As someone who grew up around musicals, I have very specific and narrow tastes in that artform. And yes, there's a giant split between "legit" theatre and musicals. However, I remember driving up to Minneapolis to see "Les Miserables" with my friend when we were both going through horrendous turmoil in our lives, and we bawled all the way through, in one of the best art-as-catharsis experiences I've ever had. (It was the touring production with the turntable. Excellent use of staging, IIRC.)

I'm super-excited for the movie, though I probably won't see it in theatres.

It was the touring production with the turntable. Excellent use of staging, IIRC.

It really was. I'm not sure I've seen another show that used a turntable.

Unless you have a really kickass surround-sound system at home, I would try to see this in theaters.

(For values of "you" which include everyone. This is a spectacle movie, deserves to be seen BIG.)

It really was. I'm not sure I've seen another show that used a turntable

I have--Berkeley Rep has used them to great effect, and a lot of other moving platforms as well. I love creative staging, it's so fun to watch.

I think, beyond Cats, Les Miz is the only musical that I have seen. I was kid with Cats, but Les Miz was my one true enduring love, and anything after that paled, even actual productions of Les Miz, because I'd listened to my cast recording so much that anything else paled (I don't know if it was the British or American version). It's the gold standard by which I compare anything else. I knew Phantom of the Opera because of friends in school, and thought the music atrocious and the lyrics simple and the singing too perfect. Les Miz was raw and powerful and moved me. I think the only other musical I liked that I saw was Into The Woods, with Bernadette Peters, but I'm not emotionally attached to it.

The dates finally make sense to me--Les Miz hit the West End 2 years before I graduated high school. It was the thing. Everyone loved it. And the start of me saying "Fuck you and your thing" and skipping out on things merely because everyone else was doing it. It was another five years, minimum before I grew out of that specific lack of actual decision making.

However, I have seen very few live musicals that weren't in Jamaica and therefore unrecognisable to most everyone else. So I never felt much of an urge to catch up afterwards.

War Horse uses a turntable. I've actually worked on smaller shows out here that have used turntables or other stage automation. It's always kind of neat. And also one of the many ways working in theatre can kill you if you're not careful.

I loved Cats way back in the day. I'm quite fond of Wicked (though even musical lovers can be kind of split on Wicked). I'm way super head over heels gaga for Spring Awakening. The productions I've worked on have had a powerful effect on me.

The funny thing about Spring Awakening is that the story itself, stripped of the music, is horribly depressing, and little if anything is resolved or answered. The addition of the music doesn't really change any of that about the story, but it is the music alone that sounds the hopeful voice in the story, that somehow sees beyond the base reality of immediate events and looks toward the future in hopes of something better.

I kind of feel the same way about Les Miz, to a certain degree.

I've never seen Spring Awakening, but I do love it-- I have seen a large number of clips from the Broadway performances, etc.

Sort of relatedly, if you watch Glee, liking musicals sort of brands you (in college anyway, when I went to it) as a Rachel Berry, but with less depth. Theater is SERIOUS BUSINESS, don't you know. I like to think that most people grow out of that, but the college theatre I work at does only really only does really obscure musicals, like Adding Machine, the musical.

I actually think that the music can act as a sort of Brechtian distancing effect, and it allows you to do some really interesting and emotional things (because I feel the Brechtian distancing thing really actually allows you to feel more deeply, as opposed to the stated purpose of action over feeling).

The stagecraft in Les Miz fucking phenomenal. It's one of the things that the movie is missing, actually, is that near-constant sense of movement that you get from actors walking around the moving turntable while the scenery changes. It's kinda sorta replicated with sweeping camera tricks but there's really nothing that comes close to the moment in the stage show where the barricade comes together.

In my high school, the choir was a big deal, and if you were good enough to be in the show choir you were a REALLY big deal, which is maybe why I never related to Glee - my experience was that those kids were the unquestioned top of the social pyramid,

I am just a little bit older than you, and I went to a very small high school. We had "Vocal Ensemble", which just started dancing the year I was a freshman (it was more like a select choir before). I joined in sophomore year and I was one of the choreographers, which may explain how lame it was! We wore white shirts, black skirts/pants, and red glitter suspenders and bow ties! We only got 5 boys because we let a freshman join (that wasn't allowed). I was so excited when I was a senior that our director let me sing alto, because I felt the harmony was cooler, and we had too many sopranos. It was sort of the time of my life in outcast land, as was the musical.

ETA: [link] My show choir/musical junior year in high school