Les Miserables, the epic musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel has returned to Toronto after an absence of 15 years. I love this musical and saw it three times when it was originally playing at the Royal Alexandra Theatre back in 1989. It is part of the 2005/2006 Mirvish subscription series, so I went to see it for the 4th time.
I’ve had a subscription to the Royal Alex for over 10 years now; although you can’t really call that anymore since these days, very few of the shows are actually shown at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Most of the shows are playing either at the Canon or the Elgin/Winter Garden Theatres (one of the few “double-decker” theatres in the world).
Personally, I’m quite happy that the shows are not at the Royal Alexandra Theatre anymore because my subscription seats are in the upper balcony of the theatre. If you’ve ever been to the Royal Alex, you would know that the seats in the balcony are built for midgets. I am only 5 feet tall and even for me, there is not enough leg room and my knees protrude into the air space of the seat in front of me. Imagine the suffering that my 6ft tall husband Rich endures … he is even happier than I am about the change of venues. The stairs are so steep in the upper balcony that I always imagine I will trip and tumble down to the bottom of the balcony where my stomach will smack against the balcony railing and belly-flop me right over the edge, down onto the wealthy people sitting in the orchestra dress circle.
My subscription seats for rear upper balcony are one of the best deals in town. This year, for $145, I get to see 7 shows including 4 musicals(Les Miserables, Lord of the Rings, Moving Out, The Boyfriend), 2 comedies (Wingfield’s Inferno, The Innocent Eye Test) and a Circus Show. This means that I watched Les Miserables for $16 a ticket! Before I was able to get a subscription ticket for Rich (then my boyfriend), I used by buy him an extra ticket to go see a show with me. My subscription seat cost me $10 while his seat next to me cost $60! Just like Elaine from Seinfeld evaluated men for sponge-worthiness, I had to consider whether he was “seat-worthy”.
The cost for the next higher price range (the seat immediately in front of mine) goes for over $250. It’s almost too much for me to resist tapping the guy in front of me on the shoulder and asking “Do you know how much more you are paying to sit 2 inches in front of me?” In my mind, my subscription tickets are like Leafs seasons tickets – something to hang onto for dear life, and pass on from generation to generation.
This time around, Les Miserables was playing at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Here, the seats are plush and leg room aplenty. Although I can nearly recite all the words to every song and know exactly what to expect, I found I was still crying at all the same moments as before (pretty much the entire second half!) Since I also get misty watching Coffee commercials, I guess this should not be that much of a surprise. However you would think I would be smart enough to bring Kleenex but I forgot. So there I was trying to discretely sniffle, whipping my eyes on Rich’s sleeve while he not too discretely was whacking me on the head. Finally the person next to me took pity on me (or maybe she actually took pity on Rich) and passed me a pack of tissues.
While the female leads did not measure up to my memory of the original showing, the male leads who played Jean Valjean and Javert more than did justice to their infamous roles. Their voices were rich and powerful when required, but also sweet and soulful in the quieter songs. Because this is a traveling show, the set for the barricade was not as spectacular as the original. All in all, this was still a very enjoyable show of a magnificent musical.
Les Miserables is playing at the Princess of Wales until Oct 22 and then will move to the Canon Theatre from Oct 25-Nov 5. It might not come back again for another 15 years, so catch this show while you can. Too bad you can't see if for $16 like I did.
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