I'm listening to my new-used London cast recording from Les Miz, the one with Michael Ball and Patti LuPone and Frances Ruffelle, for the first time in probably 5 years.
I used to have LesMiz in my cd player all the time, I used to listen to the whole thing straight through at least once a week, and could do the whole show from start to finish. I've seen it on stage 18 times - 18 times between 1986 (when I saw it in London, started crying when Fantine died, and didn't stop until an hour after the show even though my parents got me ice cream during intermission) and 1995, when I saw it on Broadway for the last time to date. I don't know why I haven't seen it since then, or why I don't listen to it much anymore, but coming back to it today was wonderful.
It used to be that when I flew and had a broken walkman or it ran out of batteries, I would start in the begining of LesMiz and run through the show, skipping the terrible Castle on a Cloud - and if I reached the end, I'd start with Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Enough to get me through the longest plane ride. And on my drives from DC to Philly or NY when I was in law school, I usually filled my cd changer with my 3-cd set, Secret Garden, and my double-cd of Tommy.
But now my changer is usually filled with kiddie cds for Harry, and while I love Mary Poppins, sometimes, you need to listen to great singers and a couple of synthesizers. It'll probably take me a week to get through the pair of discs, but it's going to be a nice week of listening...
I used to have LesMiz in my cd player all the time, I used to listen to the whole thing straight through at least once a week, and could do the whole show from start to finish. I've seen it on stage 18 times - 18 times between 1986 (when I saw it in London, started crying when Fantine died, and didn't stop until an hour after the show even though my parents got me ice cream during intermission) and 1995, when I saw it on Broadway for the last time to date. I don't know why I haven't seen it since then, or why I don't listen to it much anymore, but coming back to it today was wonderful.
It used to be that when I flew and had a broken walkman or it ran out of batteries, I would start in the begining of LesMiz and run through the show, skipping the terrible Castle on a Cloud - and if I reached the end, I'd start with Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Enough to get me through the longest plane ride. And on my drives from DC to Philly or NY when I was in law school, I usually filled my cd changer with my 3-cd set, Secret Garden, and my double-cd of Tommy.
But now my changer is usually filled with kiddie cds for Harry, and while I love Mary Poppins, sometimes, you need to listen to great singers and a couple of synthesizers. It'll probably take me a week to get through the pair of discs, but it's going to be a nice week of listening...