Les Miserables

So the Les Mis 25th Anniversary Concert was amazing, as everyone had been expecting. The concert itself was phenomenal.

My favourites of the afternoon were Lea Salonga's Fantine (of course), Alfie Boe's Valjean and Norm Lewis's Javert. Matt Lucas (of Little Britain) played a wonderful Thernadier; his comedian nature came in right on spot.

Every actor was singing and acting superbly...well everyone except for Nick Jonas. I must say he was a better suited Marius than Michael Ball, in terms of appearance and character. But when it came down to the singing, well... I didn't know who Nick Jonas was before the concert, and I have never heard of his songs, but when he was singing on the stage his voice was almost non-existent compared to the other actors, who all had substantial training and experience in theatre. I felt bad for Jonas, 'cause it was obvious that he was putting in his best efforts, and his acting was pretty good too.

As much as I've enjoyed the concert, I must admit that I still prefer the 10th Anniversary "Dream Cast" concert. One thing the 10th anniversary didn't match this 25th anniversary concert was that a few of the numbers were cut from the programme 15 years ago. The programme at this year's concert is longer (although I was not happy that Gavroche's "Little People" was cut to only one verse, they had an amazing boy singing Gavroche!). But in terms of the singing and vocal qualities, the "Dream Cast" of 1995 is still the best.

However, this concert's encore was mind-blowing. Cameron McKintosh, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil had invited the 1985 Original Cast (Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball, Patti LuPone, Alun Armstrong, Frances Ruffelle etc.) onto the stage and perform with the concert cast as a finale. Colm Wilkinson and Alfie Boe were joined by Simon Bowman (who originated the role of Chris in Miss Saigon in 1989, alongside Lea Salonga) and John Owen-Jones who were playing Valjean at the Queen's Theatre and the Barbican respectively. The four Valjeans performed a quartet of "Bring Him Home". It was definitely the highlight was the concert. When Colm Wilkinson opened his mouth and began singing "God on high...", those three notes were pure gold.

And then Michael Ball and Frances Ruffelle (and the original Cosette) came to the front and sang the "A Heart Full of Love" trio. There at that point, when Michael Ball began to sing, I genuinely felt sorry for Nick Jonas. There was a huge contrast between his voice and the one of Michael Ball. Oh yes Lucy and I managed to catch a glimpse of Ball at the stage door after the concert.

At the stage door, the most unexpected happened. Lea Salonga walked out and immediately I shouted her name. Even now I don't know where I found that courage to do so, I'm usually pretty timid about things like these. Then I asked "Hi, can you sign this for me please?" and handed her a programme of the original production of Miss Saigon from 1989, which I had bought from eBay for less than a fiver. She looked at her biography and photo from '89 and said "Oh God". It was so surreal. I met my favourite musical theatre actress and she autographed my vintage programme. Lucy and I were jumping up and down, screaming with joy afterwards.

Afterwards I went back to Euston to meet Andrew. We had dinner in Russell Square. It was so strange, to see him in London and not in Osaka. It was absolutely delightful though - but then it did make me miss the life I had in Japan, and the friends that I had made there.