Growing up in the Blick household, there was not a whole lot of music played in the house. We always listened to Amy Grant at Christmas time, but other than that, the only music I can recall being played by my parents was "The Best of Basia" and Broadway soundtracks. Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, to be specific. I have known these songs since I was able to talk.
I have a clear memory of one time when my dad and I went on a special road trip together to go camping with some of my friends and their dads, and my dad turned on Les Mis in the car. I turned to him and asked, "Dad, what is this play about?" And with that fateful question, I sealed my undying love for Les Miserables.
See, Les Miserables is my dad's favorite book. He loves it more than Matt loves snakes. So for the next several hours, we listened to the soundtrack together and my dad explained the entire plot of Victor Hugo's most famous masterpiece. And ever since then, I have loved it too.
Now, I do have some embarrassing confessions to make. First, I have never read the book. I own a copy, and I have started it three times. But I have never actually been able to finish the darn thing. One day. Maybe. Second, I had never actually seen the play until last month! Is is even possible to have an undying love for something you've never actually seen in real life? I remember being FURIOUS when the Liam Neeson movie came out: it was NOT a musical and it did NOT have Eponine??? My favorite character!!! I was livid. Which made me ECSTATIC when the musical came out a few years ago! I couldn't wait to see it! Which leads me to my third embarrassing confession: in all of my fervent adoration of this beautiful story, I had never picked up on the fact that EVERYONE DIED AND THE REVOLUTION FAILED. Why did no one tell me this??? I was sitting in the theater during the barricade scene, on the edge of my seat, saying to myself, "The whole city of Paris is going to start pouring in and save them! Just wait! They're all going to start singing 'Do You Hear the People Sing' and rush into the streets like in 'Newsies'!!! .... Any minute now... Why aren't they coming?... Why is everyone dying??... Where are all the people??? WHAT IS GOING ON??????" I was devastated. I think I felt just like the people at the barricade; shocked, abandoned, and horrified. And I realize that it was my own stupidity that led me here: I never listened to "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" because I thought it was a boring song, so I never realized that it was about all of his friends being dead! Talk about being blindsided. Completely heartbroken. But it made the movie that more powerful. Okay, Krissy, we seriously need to move on.
ANYWAY, I have been DYING to see the play MY WHOLE LIFE. And I'm pretty sure everyone else in my family had seen it but me. Because the one time it came to LA, they ALL BOUGHT TICKETS AND WENT WITHOUT ME THE WEEK BEFORE I WAS COMING HOME. RUDE. So rude. I'm still mad about it and that was like three years ago. But a few months ago, Matt saw that the Hale Center theater was doing a production of it right here in Utah and bought us tickets right away!
I tried not to get my hopes up too high (it was just a local Utah production after all), but I shouldn't have worried about that at all, because IT WAS AWESOME!!! One of my greatest dreams come true! The singing, the acting, the stage, and the music was all perfect and I loved every second of it! I bawled through all of my favorite scenes and tried desperately not to sing along. It was amazing. So amazing in fact, that I went back two weeks later with Kar!
We went to a matinee and even got dinner together after! Such a great night. I still hope to see it on Broadway someday, but this really was a dream come true.
I love Les Miserables!!!
