I have a confession to make.  Hi, my name is Jon, I’m 35 and I like musicals.  Let me also give you a fair warning.  The rest of this post will be dealing with a particular musical.  So, if you can’t stomach that, get out now.  You’ve been fairly warned.  For the rest of you brave souls, let us proceed.

I went to see the 25th anniversary production of Les Miserable this past weekend.  I really wanted to resist the temptation to write about it because, well let’s face it, musical theater is perhaps not the most….(fill in your adjective –  cool, accessible, manly, etc…) activity there is.  That being said, once the orchestra hit the first notes of the prologue, I knew I would be unable to resist the temptation.

Once you become aware of the story and its themes, you’ll understand why I hijacked the blog to talk about a musical.  You tend to become captivated- there’s something there that speaks to us all.  The lead actor, J. Mark McVey expresses it well in this interview before the Memphis production.

When you boil it down, Les Miz is a story of grace and redemption.  It can show us the value of a redeemed life (there’s even an adoption subplot to illustrate this).  It can show us the hopelessness of a life devoid of grace.  It can even show us depths of human depravity.

God is so gracious, that He will even point us to the gospel when we go to the theater for some culture.  If you get the chance, go see it (the current cast is great) or watch the concert on DVD.  As you watch and listen to the story of redemption illustrated by Jean Valjean, think of your own story.  You might be surprised by the similarities.