Sucks to Be French

I wasn’t planning to go to Les Misérables. Not that I have anything against the blockbuster 1985 musical of Victor Hugo’s classic 1862 novel—I’d never seen the one nor read the other, so I couldn’t really have an opinion about it. It’s just that my friend Kaya Oakes was having her book launch for her excellent new book Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church at the same time as SHN’s press night for the touring 25th-anniversary production of Les Miz at the Orpheum, and my friend’s event took precedence. However, my wife absolutely loves Les Miz, having seen a previous touring production many years ago, and it happens that Kaya has another reading tonight that we could go to instead, so off we went to the barricades.