My encounters with Les Miserables #LesMis30

As of 8^th October 2015, the West End production of Boubil and Schonberg’s Les Miserables has been running for 30 years. This is an incredible feat for the world’s longest running musical, and tonight, many former cast members and lucky fans will attend a special celebratory performance at the Queen’s Theatre to mark the 30^th anniversary. Les Mis means so much to so many people, so here I’m going to write about what the show means to me, and about my various encounters with it.

I think that my first taste of Les Mis was when I was around 9 or 10, and I was playing the piano with my grandma when she showed me the sheet music of Do You Hear the People Sing. I learnt it, and liked the song, but I was never really aware of where it was from or the context of it – it was simply a song that I learnt to play on the piano. (Side note: my grandma is an avid reader of my ‘nerd blog’, so here’s a special shout out: Hi Grandma!).

I think that I next heard about Les Mis when I was 12 – when Susan Boyle sang I Dreamed a Dream on Britain’s Got Talent. How I wish that I could claim to have known the show inside out prior to this rather than being introduced to a song from it via a reality TV show, but sadly I cannot! I think that Bring Him Home was also sung on another series of BGT a year or so later. Hearing these songs sparked my interest in the show, so when I was 13 or 14 I bought the piano score and started learning more songs. I also read the synopsis, which seemed very confusing at first due to all the time jumps!

I bought the 25^th anniversary concert DVD about a year after it had taken place, and loved it. This was my first proper experience of the show in its holistic form, and I thought it was great – and was very disappointed that I hadn’t educated myself about it earlier so that I could have attended the spectacular concert myself. I went to see the film version in the cinema twice in early 2013 (once on the day it arrived in UK cinemas, because my friends and I were that eager!). And then in May of that year, when I was 16, I went to see the show in the West End for the first time. I was absolutely blown away!

I performed Les Mis at school a few months later, playing keyboard 1 in the pit band, which was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had! As I wrote here, this allowed me to learn the show inside out, with particular attention being paid to the orchestrations. I went to see Les Mis in the West End again the year after, partially but not entirely because I wanted to watch Youtuber Carrie Hope Fletcher play Eponine. It was after this performance that I had my first experience of stage dooring, although being a matinee in the summer holidays it was incredibly busy – but still a lot of fun!

And now, as Les Mis turns 30, I would consider myself a Les Mis mega fan. I own four different soundtracks, and am hoping to go and see it for a third time within the next year. It’s one of my favourite musicals and I absolutely love the songs, the story, and the whole world that is brought to life on stage. I wish the current cast and returning alumni a brilliant performance tonight, and here’s to the next 30 years of Les Miserables!