When I decided that it was time to get back to writing my blog, I decided that I wanted to focus a little more of musical theater. It's something that I've loved for a really long time. I remember going to see shows with my family at a relatively young age and seeing musicals is one of my favorite things. Last year, I dedicated an entire week to The Phantom of the Opera. Last month, I did a write-up about one of my new favorite shows Something Rotten and now? Now I've decided to dedicate the next few posts to Les Misérables.
I've loved Les Mis since I was twelve and still love it today. It remains one of my favorite musicals and it's one of those shows that I will always want to see if given the chance. We just won't talk about the movie version. So it was really only a matter of time before I dedicated a week or so to it on here. Especially once I decided I needed to talk about musicals more often. I thought about doing what I did for Phantom weeks last year, which was to upload a new post every day for a week. But ultimately thought that it'd be better to space them out a little bit more.
Kicking things off is a beautiful Les Mis medley by the very talented Lindsey Stirling. Check it out.
Les Misérables was the first musical that I ever truly loved. There'd been shows I'd seen and liked, but there was something so special about Les Mis. The first time I saw it was at the lovely National Theater in Washington, D.C. with a group from my school when I was in 7th grade. I remember sitting up in the balcony and being completely mesmerized by the show. I ended up getting both the CD and the VHS - yes, the VHS - of the 10th Anniversary Cast concert and wearing them all out. I seriously used to listen to the recording or watch the concert pretty much all the time. There were parts that I'd always sing along with. Namely, Fantine and Eponine. I took French in school - not because of Les Mis though; I took it because my great-grandparents were from France. My great-grandmother was a big part of my life growing up and she was why I wanted to learn French, though she did speak English as well. The only reason I'm bringing this up is because in my high school French class one year, we had to pick a French name and I chose Eponine. Yep.
I've loved Les Mis since I was twelve and still love it today. It remains one of my favorite musicals and it's one of those shows that I will always want to see if given the chance. We just won't talk about the movie version. So it was really only a matter of time before I dedicated a week or so to it on here. Especially once I decided I needed to talk about musicals more often. I thought about doing what I did for Phantom weeks last year, which was to upload a new post every day for a week. But ultimately thought that it'd be better to space them out a little bit more.
Kicking things off is a beautiful Les Mis medley by the very talented Lindsey Stirling. Check it out.
Once I went through and figured out which Les Mis covers and medleys to feature, I knew that this would be the one to lead things off. I absolutely love this medley. She did an outstanding job with this. It was a great selection of songs which started off with the heartbreakingly beautiful "I Dreamed a Dream". One of my favorite things about Lindsey Stirling is how she can be such a high energy and dynamic performer, but it's the pieces like this where she really shines for me. Her playing is so lovely and I love the way that "I Dreamed a Dream" transitions into "On My Own", both musically and visually.
What I love about this medley is how she completely embodies the characters that sing the songs she's playing with her costume choices and the set pieces. First Fantine in "I Dreamed a Dream", then Eponine. With the "Master of the House" bit, she was going more for Madame Thernadier which works. Another thing I like about this bit is that we get to see a little bit of her dancing ability. I like that she included that song, both because it's a nice break in mood in the show. It livens things up a bit and it's so catchy. I feel like hearing the snippet of that makes for a nice contrast to "Castle On a Cloud". It's like this in the show too. This song is sung young Cosette; she did a good job of picking some of the biggest tear jerking moments.
Because of course from "Castle On a Cloud", we go into "Bring Him Home" and that's one of the songs that gets me every single time. Especially watching or listening to the fabulous 10th Anniversary cast and hearing Colm Wilkinson sing it. I've seen some great Jean Valjeans, but he's a tough one to beat for me. And then it goes into the sweetness of "A Heart Full of Love". Well, sweetness in regards to Marius and Cosette. Heartbreak for poor Eponine. Then to end with that little snippet of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" which I think was the perfect way to bring it to a close.
This whole thing is so beautifully done and I feel like it really gives you an overall sense of the show as a whole. The songs were well chosen; I don't know that I would've changed anything about the selection. I could think of other songs I might've like to see included like perhaps "Stars", but I really don't have any complaints. These songs blended together so well. All around gorgeous medley.
If you like what you just saw from Lindsey, here's where you can keep up with her.
Stay tuned for more Les Mis!
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