Les Misérables

A couple months ago PBS ran a concert version to mark the 25th anniversary of the musical Les Misérables. Dadam had been a fan for many years, but had not really engaged with the score since high school, and, Momlissa and Cici being out of the house, he settled down in front the TV to enjoy a blast from the past. Ruby settled down next to him.

Little did he know what would come of it. Ruby didn't make it through the whole three-hour-plus-long show - but she did make it through the first two hours without a break. She was full of questions about the characters and the action too - sometimes I had to sanitize plot points for her ("Well, she has to kiss boys she doesn't like, for money"), but overall she got it, even if she didn't get why her dad was tearing up from time to time. ("You'll understand when you're a grownup.")

Then, on a visit to Grandma and Grandpa K., I found an old tape I had made of the soundtrack (the first half of it, anyway). Since that time, we have probably listened to it, at the girls' request, upwards of fifty times while driving around in the van. The girls have characters, lyrics, music, and plot points all memorized (well, for the first half of it anyway).

If the video doesn't attest, consider this. The musical's opening scene contains these lines, sung by prisoners:

I know she'll wait
I know that she'll be true
Look down, look down
They've all forgotten you

Tonight I found a slip of paper on which Ruby had written:

I know shel wahte.
I know that shel be chroo
Look donw, Look donw
Shel never come bak to you.

When I asked her about the lyrics discrepancy, she said, "I thought it would be a better rhyme."

The girls don't know two thing. 1) For Ruby's birthday this month, she'll be receiving a CD set of the complete show, so she and Cici will finally be able to hear the whole thing in the car. And 2) the national touring company production of Les Mis is coming to our city in December. . . .