Shortly after I published my previous blog post, we decided to use the gift vouchers given to us at Christmas to go and see Les Miserables.  Living the high life, as we do, we went to the 1.40pm showing at the Stroud Apollo, together with about twenty other people.  The foyer of the cinema was actually fairly bustling and we expected to find ourselves in a full auditorium, but as we were directed to Screen 3, the majority of the crowd shuffled in a different direction, to see “Quartet”.

As can be seen on my journal entry above, I gave it three stars.  I don’t think Russell Crowe is going to make it in musical theatre as a result of this performance, so no surprises there.  But he wasn’t as bad as some reviewers have suggested, I thought, and I was actually a  little disappointed in Hugh Jackman, if I’m honest.  No doubt, however, that the stand out performance was from Anne Hathaway (whose teeth I had to google about later…)  though I thought all the principal women did remarkably well and in my opinion, Eddie Redmayne made a great Marius.

My main observation is that big isn’t always better.  That a cast of thousands can’t necessarily evoke the same emotions as a small scale theatre show and that epic scenes, whilst impressive from a production point of view are not always as dramatic as low(er) budget interpretations.  It confirmed my opinion that it’s impossible to beat a great live performance.

Oh, and that little moment with Javert, Gavroche and the medal provoked the same reaction in both of us.

Cheap shot.

(this sums it up well, I think)