August 20, 2012

Les Miserables, Part Five: The Pièce de Résistance

My favorite part about going to see Les Miserables was not the costumes or the sets or the songs or the actors or the story or anything else (although all that came in a very close second!).

The absolute best part, for me, about seeing Les Miz was...

Meeting the actors!!!!!

No joke! I actually got to meet most of the main actors and get their autographs!!!

Let me tell you how I got to do this insanely wonderful thing. (Before I do, please know that I count myself extremely blessed!!! And that I'm not trying to rub it in, I'm just very excited that I got to do this and want to share with you guys!) My friend who also goes to The Fox to see musicals always comes back with autographed stuff be it a bag or a mug or a t-shirt. Always. She even came back from a Celtic Woman concert with all of their autographs on a t-shirt! Anyway, about a month before the day we were supposed to go, I emailed her, basically asking how on earth she always got autographs and if I could. She emailed me back a few days later, telling me that it wasn't a VIP thing but that anyone who wanted to could. (I'm like, "This is joyous news!! Tell me more!!") She gave me detailed instructions on where to go to get the actors' autographs and I thanked her. A lot. : )

So I ended up getting most everybody's autographs. : )

But guess what else?! (If you haven't already fainted, you will now.)

My grandma was standing by with a camera!! (Someone get smelling salts!)

So. If anyone is still conscious, I bring you...

Pictures.

: )

Arwen and I, insanely excited while waiting behind the "Barricade," as a staff member called it. (I giggled when I heard it. HA!) We were some of the first to get there, so we were some of the first to get autographs!! (On our side at least. There was another line on the other side of the back door and sometimes the actors went down there and I got nervous, thinking they would forget about the people on our side!! They didn't, though... for which I am eternally grateful.) : )

Me and Chasten Harmon, who played Eponine.

Jason Forbach, who played Enjolras, and you can barely see Joseph Spieldenner in front of me, who played Grantaire.

Laura Wiley (Cosette) signing my program. She went down the line on the other side of the door and after she was done talking to everyone down there, all of the actors had gone by and she was one of the last to walk down the street. We ended up walking beside her and got to talk to her for a while! She's really nice and very soft spoken, which you wouldn't think after seeing her as Cosette.

The cute and insanely talented Joshua Colley, who played Gavroche. He still had makeup on his face, but I could tell that he didn't care!

Arwen and me with Max Quinlan, who played Marius. AHH! He was so nice and talked to us for a few minutes, too! (And I liked his curls.) : )

Then, we waited for Andrew Varela to come out. As you may recall from the multiple times I've told you, he played our Phantom back in '09 and I couldn't wait to tell him what a great job he'd done with both roles! I spotted him and did a little bounce, then watched as he went down the line on the other side of the door. We got to talk to other people, so it passed the time a little, but I couldn't wait to meet him.

Then, he finally came to our side of the line. : )

Telling him that he'd played our Phantom!! (I look weird in this picture, but I love the look on his face!)

Arwen and me with Andrew Varela, who played Javert!!!

And this is the only picture I have of us with Peter Lockyer. (This is the way he looked in the first few songs, by the way. Afterwards was a wig... and I still can't believe it! He looks so different in this picture, doesn't he?) We actually talked to him for a while, asking him how he liked Atlanta. He said it was great, but he was still looking for the place with the perfect biscuit. We laughed and my grandma said, "My house. Or my mom's house." And he said, "Yeah, that's what people have told me!" (I forgot to ask him if he'd been to The Varsity, which doesn't have biscuits, but is still really good and a must-visit.)

So here's my program, now made complete because of the awesome autographs on it. (If you double-click, it'll open up bigger.) : )

And that's it! The great secret that I've kept for these (many, many) months while I've done this (insanely long) series of posts on Les Miz. I still can't believe I've kept it a secret for so long because it was literally the best part about going to see Les Miz.

~Eowyn~

3 comments:

Miss Dashwood said...

*crash*
*splash*

That was the sound of me swooning to the ground and knocking over my tea mug in the process.

I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU RIGHT NOW THAT IT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! This post was a total surprise to me, seriously, because I hadn't even considered the possibility of y'all meeting the actors. I'd been speculating to myself about what your last post might detail, but I never even thought of something as amazing as this! WOW!

That is just so cool. I've always dreamed of going to a play like that and meeting the cast afterward (this was afterward, right?) and getting autographs and even photos.... just WOW. Again. Haha, you're probably getting tired of my gushing...

Behind the barricade, ahahahahaha... LOVE that.

So what's up with Jason Forbach's dark hair? Why didn't they just leave it the way it was for the play? Oh, right, because the silly book says Enjo has to be blond... gahhhhh. He is NOT blond. It's like the way Sir Percy doesn't really have blue eyes. Typographical errors. The end.

Joshua Colley is adorable! And I'm taking your word for it that he sang better in your performance than in that video. Heehee.

Wow, Peter Lockyer's hair and beard look just like Hugh Jackman's in the movie stills I've seen so far... I guess that's probably just the way convicts wore their hair then. :P

Still sighing over here. Wow. Just so amazing... hey, if you have any more pictures that you didn't put on here, I would not be opposed to seeing them in an email. Just sayin'. :D

A.G. Dahl said...

Ah! I haven't even *seen* the musical yet, and I'm jealous!!!! :)

Seriously, though, that is so cool!! Someday I hope to meet some of the LOTR/Hobbit cast and Adam Young & his "Owl City" crew! :) *sigh* someday......

Sounds like you had a blast!!

~Anna

waltz-forest.blogspot.com {I changed blogs *wink*}

Anonymous said...

Amy - HA!! I was hoping someone would do a swoon crash, but your crash and splash was awesome. : )

: D

Yay! I was also hoping it'd be a surprise to somebody. I know, right?! I left the best for last. : )

Rapunzel-ish-"I KNOW!" I've only been able to do that once - and it was at a high school play of Beauty and the Beast. (Although both me and Arwen think that their Lumiere was WAAAAAY better than the Broadway/The Fox Lumiere we saw.) Nope, I'm not tired - it's making me remember every little detail.... Sighhhh. So much fun. : )

*fangirlish giggle* : )

Well, he had brown hair as Enjolras, too. (I think the Enjo in the video I sent you was different than Jason... I think.) Yeah, Enjo is NOT blonde and Percy's eyes are BROWN. Finis.

I KNOW!!! He was so cute and just smiled and signed my program like he was another one of the bigger stars. (To which I remind myself, well, DUH, he was....) Trust me - he was WAY better in the performance we saw. He must have been nervous that night or something.

Yeah... slightly weird, but it's Valjean, so who cares? : P

Me, too. : ) That was pretty much it... except for a random ensamble member whose autograph I got anyway. : )

Anna Grace - HA! : D

I know, right?! Hobbit cast - sighhh.... Some of them are going to be at DragonCon and my parents won't let me go. (Heehee... not that I'd want to go for any other reason than to meet Billy Boyd and Cary Elwes....) It's a dream of mine to meet a lot of famous people, too. My only claim to fame so far is that I volunteered for a few years at the filming location of 'The Patriot.' (They were done filming then... by about five or six years. : P)

I DID!! : )

Heehee... : )

Glad you guys enjoyed the pictures!!

Eowyn