Les Miserables

Knowing that we were staying a few nights in London, I booked tickets to see Les Miserables in the West End. We decided to see one of our favourite musicals again, rather than something new, and it came down to a toss up between Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. In the end, Les Mis edged out the Phantom because it really is our all time favourite show.

We took an Uber to Shaftesbury Avenue, and found a great Indian restaurant that only served small tapas-like dishes for a quick dinner before the show. The Queen’s Theatre is one of the oldest in the theatre precinct, and unfortunately there was not a lot of leg room in our upper circle seats. It was a full house tonight, so we were packed in like sardines. But once the show began, any thought of discomfort was completely forgotten.

What can I say about Les Mis that hasn’t already been said. It is a great story of revolutionary France, it has lots of colour, great characters, fantastic songs and many memorable moments. We loved it, just as much, if not more than the production we had seen in Melbourne. It’s an extraordinary show.

There was a crush of bodies in the streets around the theatre at the end of the show, as all of the nearby musicals were ending at similar times and all of the patrons were spilling out onto the sidewalks. By some miracle, the Uber driver found us in the midst of all that humanity. He had a bit of fun weaving through all the pedestrians around the theatres, but eventually found a way to cut through it all and bring us home to our Shoreditch apartment.