Les Miserables

Confession: I have never seen or read the original Les Mis. As a result, when the new movie came out, I felt compelled to see it.

It was interesting seeing it because so there were so many classic songs that I never realized were from Les Mis like "I Dreamed a Dream." It was also nice that they realized that people come to musicals for the music, and there wasn't too much dialogue in between the different songs.

That said, I didn't actually like the music that much. Part of it might have been that the acoustics in Cubberly Auditorium weren't very good, but other folks seem to agree that some characters were hard to understand. And most of the characters didn't seem very passionate in their singing. "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" felt like Bieber singing "Baby" -- the lyrics and the subject matter were so heartfelt, but the singing just didn't match.

Overall, it was nice to see a classic, but if you have already seen a production of Les Mis, the film is nothing to write home about.