Les Misérables

My Day Trip to London...

The date was 26th May 2001. It was 7.00am. On a Saturday. I'd had 5 hours sleep. And I had a train to catch in an two hours.

At any other time, I'd consider myself clinically insane to be up at that hour in the morning at the weekend. But there was a reason for it - I was going to see "Les Misérables" at the Palace Theatre in London... and for that, I'd get up even earlier if I had to.

I hadn't counted on getting only five hours sleep, though. That was due to the spider... oh, and the moth. If it hadn't been for them, and having to kill them (and subsequently failing with the latter), those five hours would have been more like seven. Yes, it took two people two hours to kill a spider...

So, the train would leave Derby station at 9.03am for London St Pancras. Except it didn't. It left at 9.19am instead. Believe it or not, that was good compared to the journey up to Derby from Birmingham the day before (no departure lists working, just an announcer, huge queues, and half a journey standing up on the narrowest train I have ever been on... oy...) So, off we went, four of us, "dahn Sahf" to London.

The journey there went without a glitch, we even managed to get on the right tube train without getting lost. (Here is the ticket that got us around the city.) Then we perambulated around Leicester square and found the theatre (not that it's hard to miss with pictures of the show on the wall!), then wandered aimlessly until 2.30 - the matinee. We got there at 1.30 to eagerly collect our pre-booked tickets (Balcony Row C Seats 17-20), bought practically every piece of merchandise (unfortunately, the les Mis pens are NOT for sale!) and waited patiently in the blistering London heat until 2.00.

You never realise just how big theatres are until you have balcony seats. First of all, there's the walk there. As the stewardess put it as we filed up the first flight of stairs: "Where are you? Oh, the balcony. Two more floors, have a nice walk!" Then, of course, there's the view. The stage (and behind the set), the orchestra (which you can't see from the stalls), the stalls, the upper and lower circles, the boxes... you can see everything. And, amazingly, the view of the show itself isn't bad either.

I remember the good old days, when opera glasses were one 20p, not two, and ice cream tubs were plain vanilla or Cornettos, not Ben and Jerry's. But I digress.

How do I describe the show and do it justice to those who've never seen it? I can't. I can just sum it up in one word: FAN-FRELLING-TASTIC!!!!

Okay, in a more coherent fashion, it really is fantastic, even from where we were sitting. I judge stuff by the amount of times I cry, and "Les Misérables" made me cry five times at least. Those times I remember (for people who've seen it, or know it well enough for this to make sense) are:

The opening chords as it leads into "Look Down" - it just triggered something off in me. That's when I knew it was going to be good.
When Fantine is delusional and right up to her death, that really got to me. I hate hormones :)
The amazing rendition of "One Day More" at the end of Act One. It's just... wow...
At some point between Eponine singing "On My Own" (I am claiming that song, I really am!) and her death, or possibly at both of these times, and finally...
The final strains of "Do You Hear The People Sing" after Valjean's death (geez, who DOESN'T die in this?!) although I think that was more nostalgia to singing it in Junior Choir... or something. Or because it was over and I was quite happy just sitting there having a frelling wonderful time.

I'm sure more happened - if I sat here and tried to remember all the times the Thénadiers made me laugh, or every time we said "Aww" whenever Gavroche sang, I'd be here forever, and bore you all stupid. Well... bore you more :)

The rest of the day was pretty good too - we wandered down to New London Theatre and Her Majesty's so I could indulge my other two obsessions - "CATS" and "The Phantom of the Opera" respectively at those venues. I got pictures of the logos and signs outside (and noted how much Her Majesty's looks like the Paris Opéra... well done Lloyd Webber...) - yes, I know, you can't get much more touristy... what the heck? (Hopefully said pictures will be on this page soon.)

Finally, I'd just like to mention the journey back. The tube, for starters - the driver, with a voice straight out of Eastenders, said "It appears that Charing Cross station is closed. I'm sorry, I didn't know this. We will not be stopping at Charing Cross." For some reason this was hilarious. Then, after finally getting back to King's Cross St. Pancras station, we nearly missed our train back. Once on board, we hit another crisis: "I'm sorry for the delay. I'm afraid we've hit something." Oh no! we thought, what animal is it? "We have hit a traffic cone and it's damaged the brake plates. The driver is trying to fix the problem. We apologise for the delay once again." About half an hour later... we finally started moving. This was even funnier than Charing Cross being closed!

So... that was my day trip to see "Les Mis"... Look out London! I'll be back in August for "Phantom"... hehehehe...

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