Thursday, January 5, 2023, Jake went to his first production of Les Miserables, the adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. It was my second time seeing it live. The first time was in the 1990’s. Thank you to my high school choir director for being so brave by taking a group of us down state from Alpena to see this show. We sat in the nose bleeds, but I’ll never forget it. And last night, we sat in row I, center on the main floor. What a different perspective, and still totally amazing.
Fantastic singing. I really just go to hear Jean Valjean. I mean that is a really intense tenor part and the male falsetto full voiced high notes are something else to experience.
I’ve listened to all the soundtracks, from the original, to yes, even the film version. I can sing every line, however, last night I did not. The lady next to me cried when Fontaine died, so did I, and so did Jake. The cast is excellent and I cannot rave about it enough. If you have a chance before they leave town, please go.
I mentioned our seats, but I did not really talk about the Fisher building or theater. Go a little early, and look around. There are several shops inside and they often are open before the shows. Be sure to look up while standing in the overall building hallways and entrance areas to see some really intricate mosaic tile work. There are a couple nice spots where the mosaic is on floor 1 so you can use it as a selfie/photo backdrop. Closer to the theater entrance there are often posters of the current show and future broadway shows coming, another excellent photo opportunity.
Once inside the actual theater, head to the left and down the stairs near the restrooms there is a small bar with seats… there are also two very small private ticketed entry clubs. I highly recommend those as well. They always have one or two booths set up with swag and merchandise in their spacious main lobby and there are some bars there as well. The seats in the theater are pretty comfortable and overall spacious enough. There are plenty of side exits as well so make the most of the lovely listening environment. Please don’t crunch your snacks and thank you for not talking or whispering during the show.
Before the show we went across the street to Cuisine. Lovely flat rate three course meal with plenty of options for all palates. They had a nice risotto for vegetarians, but I decided on the duck and had a meat day. Jake ate the Dover Sole. I recommend going to dinner there as the service and food were both top notch. Super cute place set in a house in the neighborhood that feels real old school Detroit. Nice and interesting wine list, be sure to ask your server as they are quite knowledgeable and sometimes have ones that are not listed. We will be back there for sure.