Today was one of those days where you have a meeting and your husband has a meeting and you come home from your meeting first and make dinner and get excited to spend an evening with your husband but then he has another meeting so you don't and also dinner doesn't seem to be going right and neither does the pumpkin roll you're making.
I know right?
So Mike came home and scarffed down his dinner (he had about 10 minutes to do so) and kissed me good bye and was off again. I looked at the kitchen. The kitchen looked at me. We weren't happy to look at each other. It looked like a civil war had happened in there. I say civil war because it was bad but not bad enough to be a full blown world war. You know? Maybe a civil war that started out just in one place but after about 4 years it spread and became a world war, but at this point it was still just centralized in one place? Anyways, I wasn't happy to see it and it could tell so it wasn't appreciative of my feelings.
I turned on the TV to see if there were Simpsons reruns on to watch while I tackled the kichen. (I find that they are my favorite background thing to have on when cleaning. Besides music.) They weren't on. It was NFL. Bleh. You know I love football right? I don't like pro football. Moving on, I go up one channel to PBS.
And then there it was.
A tender mercy of the Lord.
It wasn't on for one second and I knew exactly what I was seeing and where they were at in it. I could perform the whole thing in my sleep if I was asked to. It was Les Miserables, the 25th anniversary concert. I hadn't seen this one yet. Unfortunately, I still haven't, for the most part. I turned it on right as Jean Valjean was singing away to his death. (we're not going to discuss the fact that they cast a Jonas brother as Marius, I'm counting my blessings that I missed most of his performance because I mean come on!)
Let me side step here so I can properly convey my feelings for this musical. Have you seen it? You should. Right now. Find the nearest touring company. I don't care if it's in Korea (if you change the 'a' to an 'o' it's Koreo! Haha!), you should go see it now. This is my favorite musical ever of all time (except for 2004-2005 when Wicked was my favorite musical ever of all time and I had been taken in by all of it's popular green-ness. I still love Wicked, it just isn't as deep, thought provoking, and life changing as Les Miz. In Wicked's defense I've seen it 4 times and Les Miz only 2. However, it's coming to Austin next spring and I. AM. THERE.) Indeed it is a beautiful story. And, I know, I know, it's all French and blah blah blah. But oh my goodness. When they start singing 'Do You Hear The People Sing' I am ready to jump on that baracade and fight for Frenchmen everywhere!!!!! You know??
Also, I am of the opinion that Jean Valjean is one of the best characters ever created. Truly. He lives such a hard life. Stealing and lying and whatnot to feed his sister's children and years of jail and then being tailed by Javert (who is, by the way, my favorite character in the musical, unlike Cosette who is a whiney girl who can't take care of herself...) and raising someone else's child and then just dying! Oh it's so terribly beautiful and tragic! Don't you think??? I used to say that I would love to play Eponine more than anything, but then I decided how emotionally exhausting it would be to play any character in this show, on a daily basis (except the Thernardiers, it would be fun to be a couple of drunken, irreverant hooligans) so I decided I would rather play the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But that is neither here nor there so stop getting me distracted. (but seriously, wouldn't the narrator be fun????!?!)
Anyways, I feel about the actor playing Valjean as I do about the actor playing the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. While I have never seen him perform it in person, Michael Crawford is the best man/voice for Phantom, and Colm Wilkinson is THE man/voice for Jean Valjean. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see someone else playing him, and I end up liking them. But still, Colm Wilkinson's voice was meant to be Valjean's. It's like a spiritual experience people. I defy anyone to hear him utter the first 3 words of 'Bring Him Home' and not get chills.
ANYWAYS AGAIN! You people get me distracted so easily. I turn on the TV and there is Valjean singing away to his death and Fantine and Eponine are on their way from the spirit world to escort him on and I sit down on the couch and I start to cry. I really needed a cry at this point. I was frustrated from the course of the afternoon and just, you know how lots of frustrations build up and you don't realize they're there until you start to cry? That kind of happened too. So I sit there, listening to Alfie Bo sing splendidly, and I start to think about dad. Oh, he loved himself some Les Miserables.
My dad passed away 5 1/2 years ago. It came completely out of left field. I can't speak for the rest of my family, but I know I was blind sided (and not the kind where Sandra Bullock lets you sleep on her couch and then pays for your college). There were a lot of interesting things that played out with the timing of his death. I won't go into all of them here, they wouldn't make sense or mean anything to anyone else, but something that was interesting, to me at least, is that we had tickets to see Les Miz a week after he died. It had been one of my dad's favorite musicals (yes, my dad, the football man, LOVED musicals) for years. He loved loved loved it (probably not his fave, I think that was Camelot?) Anyways, here we were with tickets for my mom, my dad, my little sister, me and two of my friends to go see Les Miz. And then, he died. My mom was in no state to go see it then, but my sister and I still wanted to, so we went with some of my friends. While we did thoroughly enjoy it, I don't recommend that everyone go see a musical, a week after their own father dies, in which one of the characters deals with the death of their father. Holly and I both agreed that we were glad we went though. We held hands and we cried and we sobbed and we cried. And it was refreshing!! You know?? That was part of the healing process, I think, seeing that musical at that time.
And that's how I felt tonight. As I sat there, with the weight of my life and a ruined dinner on my shoulders, I listened to Alfie Bo's beautiful voice and I was refreshed again. I felt my dad hug me and I remembered that it's not a big deal. I often feel him do that, when I see a truly spectacular sunset (I look up and say 'Hi dad!' because he loved those and sometimes I think he either paints them or makes suggestions on color and light to the Head Honcho) or hear a piece of classical music that he taught me to love or just whenever I need him. He still takes time to make sure I know he's there.
In closing, here's my proof on my theory for the role of Jean Valjean. For so it is written 'In the mouth of one witness, be it the mouth of Colm Wilkinson, shalt he then play Jean Valjean, and it shall be perfected in him.'
(also, isn't it one of the most beautiful prayers you've ever heard??)