Les Miserables, Part Five: The Pièce de Résistance

My favorite part about going to see Les Miserables was not the costumes or the sets or the songs or the actors or the story or anything else (although all that came in a very close second!).

The absolute best part, for me, about seeing Les Miz was...

Meeting the actors!!!!!

No joke! I actually got to meet most of the main actors and get their autographs!!!

Let me tell you how I got to do this insanely wonderful thing. (Before I do, please know that I count myself extremely blessed!!! And that I'm not trying to rub it in, I'm just very excited that I got to do this and want to share with you guys!) My friend who also goes to The Fox to see musicals always comes back with autographed stuff be it a bag or a mug or a t-shirt. Always. She even came back from a Celtic Woman concert with all of their autographs on a t-shirt! Anyway, about a month before the day we were supposed to go, I emailed her, basically asking how on earth she always got autographs and if I could. She emailed me back a few days later, telling me that it wasn't a VIP thing but that anyone who wanted to could. (I'm like, "This is joyous news!! Tell me more!!") She gave me detailed instructions on where to go to get the actors' autographs and I thanked her. A lot. : )

So I ended up getting most everybody's autographs. : )

But guess what else?! (If you haven't already fainted, you will now.)

My grandma was standing by with a camera!! (Someone get smelling salts!)

So. If anyone is still conscious, I bring you...

Pictures.

: )

Arwen and I, insanely excited while waiting behind the "Barricade," as a staff member called it. (I giggled when I heard it. HA!) We were some of the first to get there, so we were some of the first to get autographs!! (On our side at least. There was another line on the other side of the back door and sometimes the actors went down there and I got nervous, thinking they would forget about the people on our side!! They didn't, though... for which I am eternally grateful.) : )

Me and Chasten Harmon, who played Eponine.

Jason Forbach, who played Enjolras, and you can barely see Joseph Spieldenner in front of me, who played Grantaire.

Laura Wiley (Cosette) signing my program. She went down the line on the other side of the door and after she was done talking to everyone down there, all of the actors had gone by and she was one of the last to walk down the street. We ended up walking beside her and got to talk to her for a while! She's really nice and very soft spoken, which you wouldn't think after seeing her as Cosette.

The cute and insanely talented Joshua Colley, who played Gavroche. He still had makeup on his face, but I could tell that he didn't care!

Arwen and me with Max Quinlan, who played Marius. AHH! He was so nice and talked to us for a few minutes, too! (And I liked his curls.) : )

Then, we waited for Andrew Varela to come out. As you may recall from the multiple times I've told you, he played our Phantom back in '09 and I couldn't wait to tell him what a great job he'd done with both roles! I spotted him and did a little bounce, then watched as he went down the line on the other side of the door. We got to talk to other people, so it passed the time a little, but I couldn't wait to meet him.

Then, he finally came to our side of the line. : )

Telling him that he'd played our Phantom!! (I look weird in this picture, but I love the look on his face!)

Arwen and me with Andrew Varela, who played Javert!!!

And this is the only picture I have of us with Peter Lockyer. (This is the way he looked in the first few songs, by the way. Afterwards was a wig... and I still can't believe it! He looks so different in this picture, doesn't he?) We actually talked to him for a while, asking him how he liked Atlanta. He said it was great, but he was still looking for the place with the perfect biscuit. We laughed and my grandma said, "My house. Or my mom's house." And he said, "Yeah, that's what people have told me!" (I forgot to ask him if he'd been to The Varsity, which doesn't have biscuits, but is still really good and a must-visit.)

So here's my program, now made complete because of the awesome autographs on it. (If you double-click, it'll open up bigger.) : )

And that's it! The great secret that I've kept for these (many, many) months while I've done this (insanely long) series of posts on Les Miz. I still can't believe I've kept it a secret for so long because it was literally the best part about going to see Les Miz.

~Eowyn~