When it comes to me keeping up with new musicals, Les Misérables slipped through the cracks.
I’d never seen the show, which won eight Tony Awards, including “Best Musical.” I’d never seen the 2012 movie. I didn’t know a single song from the musical.
All I knew going into the Orpheum recently to see the musical was that the lead character was Jean Valjean and the show had something to do with a prison. And it was set in France.
I wouldn’t let anybody tell me anything about it because I wanted to be totally surprised by everything.
Since I took Spanish in high school and college (and still can’t read or speak it well), I had to look up the definition of “Les Misérables.” One meaning is “The Wretched.”
Well, this show is anything but that.
This is a stupendous production. I loved everything about it. The cast is great, the scenery is spell bounding, and the music is beautiful.
Hints about two things that astounded me (and won’t spoil anything for anybody): a scene with a bridge and the beautiful “Bring Him Home” song, which I plan to add to my repertoire at my piano gigs. So, now when people ask me to play something from Le Mis, I don’t have to say, “I don’t know anything.” And have to resort to playing “Edelweiss” or some other musical mainstay.
The story from the 1862 Victor Hugo novel is about Valjean, who is released from prison, where he’s been for 19 years. He was locked up for a minor offense. And it traces his life after prison as he’s on the lam after breaking parole and the people he encounters that change his life for the better.
That sounds so simplistic, but I don’t want to say much because I want people who’ve never seen it to be surprised. Like I was.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Orpheum so crowded. I ran my usual several flights to the top-floor restroom at intermission only to find that floor jam-packed, too.
If you want to see Les Miserables before it ends its Orpheum run February 11th, you’d better hurry.
“Very limited tickets are still available,” says Brett Batterson, president and CEO of the Orpheum Theatre Group. “We sold 96 percent of the tickets each performance.”
They might have 30 to 50 tickets left for each of the remaining performances, he says.
“This show has always done well. They advertise it as the world’s most popular musical. I don’t know where they get that basis, but that’s their tagline.”
As for the Orpheum performances past and present, Batterson says, “It’s always done well.”
And, he adds, “It’s always sold like crazy.”
What sets Les Miserables apart from other musicals? “In my opinion, it all starts with the story. The book is a classic. Much loved.”
And, he says, “The music is so engaging that everybody leaves the theater humming one of the songs if not multiple songs.”
Then there’s “the brilliant staging,” Batterson says. “How beautiful it is to see it unfold on the stage.”
People are going to the theater again, Batterson says. Their audiences are returning. “What we’ve see this year looking back, Funny Girl sold really well. Beetlejuice was pretty much sold out. Six was pretty much sold out. Company did well. It didn’t sell out or anything, but it did well.
“I think we’re seeing the audiences are back,” he says. The “fear of Covid is past.” People aren’t reluctant to go to the theater.
And, he says, “I think the shows are really strong. So, people are coming. And on the 26th of February we’re going to announce a really strong season for next year.”
