I remember when ‘Les Miserables’ was born and the chronic reviews it suffered. Friends in the business called it ‘The Glums’ and there was a general belief that it was a flawed and depressing piece of no real value, but with many things the public loved it and it is still playing to full house some twenty five years later!
When I was at east 15 acting school and ‘Les Miserables’ was relatively new we used to sing some of the songs and I remember this one and ‘Stars’ being performed in the Foyer. East 15 had this practice of asking every student to sing a song (these were to be challenging and designed to test the singer’s range) in the Foyer in front of the whole school at regular intervals. As with most things those who found singing difficult were nervous and apprehensive as were those who were good at singing who were often given songs outside of their range which they acquitted with various degrees of success.
Some years later before we had children of our own we were looking after the children of Kerry’s brother’s then partner and took the kids to see ‘Les Miserables’ when it was on at the Shaftesbury Theatre. We had good seats in the balcony and it was wonderful to see the whole show and hear the songs performed live by the actors in their full context. This song is my favourite one from the show and each time I hear it I am reminded of east 15, the foyer songs and that weekend when we entertained Christopher and Kelsey and gave them their first experience of the West End Theatre.
Now enjoy the song….
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