The Belgian Waffle: May 2012

FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout ;
My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout ;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace ;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?
Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;
Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage ;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes ;
So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize—
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."

Just so you have an idea of whom I will be talking about, here is the London cast of

Les Misérables after winning the Olivier Award, they all look so happy, it warms my heart.

Last weekend, I went to London to see Les Misérables again. Yes, it was basically the main reason that made me go there. London was rainy, but beautiful, and I spent two marvelous days there. On Friday night, I went to see Billy Elliot which was amazing (and on which I will probably write a post later on). And on Saturday 28th of April, I went to see Les Mis again.

I had not booked my ticket, so I just showed up to the Queen's Theatre on Friday morning and asked for the cheapest ticket they had. I had been stressing over this, since there weren't any seats available in the Upper Circle on some website, and I was scared I would have to pay 40 pounds to go see that musical again. I was ready to sit all the way up in the Upper Circle, just as long as I was on the right side, so I could see Eponine dying (which I could not the first time I went). I paid 20 pounds and my seat was on the next to last row, K. Next time, I'll probably treat myself to a more expensive ticket, just so I can just sit in the Stalls and see their facial expressions and all.

I spent my Saturday morning getting excited about the show, and when I finally got to the Queen's at 1:45pm for the Matinee show, I could not stop smiling. I went to sit all the way up there and enjoyed the show. At first, it was weird for me to be by myself, but then these actors and characters made me forget all about it.

The cast I was coming to see was all there: Craig Mather as Marius, Lisa-Anne Wood as Cosette, Scott Garnham as Feuilly, David Shannon as Valjean and Fra Fee in the Ensemble. They were perfect. I had come to see Hadley Fraser as Javert too, but we got his understudy; I don't know who he was, but he was great as well. When he belted out Stars, I could not stop clapping.

I knew all the lyrics by heart which, I must admit, kind of bothered me at some points, because I knew everything that was going to happen. But our Thénardier was so perfect, that he made me laugh even when I already knew the line. It was great.

I also cried a few times, because how could you not? This story is so beautiful and the songs so powerful that you cannot just watch it and stand still. When At the End of the Day started, I could not contain my tears, they were tears of joy, I could not believe I was actually there, watching all of them perform, and not just in front of my Dvd of the 25th Anniversary. Fantine singing "If there's a God above, He'd let me die instead" got me bad, I was a mess. This line is just too beautiful. Gavroche's death was also really hard for me to take in, I knew he was going to die, but I just could not believe it, being too much into the story. And finally, I was an awful mess during the Finale, when only Marius and Cosette are still alive, and all their friends just sing "Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?", the show was over and everything was just beautiful.

There are also some moments I had expected to cry for, and I just did not. Valjean singing Bring Him Home is supposed to be a very emotional moment, but all I could see was Craig Mather trying to get comfortable on his tiny little mat on the barricade. Every sad Marius moment was also without tears, just because I could only see Craig Mather and his stupid hilarious faces, and not Marius. And also, Enjolras dead on the barricade was supposed to bring out all the tears I had in my body, but I just could not stop laughing because, being seated so high up, I had seen Liam Tamne getting ready on the other side of the barricade, getting up and down twice to get comfortable.

After having laughed/cried so much, my face was all red and I went to wait on them at the Stage Door. I am glad I did not have to wait in line for the bathroom, or I would have missed them, they came out so soon. Craig Mather was the first one, he recognized me from Twitter before I even said my name (is that a good sign?), was very nice and cute, and proposed to take the picture of us himself. He later told me I could ask him any questions he would answer me. I did not tell him, but I was completely starstruck. Fra Fee came out after him, he was really nice and apologized for the weather being so "shitty" (as if Belgian weather was better, ha!). Scott Garnham came out, he was the tallest one of them all and was really nice. And finally, Lisa-Anne Wood, with her hair in a messy bun on her head and still her stage make-up on, was very nice. She remembered me from Twitter as well, and gave me advice about auditionning for Musical Theatre, etc. She also told me she would send me plenty of information about Drama Schools over Twitter. She was just too nice and very very pretty. I have pictures with all of them, but the rain being so heavy, I could not ask any of them about autographs, or everything would have been wet. But anyways, it all went so quickly and I could not remember anything I wanted to tell them, but it was great.

I went back to the station, with the rain pouring and a thousand people in the Tube, but I was just smiling from ear to ear. Les Misérables is by far my favorite musical, of that I'm sure. I am so happy I went to London to see this cast (that is supposed to change in June) and it was one of my favorite weekends ever. I love this show, I love these people, I love this city. I will be living there and doing that job one day.