Les Miz

Last year Andrea read Les Miserables and loved the story. Then for Christmas I bought her the movie – well actually she ordered the movie from Amazon (along with Luther for me) and it found it’s way into her stocking. Imagination is so much more powerful than what a movie maker can do with images. I like to see movies that have been made from the books I’ve read but most of the time I’m not impressed. In Andrea’s case she was disappointed with the film because it didn’t meet up to the standards of the movie her imagination played in her mind as she read the book. Add to that the fact the movie makers took some liberties with the story.

In January we found out that Les Miserables the musical was going to be at the Hobby Center in Houston so I bought tickets for Andrea and me and gave them to her on Valentine’s Day. Last night we attended the performance and before we got there we were worried that the musical would deviate from the story enough to be as disappointing as the movie, but Andrea was pleased because it followed the book as well as a three hour musical can. I was not ready for the fact that they sang almost every word. There were only two or three spoken sentences. I guess that’s why they call it a musical. Overall Andrea and I enjoyed the experience.

During intermission I visited the rest room and on the way out ran into my good friend Scott. He said “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Like he was surprised that I was at an event reserved for people more “cultured” than myself. This from a guy who likes to duck hunt, graduated from Texas A&M and thinks an evening of fine entertainment includes a round of Texas hold em. How random is it that Scott and I would see each other among thousands of other people at the Hobby Center?

Even though I'm giving him a hard time, it was actually Scott who talked about Les Miserables enough to get Andrea interested in buying the book in the first place. I guess there is some culture in us all.