Today I’ll be seeing Les Misérables for the 62nd time in my life.
Yes, really. I first saw it at the definitely-developmentally-appropriate age of six and have not stopped since.
The day after, I have the first of two showings of Grace Pervades, which means I am either professionally committed to theatre access and criticism or very bad at pacing.
What I’m most interested in this week is not only what happens onstage, but how theatre teaches the public, talent, and the Fourth Estate to understand itself. Inheritance, spectacle, memory, press language, audience ritual, access logistics, and the stories everyone agrees to repeat until they become the official version.
It all feels very significant, and, of course, London theatre is never just performance.
It is architecture, crowd behavio(u)r, class, mythology, staffing, marketing, weather, stairs, ramps, velvet, and someone somewhere insisting that everything is fine because it has always been done this way.
Looking forward to taking it in, all of it.