Another chance to see Les Miserables, which is my favorite musical. Hell, it is one of the few musicals that I am really acclimated with - admittedly, musicals tend not to be my "thing," if you will - but the few that really impressed me lasted in my memory. Yet none of the others (with the possible exception of Notre Dame de Paris) even come close.
It is still regarded by many as the best musical of all, the one which all others are measured (and usually found wanting. The fact that this happens to be the most popular musical ever, and had the longest run attests to the fact that it has enjoyed considerable support and received much love over the years and decades.
Yet, it always seems like each new show, and each new production, try and do something new with each tour.
This one was the same. They tried to do something to keep the material fresh, and to combine the old classics (sometimes with a new feel to them) along with other new additions that, at least they assume, make the play come together more fully.
Still, it was undeniably a great play. Enjoyable as always. In fact, this may very well have proven to be the best showing of Les Mis that I have seen, and this was probably either the fifth or sixth time that I have seen it. Generally speaking, I'm not the biggest fan of musicals. They can often be a bit on the annoying side, and some of them (like Cats) really just were not all that enjoyable to begin with.
Of course, there are some which I have enjoyed. That includes Phantom of the Opera, Notre Dame de Paris (probably my second favorite musical and also, perhaps not coincidentally, an interpretation of a work by Victor Hugo), the Lion King, and Evita. There may be others which I am not quite remembering at the moment. I always wanted to see Miss Saigon, but never quite got the opportunity. So those are the one which I actually saw. And so far, at least, my very favorite is Les Mis, by far.
Beyond just the play, this was an opportunity to get to see Philly, a city which I always enjoy visiting, but which I probably have not seen enough of. Over the years, I have visited some of the major sites, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell (multiple times each), as well as the Franklin Institute (also multiple times). Also, my son and I came to the city years ago to see the Tall Ships. And I have come here at different times to see numerous events, from concerts and author events at the public libraries to football and basketball games, each dating back to the nineties. It's a nice city, one which feels a little more on a human scale, at least when compared to New York City. Aesthetically, it feels like the city has some really nice highlights to it. That is especially true (in my opinion) of the City Hall, as well as the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which goes from the heart of Philadelphia and passes the beautiful fountains of Logan Square, and then heads to the steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, with the flags of countries of the world lining both sides of the highway. There is something there that almost reminds me of Europe, even though Philadelphia remains a very North American city, frankly.
For this visit, there was one thing in particular which I wanted to see. It was the gold leaf Statue of Joan of Arc, which looked to me very similar to the one in Paris, which also is in gold leaf. It is indeed very similar, both in terms of appearance and size, as well as the striking gold leaf. Similar, but not quite identical. But there is a reason for the strong resemblance: both statues are from the same sculptor, Emmanuel Frémiet. Somehow, I had gone all of these years without knowing that there was this statue of Joan of Arc right there in Philly. But I learned about it somewhere along the line earlier this year, and absolutely wanted to make a point of seeing it this time around.
And so we did.
Again, this was not the longest of visits to Philly. We left Hillsborough a bit after 10:30, and arrived in Philly probably sometime close to noon, and headed straight for the statue of Joan of Arc. After that, we drove past the striking City Hall, and found a parking deck near the venue where Les Mis would be playing. We took care of the tickets (my girlfriend needed lower seats, because the severity of the heights of the original tickets scared her) and then enjoyed the show.
Afterwards, we had a kind of late lunch or early dinner at a restaurant nearby. They had cheese steak egg rolls, which were really fantastic! It was just a little on the pricey side, although not too bad. Plus, we were all enjoying ourselves.
On the way home, we came across a Friendly's. I grew up going to Friendly's, and have always been particularly fond of their Reese's Pieces Sunday, with chocolate ice cream and the peanut butter and fudge sauces mixing. Delicious. My girlfriend was opposed and said something a bit disparaging (I think it was "go get your ice cream, little boy"), but she and the other woman we were with (her coworker) themselves went to get ice cream a few minutes after I got mine.
All in all, a good day.
Below are the pictures which I took during our afternoon visit to Philadelphia. That includes the statue of Joan of Arc, which I finally did see this time around.
Enjoy.
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