Les Miserables on the Kimmel Cultural Campus - Matinee Show For Saturday, November 5, 2022

Now let me just say right off the bat that I am not the biggest fan of musicals generally. There are some exceptions, however. And Les Misérables is most definitely one of the big exceptions. It is my favorite musical, and had been ever since I first saw it in New York back during my senior year in high school, as a French Club school trip, when I was just 17.

The thing about it is that it has a bit of everything. It hearkens back to the days of 19th century France, to there is history (and this is even more the case with the book, which still stands as one of the longest books that I ever read). But there is also drama, romance, adventure. There are funny parts, and there are parts that can break your heart. Somehow, in less than three hours time, you really get intimate with a story that is widely recognized as a great work of literature of well over 1,000 pages (it was actually more than 1,200 pages, if memory serves correctly). To be sure, there are differences, obviously. In fact, not only are there differences between the book and the play, but there are differences between each of the different versions of the play that I have seen, and I have not seen every version of the play. So there is that.

Yet each time that I did see it, I was happy to have done so. That first time, back in 1992 as a senior in high school, was something special. It was really moving, and it was also the first time that I really grew knowledgeable about the story in Les Misérables. A few years later, my then girlfriend (eventual wife, and no ex-wife, but still mother of my child) and I went to see it again. After that, I was determined to read the book, the full length, unabridged version. 

Since then, I saw it again in 2010. When my son got older, I wanted to take him to see it. Then right around the holiday season in December of 2019, we did, although it was the on screen version of "Les Misérables: The Staged Concert" which played in movie theaters. If memory serves correctly, there was the promise of a tour upcoming. But a few months later, Covid hit, and I heard nothing more about that tour. That version of Les Misérables was a bit different. There was one aspect close to the end, in particular, which was very, very funny, and which I believe was a master stroke by the makers of that particular version. It would be nice to see that one again.

Finally, though, this touring version of Les Misérables offered me the chance to bring my son to an actual play version. So I jumped on it and got the tickets months and months ago. It would play right around the time of his birthday, so we could really make a day of it, and it could (and was) part of his birthday celebrations. We finally saw it together. 

So how was this version of the famous play? Very, very good. Now, the gun fire and cannons were not as booming and explosive as previous versions of the play that I had seen. Yet, it felt that the actors in almost every role somehow brought more raw emotion into each part than in previous incarnations of the play than I previously remember. In short, it was fantastic, and I was very happy to have brought both my girlfriend and my son to the play. It was very enjoyable, and they also both had a good time. 

It was playing at the Kimmel Cultural Center in Philadelphia, under the Academy of Music. Now when we got to the Kimmel Center, we discovered that it was not actually playing there, but the next block over. So if you are going to see this, just be aware of that, because the impression that I got was that this was not just for this particular day, or weekend. In any case, if you are in or around Philadelphia and are on the fence about going, I would highly recommend it! This play is almost always fantastic, and this particular version might very well have been the best one yet that I have seen!

There was not much in the way of pictures that I was able to take during the play. Besides, it is quite absorbing, and so my focus was on that, and not on remembering to take pictures. However, below are the pictures that I did manage to take.

Enjoy!