we'll all remember forever.  The short term impact has had the 4 of us singing, whistling, and humming the Les Mis songs for 2 straight days now...