Les Misérables

Back in January our high school was putting on a performance of Les Miserables. A couple of boys from our ward, including Emma's piano teacher's son, were in it. We had every intention of going but by the time I got there to buy tickets all the shows were completely sold out. We had no idea it would be so popular. When I told the kids it wasn't going to work out they both got upset. Emma even cried. They were so disappointed. I felt terrible about letting them down and if my kids want to watch a musical you better believe I am going to encourage it!

I posted on Facebook how I felt like a bad mommy for letting this opportunity slide through our fingers. One of my friends, Cindy, said that it was coming to the Scera Center for the Arts in March. I was so relieved. We immediately bought tickets and last night was the night we got to go.

I was worried about taking Andrew. He is a little young but you need to understand our obsession with this musical runs deep. It was one of the only non-church music albums that Paul was able to listen to on his mission. (Which I find hilarious due to it's subject matter) He knows it forwards and backwards. We were able to see the Broadway version in San Francisco making a dream of Paul's finally come true. We have been singing it to our kids since they were young. For crying out loud we named our cats Marius and Cosette. (R.I.P. Cosette) Anyway he wasn't going to miss it.

We got to see the school edition performed by the Scera's Youth Theater.

During intermission they had some of the children out "begging" for donations. This is young Cosette. Andrew thought she was really cute and asked for a picture with her, after giving her some money of course ;)
Andrew was a bit wiggly and Emma had some questions throughout but they both said they loved it and I am guessing we will be putting the music on their Ipods soon.

This is Madame Thenardier. She and her husband were really into character. They did an excellent job.
This is my personal favorite, Javert. He had one of the strongest voices and was a good actor. He was pretty dang easy on the eyes too. Andrew had asked for a picture with him, Javert obliged and then Andrew started looking around as other characters passed by. I had to say "Andrew look at the camera" to which "Javert" gave me a funny look and then it dawned on him. He told us his name was Andrew too. Did I mention he was really handsome?
This is Gavroche. This kids is amazing! The talent that these young people have blew me away. The actress playing Fantine was only 15 and totally awesome!
Here is Andrew and Marius. He just had to tell him we had a cat named Marius. The poor kid probably thought we were insane.
Here are the kids with Cosette. She was very talented as well.
We didn't get a picture with Eponine but she was one of my favorites. Her voice was just beautiful. We couldn't get over to Jean Valjean either.

Overall these kids did a really good job. There were a couple of songs that got a little hard to listen to but it was still really fun to see it again and to see this version. I can't even put into words how happy it makes me that my kids love musicals and have a desire to learn more about this world. I can't wait for the day when we can all go to New York and watch a show on Broadway and know everyone in the family will enjoy it. It's a total dream of mine.