Eponine FTW

Les Miserables holds a special place in my heart. As a wee high school sophomore (well, okay, my growth spurt had finally started, so I wasn't quite that wee anymore), I watched my friends spend hours in the music room practicing for auditions -- both for the pit orchestra and for the chorus/lead singing roles.

It looked like fun. And their stories about the freshman year musical parties sounded just plain awesome. Only problem? I cannot sing. Or dance. I could play the flute, but I wasn't enamored enough to spend even more hours in a pit than I already did in concert band.

So I turned my eyes skyward. More specifically, to the catwalk. Who the heck wouldn't want an excuse to wear all black every day and crawl around 20 or 30 feet over everyone's heads to operate giant spotlights?

I signed up for stage crew and spent weeks of rehearsals listening to these songs. And sure, in subsequent years, I did the same thing for 2 more musicals. But Les Mis was the first musical I really fell in love with, as I crouched on a dim uncomfortable metal grating trying to halfheartedly do math homework while watching the girl playing Eponine wriggle into the trapdoor at the top of the giant tower + gate construction that made up the set of Valjean and Cosette's house.

About a year ago, my roommate mentioned that, although she is a great frequenter of Broadway shows, she never saw Les Mis. Obviously I sought to remedy this immediately. The problem? It wasn't on Broadway anymore. And the tours don't pass through New York City. And the nearest cities they did pass through were happening on inopportune dates.

Then I turned to trusty Netflix, home of the solution to many such musical-withdrawal problems. A search for Les Mis turned up about 20-odd DVDs. 2 or 3 were various versions of the book that had been filmed, so those were out. I wanted the music, damnit!

The rest were filmed versions of various anniversary performances. I ordered the first one on the list. The DVD came, only for me to pop it into the player and find... a concert. Basically, the cast of the musical standing at microphones and singing. No action! No storyline being played out! How was a newcomer to the show supposed to know what was going on?!

We went through about 5 or 6 DVDs of these same films before I finally gave up. Then, lo and behold, the movie world listened to my desperate wish*, and I started seeing previews for this movie in theaters.

So I finally got to drag the roomie to see my favorite show (although I still plan on dragging her to the stage version as well some day. When it comes back. HEAR THAT, BROADWAY PEEPS or executives or whoever makes that stuff happen?! I DEMAND A RERUN).

As with anything I love (coughTheHobbitcough), seeing it in film gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, YES THIS IS HOW I IMAGINED EVERYTHING IN MY HEAD when I watched our makeshift set being shifted around by other ninjas-in-black (aka stage crew) at school. On the other hand, WHO THE HELL LET RUSSELL CROWE SING WHY GOD WHY. Etc.

But my favorite part of the movie was Eponine. She was my favorite in the play too, all those years ago, but that only meant I was planning to judge her harder.

(Caution: Spoilers ahead. I mean, if this counts as spoilers. You've all seen the musical already, right? RIGHT?!?!)

I love that character because, while everyone else is swooning over sweet downtrodden Cosette and her triumphant rise over her circumstances to become adoring daughter of Mr. BAMF - I mean, Valjean himself... I was watching that girl in the corner. The one being pampered by her OBVIOUSLY INSANE and kleptomaniacal parents (I mean, wtf Thenardiers, what do you DO with all those eyeballs and prosthetic legs anyway?!). She seemed destined to grow up a jerkface as well. Who wouldn't, when your role models engaged in larceny, breaking and entering, and probably also murder 24/7?

But instead she turned into this badass street urchin who "knows her way around" even better than the boys. And she falls in love with her best friend. WHO HASN'T DONE THAT. And then he's totally obsessed with new girl who pops out of nowhere, ughhhh of course. But then instead of trying to fuck with his feelings for this new girl, Eponine proves herself even more awesome by helping him track down his twoo wuv and win the gal over. All while her own heart is breaking.

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THAT.

And in the movie version, not only is she just as badass, but they also refrained from casting another big-name star, and brought in the actress who sang in the 25th anniversary tour of the show instead.

Watching her made me wonder why they didn't just cast the whole musical crew in the first place. Sure, people worry audiences won't see movies without names they recognize starring. And sure, acting in a movie is VERY DIFFERENT from acting on stage (and I must say Russell Crowe was still great at the acting bits, no surprise. Whenever his mouth was shut, he was brill).

But she carried it off and then some. So hats off to a new movie star, to a great show, and to the directors/producers in general for being brave enough to make this thing. I'm so glad they did. :D

Here's her in the 25th anniversary show:



* yeah yeah, I know they must've been filming it long before a year ago BUT SHUSH I CAN DREAM. they made it JUST FOR ME.