Les Miserables

I just want to record my impressions/memories of last night before they fade out. It was an amazing night.

We spent the day Sunday just hanging out, Pat had a soccer game, and I had some preperations to do to be ready for the evening. Dinner was at 5:15 at the Palomino in downtown Seattle. The food was delicious (I had chicken picatta), and we certainly would have dawdled for dessert if we hadn't been on our way to Les Mis. From the restaurant it was just a few blocks drive, and after parking nearby we realized we were about 25 minutes early. We wandered down the street to an ATM so Pat would have cash to pay for parking after the show. As we walked back up towards the 5th Avenue Theater, my hand on his arm in proper fashion, a lady came up to tell me what a nice dress I had, and how nice I looked. I hope I got my "thank you"s out well, as this took me a little bit by surprise. Once inside the theater, it didn't take long to get to our seats, which were incredible. We might as well have been in a box, the view was that good. A party of older women was making it's way past, with the oldest looking to be something nearing 90, leaning heavily on an usher. Pat got up and offered his arm and helped her the rest of the way to her seat, much to the appreciation of the group and the usher. I got many compliments from the older women walking by for his gentlemanly behavior. It definitly brought a smile to my face.

Shortly, and without much fanfare, the show began. I was half-stunned throughout the entire first half, our cast was unbelievably talented. We had 3 or so of the original New York Broadway cast performing for us, and every other major player had credentials including performances like Miss Saigon and Phantom. Every single one of them sounded fabulous, and some sounded so much like my international cast recording that it was almost spooky. The set was incredibly cool, the music was powerful, the acting was better than I'd expected, it was just stunning. The intermission was thankfully brief, and the second half got even better. It was a magical performance, one of the last performance of the Broadway Les Mis there will ever be, and I'm so glad I got to see it.

This morning I woke up with snippets from Les Mis running through my head, and the music has been in the back of my mind all day.

So, that was the evening in a nutshell, I'm going to get back to cleaning this place up (kitchen got to be a little bit of a mess over the weekend when we didn't feel like cleaning).

Many thanks to Pat for making it all happen, it was better than I thought it would be, and I hope I'll remember it for a long, long time :)