Oh Karoline, oh Karoline, thou of high expectations. Let me tell you one thing about Broadway shows that you might not have realized -- they are written to entertain, not to follow the original or have some message. The revolutionary part was put in there because there was lights and flashing and guns and loud bangs, all entertaining.

And I admit it, I was entertained yesterday. There was beautiful music, witty dialogue, brilliant singing. Sure, it didn't do justice to the book. How could it? Sure, it might have made the nasty inn keeper better and Jarvet a little more human (in my opinion, those were the main things wrong with it) but it appealed to the modern play-goer. Sure, there was profanity. It didn't have a message -- it was to entertain.

That's what the world is usually about. If we as Christians can pick that gleaming nugget of beautiful music and song (Ebonine and Marius' song when she's dying) and perhaps a clean witty line (the whole thing with the people on stage telling the pit conductor to keep playing) or something profound (Valjean's prayer) then I think that is what we must do. And enjoy ourselves for the most part in the rest of it.

To sum, you've been ruined for the play by reading the book. Learn to think objectivly! Think about the why's and the wherefore's! It might have saved you some disappointment.

All I know is that I got to drive a Mercedes last night for three hours in the wind and dark and rain with a terrible glare on the winshield so I couldn't always see where the road actually was -- but it was a Mercedes!!!

At least you didn't get into an accident, Eddie, when you couldn't see the road.  Destroying a Mercedes wouldn't have been such a great thing. :)

Karoline, I haven't seen Les Mis... Well, I've seen the movie, but not the Broadway play.  I actually got completely bored of the book when I read it--just because I felt so many details were included that didn't really need to be.  But then, I never actually finished it, so maybe I shouldn't be making any comments about it... ;)

Anyway, like I said, I haven't seen the Broadway play at all, so I don't know how it was.  But unless they wanted to make it last days long, I'm not sure how they could really capture everything that was in the book (seeing as the length of it was insane)...  And somehow, I don't think most people would be interested in sitting through something so long. lol  Actually, most Americans wouldn't be interested in seeing something like Les Mis at all... but... :)

All right Eddie, I could argue with you, but I won't, at least for a moment.  First I'll concede that I ought to have mentioned there were plenty of things about it I enjoyed. The set was magnificent. The singing was excellent. The music was often beautiful and enjoyable. There were some truly profound and moving moments - but never more than moments, and never lingered on or spun out long enough to be really affecting or impressive.

And I agree with Sidney, and with Aristotle before him, that the point of art is to instruct by delighting. You can't divorce anything from it's message: everything in this world makes some claim - whether true or false - about truth, and as Christians we ought to be discerning. I'm slightly hesitant to go along with your "just be entertained" recommendation. I know what you meant, but I think you can go overboard with it really, really easily. Let's plunder the Egyptians, by all means. But that doesn't mean we have to lower our standards. I still maintain I'm justified in giving Les Mis low marks on several counts. I liked My Fair Lady much better.

. . . oh, and Ashley, I didn't at ALL mean the playwriters had to go along with the book exactly, or fit it all in. That would have been horrendously boring. The book is horrendous enough in that respect. <g> What I meant was that the musical didn't develop the themes of the book well enough. They left out important things and included insignificant things. It made it really hard to follow, because it lacked coherence, continuity, and a satisfactory answer - or even an honest and satisfactory statement of the real question. I don't think anything can be great art that lacks those things.