The neon lights of Broadway. Image by Ed Judkins/Pixabay.
As I think about my love for live theater, two musicals come to mind. They stand out not only because they were wonderful shows, but also because of the impact they had on people I was with when I saw them: people I cared about.
Two musicals stand out in memory, as much for their impact as for the shows themselves.
The first, chronologically, was A Chorus Line, and the second was Les Miserables.
The big trip
It was the fall of 1979, and I was teaching journalism at the University of Missouri. I had volunteered to be the adviser of the U of M Chapter of The society of Professional Journalists, which then was known as Sigma Delta Chi. Each year the SPJ holds an annual convention for both students and working journalists, and this year it was in New York City.
I had 10 eager students who wanted to go, but who were also low on disposable income. So to keep costs low, I agreed to drive them to New York in a large university van. We were on the road for 20 hours and pulled into Manhattan early in the morning for our stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which was the convention hotel.
“One” for the ages
It was the first time any of us had been to the Big Apple, and we were blown away by everything we saw, most notably the musical that first night. It was A Chorus Line, and it had us in its grip from the opening number, “I Hope I Get It,” right down through “What I Did for Love” and the reprise of “One.”
This landmark show, which won multiple Tony Awards plus a Pulitzer Prize for drama, had already been running for four years at the Shubert Theater and would go on to become the seventh longest running show in Broadway history. The music was by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and the book was written by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante.
A real education
The students were spellbound throughout the production, and I realized how important this trip would be for their education. We crammed so much into our three-day stay in New York, but A Chorus Line 
would emerge as the crown jewel, according to a brief survey I conducted with the kids before we left town.
I lost track of the number of times they spontaneously broke into “One” on the drive back to Columbia, Missouri.
A new beginning
Fast-forward 20 years to the spring of 2000. It was the first year of the 21st Century, and I was in New York City to meet my new friend, Anne, who would become my wife in a few more months. This was only our third date, however, and we were getting to know each other slowly since we had both been burned by previous relationships. Mine had moved too quickly into a rebound marriage which lasted only two years.
So, beyond a couple of good-night hugs, our friendship had thus far produced no touching. I felt as nervous about reaching out to her as I had on my awkward dates back in high school.
I had seen Les Mis in Indianapolis a few years before, loved it, and I wanted Anne to see it. The show would wind up being the sixth longest-running musical on Broadway.
Channeling “Sleepless”
Anne was staying with a friend in Long Island, and I met her at Grand Central Station earlier in the afternoon. Our one-two punch as tourists consisted of a walk to the Empire State Building where we saw the city from the observation deck (ala Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan), followed by going to see Les Mis, with a dinner at a quaint theater district cafe squeezed in between.
As we strolled from the cafe to the theater, I broke through my doubt about touching Anne. I didn’t want to seem too presumptuous, but it felt like the time was right.
The big touch
I prefaced my touch by saying, “I’d better hold on to you, Annie, because I wouldn’t want to lose such a pretty woman to some vagabond on these city streets!”
With that preamble, I reached out and found a welcoming hand reaching back, and it felt like first-time love all over again.
We found the Broadway Theater, took our seats, and I felt the same enthralling grip from the opening numbers of Les Mis that I had felt in A Chorus Line two decades before. Only this time, that grip was tighter because of the woman sitting next to me, and because the casual hand-holding we felt on our walk to the theater had become a vise grip involving all four of our hands.
We were so close to each other, I wondered for a moment why I had even bothered to buy two seats.
A show of magic
The words and music of Les Miserables had helped Anne and me overcome our initial fear of getting involved again, and transported us — right in that theater — to the next level, which has now become a 23-year marriage.
The show’s lyrics had a lot to do with that. “I Dreamed a Dream,” and “One Day More” were words and phrases that took on new meaning for us that night, as Annie and I each realized neither of us was no longer “On My Own.”.
Jim WillisI am a writer, college professor, and author of several nonfiction books, including three on the decade of the 1960s. Several wonderful essays of gifted Retrospect authors appear in my book, "Daily Life in the 1960s."
Thanx Jim for your memories of seeing those two wonderful Broadway shows – your 20 hour drive from Missouri to Manhattan to see Chorus Line, and 20 years later your romantic night in the Big Apple seeing Les Mis with Anne!
