A Tale

My earliest memory of Charles Dickens is reading those little Great Illustrated Classics of his novels. You know, the ones made for children that have delightful pen and inkish drawings and are in inch thick? I had Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Tale Of Two Cities. Today, kids have Harry Potter, Twilight, Diary of Wimpy Kid, and I don't even know what else. I had Great Illustrated Classics. I was also very fond of The Count of Monte Cristo, which deserves an honorable mention even though it wasn't written by Dickens. Anyways...
My favorite singer was attached for several years to a musical version of Tale. I kept up with it as he did workshop after workshop, a semi-staged reading, etc. I was so excited when the show finally had its out of town tryout in Florida. I thought Hm, Florida - never been there...
So off I went by myself on the red-eye to Sarasota. Can't say that I enjoyed the place very much. It was October and standing outside at midnight and sweating while waiting for a cab isn't my idea of fun. It was hot, it was smelly and even the beach wasn't pretty. I know, I know, I need to visit the Atlantic side of Florida. Maybe I will. When I run out of other places to go.
I digress.
The show was a little rough around the edges, but the director did some great things and the cast was good. I saw it twice, since I've been around long enough to see good things die for a multitude of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with how much people actually enjoy it.
It did make it to the Great White Way eventually, but alas, somewhat ironically, did not have a long life there. In the era of Wicked, Hairspray and Jersey Boys, the media simply doesn't have a taste for these kinds of musicals. Epic shows from classic literature, about love and forgiveness, are so 80's. ;) If Les Miz opened tomorrow, it would probably be universally panned.
I convinced my aunt that we had to go see it, so off we went to NYC for a few beautiful October days. I found us a cheap hotel up in the Bronx and we did some sightseeing that I had never done, which was sad considering how much I had been there previously.
Whoever invented student tickets/obstructed view should have a theatre named in their honor. We saw the show a few times, each time from the front row (I think the students tickets were $25). I saw the composer on the street and talked with her, she was so nice.
Although some of the reviews were downright scathing, the one think they all had in common was praise of the lead. And indeed, he was terrific. After all, I don't fly across the country on a red-eye for just anyone.
I've been to a lot of shows in a lot of places, but never to one where everyone in the theatre was practically foaming at the mouth over it. I sat and listened to lifelong New Yorkers rave about and mention critics by name who had panned it. The chatter in the ladies restroom was especially enlightening. ;)
Sad to say it closed after a few months without recording by the OBC. A year or two later, they pulled together a semi-staged concert version in England, but with some cast changes. They were smart enough to retain the best part, though. A sample follows... This is the song he sings when he has his I'M IN LOOOOOVE!!! momemt and it is reprised in the final scene when he sacrifices himself so Charles can live. *sniff*
And FYI - the audio quality isn't very good because I pulled it from a radio interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsdz4fVyKMY