“One Day More” from Les Misérables
Okay, bear with me. Les Misérables is my favourite musical by a million miles, and while this isn’t my favourite song, I think it’s the most epic and musical theatre-y. It’s starts off all dreamy for the first two minutes and builds and builds. Nobody is even curious why there are Asians in 18th Century France.
Then at the 2-minute mark, it starts to get ridiculous. The character Javert (who looks exactly like Russell Crowe in Master and Commander) sings, “I will join these little schoolboys. They will wet themselves with blood.” WHAT? What does that mean? You’re gonna hang out with some little boys and make them pee blood? I assume you’re gonna crush up some glass and put it in their wine.
After Russell Crowe, the two weird Cockney innkeepers sing a bunch of stuff, and I’m sorry - why is everybody British? Ugh, everyone in this play is a chimney sweep. Anyway, one of the innkeepers looks like a Chris Farley character, and it’s not the dude.
But the song carries on, and the members of the chorus aren’t in costume, they’re all just wearing Les Mis t-shirts. That’s fine. This isn’t a performance of the actual play; I’ll let it slide.
Okay, so the song recovers and it soars higher and higher. Really, you forget about the weird stuff seconds after it happens because the song is suddenly so huge. They’re all singing different things, yammering on about their own situations, and then they’re all singing the same thing all together, something about how many more days… and by the end you have chills. You’ll proudly wear your Les Mis t-shirt in gym class and refer to climbing the rope as “storming the barricade.”
End of Act 1.
