Wandering into the student union building this morning, I encountered a sign I'd never seen before. It featured a lot of Korean characters, two words in French, and an arrow pointing to the left. The words in French were "Les" and "Miserables." Those of you who don't appreciate the magnitude of this statement should refer back to the URL of this website. There is nothing moderate or dignified about my love for this play. You can imagine my chagrin, then, when I purchased my ticket, walked into the theatre, and found two acoustic guitars and one microphone on an otherwise empty stage (there was other instrumentation behind strategically placed screens; there was, however, no collapsible barricade). Turns out (in what is the best argument for trademark laws I have yet heard) "Les Miserables" not only refers to the Hugo novel and all of its adaptations. It also refers to a heartthrob Korean singer-songwriter and his band (today was "White Day," the Korean answer to Valentine's Day; based on the music, I'm pretty sure that the only other testosterone in the audience was romantically attached to the estrogen sitting next to it). There were, of course, indications beforehand. None of the signs pointing me towards the theatre featured the iconic Cosette-is-the-flag logo of the Boublil-Schonberg adaptation. All of the signs pointing me towards the theatre were colored pastel blue and purple. But, if I have one fatal flaw (and I probably have several) it's that I believe words have a meaning that can be known, so, as soon as I saw the name, I was going to throw down the $55, fait accompli. A fool and his money....
(In my defense, just two days earlier I encountered a poster in that selfsame student union building advertising the May run of "Miss Saigon" on campus. This one featured the stylized helicopter logo and a clear shot of Chris and Kim making out, so I remain confident.)
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