El Dorado Musical Theatre's Les Miserables

Note: this has nothing to do with anime, but those who appreciate theatre and the arts might find it interesting.

So, this past weekend I had the opportunity to see the school edition of Les Miserables, performed by the El Dorado Musical Theatre. Knowing absolutely nothing about the school edition and the El Dorado group, my first thought was that it would be a bunch of kids hacking apart an abridged version of Les Miserables. Luckily for me, I could not have possibly been more wrong.

The school edition of Les Miserables may have been slightly abridged, however, it ran a good two and a half hours! Not only that, but the young adults playing the characters did a fantastic job. My favorites were Katherine Sorgea (Eponine), SavannahArgyle (Fantine), Heather Clark (Cosette), and Matt Surges (Bishop). That is not to say the the other cast members were not good; quite the contrary actually. All of them were excellent, but those previously mentioned really stood out for me.

Their performance did not cease to amaze me. From what I remember (and it has been a while since I've actually seen Les Mis, unfortunately) the scenes were not necessairily shorted, but rather the pacing and tempo of the music was quicker. The music was also not performed by a live orchestra, however, this is not terribly surprising. The music for the school edition was remixed and included more modern insturments, such as an electric rythmn guitar. It sounded really good.

The songs that normally make me cry when I hear them (On my own, Epilogue) still got me with this performance. It was quite a show, and I'm glad I went to see it. Those of you that read this for whatever reason, if you have the opportunity to see it; go. You will not regret it.