I remember that before seeing Les Mis, I made a point of reading the Victor Hugo novel which certainly added to the experience!
Thanks, Dana! I still enjoy watching both the 10th and 25th anniversary concerts of Les Mis. Such stirring music, and a great story. I don’t know if you ever saw the Harrison Ford/Tommy Lee Jones movie, The Fugitive, but I always thought that was a modern-day take on Valjean and Jauvert.
I am right there with you about both those musicals, Jim (I wrote about Chorus Line for a previous prompt). Certainly Chorus Line changed musical theater for a long time (in the way that Hamilton has made hip-hop a legitimate form of musical theater). I love the way you describe your long bus trip and the way your students broke into “One” on the bus ride home.
Your memories of Les Mis are sweet, indeed, from that first hand-hold, to being so close to Anne as to almost not needing a second seat. But the show itself, with its mechanical turntable was quite a spectacle, with memorable (and singable) music, the great plot line from Victor Hugo and so much action and pathos. We saw it on its first nation tour in Boston in 1986, but I took my older son to London when he was not quite 15 in 2000 (just the two of us; ironically, he moved there full-time eight years ago) and one of the things we took in was a professional show in the West End: Les Mis. He was entranced, as was I. It hadn’t dimmed a bit.
Thank you, Betsy. I’ve see. Les Mis both on stage and in 2 films and prefer the stage versions. Never has a musical punched so many right buttons as that one did, although Chorus Line came close.
Two items among this fun narrative stood out, but for very subjective reasons. One: I got married in 1998 so I guess you also did (doing the math regarding your 23-year marriage so far). Two: I’m from Indianapolis so I hope there is another story forthcoming about what you were doing in the Crossroads of America (besides going to see a musical).
Those U.MO. students were so fortunate to have your devotion, to them and to the teaching craft! To drive them that far was truly a noble contribution to their cultural and intellectual growth. (The most I drove my students in a college vehicle was from western Mass up to an art museum in Bennington, VT.).
I can see why you couldn’t choose between these two highlights of theater-going; each story was wonderful and memorable,.
Thanks much, Dale. I often think about that road trip to New York with my students, and I wonder if I could have done that at an older age. I was only 33 at the time and nearly as goofy as my passengers were. One thing I do remember is the girls in the bunch got on the van’s CB radio and began flirting with passing truckers. We ran into a couple of them later at a truck stop and I could smell trouble coming. We got out alive, though!
That’s a hilarious addendum to your story! Glad the girls got out safely and you didn’t have it brought up to strip your tenure!
Thanks, Dale. All I wanted to do was to get us out of that truck stop fast!
Lovely stories, and a perfect backdrop for falling in love. You weave it in perfectly. Theatre is best when it integrates with important life experiences.
Thank you, Khati. I agree about the intersection with art and personal experience, and it even works better when that art hits you at the right moment in life.
This is a great story, Jim, and I love A Chorus Line with all my heart (although the movie was not good). However, I am in the minority here on Retro in not being a fan of Les Mis. I walked out at intermission when I saw it, although, to be fair, it was a touring company, not the Broadway cast.
Thanks, Suzy. Some shows just hit you in the right place, at the right time. The only version of it I’ve seen that I had problems with was the movie. I just couldn’t see Russell Crowe as Jauvert, and his voice left a little to be desired I thought.
Les Miz is a show I also enjoyed very much. I know we took our kids to see it when they were pre-teens/teens. My daughter loved to figure skate to music from that show.
Thanks, Laurie. It was a memorable one for me and Annie!
Jim, your story is as romantic and transportative as a Broadway musical. I am so glad that you reached out to touch her hand on the walk to the theater, and so glad that she was ready and willing for your touch, like you two were alone in your world among thousands on the boulevard, and on into the theater where you really only needed one seat. Bravo!
Thank you, Jon. It was a magical evening for sure.
Such a sweet tale of you and Anne being like awkward teens early on! The power of art….
Gina and I also got our start at a performance, but it was a movie. A very bad, in the Plan 9 from Outer Space so-bad-its-good sort of bad, movie. The power of art!
Thanks much, Dave. I often think that, while our bodies age, our inner vulnerabilities and trepidations remain much as they were in our younger years. As for bonding over “Plan 9,” wow!