Last Sunday, I met daughter Anna in Minneapolis where we attended Les Misérables at the Orpheum Theater. This is about my tenth time seeing Les Misérables. It is somewhere between a guilty pleasure and an addiction.

I’ve always liked musicals, in person and on stage. Film is not at all the same experience. The energy and intensity of real live human beings throwing themselves into their part, I love that. For three hours, I can be in a world that’s quite different from mine on the farm.

Every musical has scenes where heightened emotions come through in song. Les Mis is a musical on steroids. The entire story is sung, and every moment is emotional. It’s exhausting to sit through; I can’t imagine performing it. The first act sets you up to want to cry through the whole second act.

I’m not sure why I want to pay for an expensive ticket just to have my emotions tossed against the rocks like that. I’ve seen it enough to know everything that’s going to happen, and I’m still a wreck by the end. I found this synopsis at broadway.com:

“The story begins as Jean Valjean crosses the landscape of early 19th century France, always pursued by the righteous police inspector Javert. From his adoption and love of the orphan Cosette to the darkly funny plots of the thieving Thenardiers, from the soaring revolutionary fire of the student rebels who fight on the barricade in the streets of Paris to the final confrontation between Jean Valjean and Javert, the story is one of love, courage and redemption.”

In the end, most of the people you care about are dead, each death more tragic than the one before. If you can hold yourself together when Eponine is dying in the arms of Marius with raindrops streaming down her face, you are tougher than me.

Our whole family has seen Les Mis multiple times. When the kids were home, we sang along to the music on a CD. The kitchen was our stage. Once, we lived out the famous barricade scene. We decided Pam’s rule had become oppressive and we needed to rise up. We built our barricade using the couch and pillows. When Pam came home, we were ready. With waving banners, we sang:

“Do you hear the people sing?

Singing the song of angry men?

It is the music of the people

Who will not be slaves again!”

Our revolution was about as successful as that of the 1832 Parisians. Pam remained in power. She remains there today.

Long ago, I tried reading Victor Hugo’s epic historical novel. Written in 1862, Les Misérables is considered one of the greatest novels of all time. This was back when I read more than farm magazines and box scores.

With its broad sweep of lives caught up in a crucial moment in history, it is an unlikely candidate to be made into a musical. The musical was originally written in French in 1980. The English version became the longest running theater production in London and New York.

I assume most of you don’t share my obsession and willingness to pay $100 for a ticket. There was a movie version in 2012 with some big stars. I thought it was not very good. But if you’re bored on a winter night, you could check it out. Just know it’s better on stage.

If you are like me and enjoy musicals, it’s a good time to live around here. In Sleepy Eye, St. Mary’s High School has a thirty-year history of wonderful musicals under the direction of Julie Neubauer and now Geri Pelzel. I still remember Geri as Tinkerbell floating above the stage.

Being in those musicals were favorite experiences of my kids. The week leading up to productions was life consuming. For that week, they were more their character than our children, but we always got them back.

Sleepy Eye Public has also built a tradition of musicals under Sandy Brinkman and George Hirschboeck. George is a family friend who has more enthusiasm than anyone else on Earth. Sandy and George have also been involved in Sleepy Eye Community Theater musicals that have been great fun.

You can go out from here and find entertaining musicals in Springfield, the schools in New Ulm, and Martin Luther College. Add to that, productions at the State Street Theater in New Ulm. So many places to escape to Camelot, West Side, or the South Pacific.

One will always fall short when you list names to appreciate. These are some I know because of where I am planted. But wherever people participate in creating art on stage and lifting kids and adults to bring out talents inside of them, those people deserve large credit. It is truly a gift.

I can’t sing or dance, although I keep trying. I’ve often wished life were more like a musical.

Why can’t people break out into song more often?

Outside of church, most of us hardly ever sing. Think how better our day-to-day lives would be if we lived in a musical.

I can picture going to get parts at Miller-Sellner Implement. There’s usually three or four parts people at the counter. Why can’t Jeff step forward to sing, while Dan and Kristie and Tony break into dance behind him? Think of Oklahoma.

“MI-LLER SE-LLNER, where the parts come sweeping down the aisle!

With the oil down low and the filters high, while the chisel points are in a bin by the door!

MI-LLER SE-LLNER, we have the parts to work the land, and the land we belong to is grand!”

And when I come in from the fields, why can’t Pam greet me like Maria in West Side Story to tell me what’s for supper?

“There’s a meal for us,

Somewhere a meal for us.

Peas and meatloaf and a salad

Wait for us

Somewhere.

We’ll find a new way of eating

We’ll find a way of dining

Somehow

Someday

Somewhere!”

I’m not sure what my end time will be like. The final scene from Les Misérables, would be hard to beat. When Fantine comes to lead Jean Valjean to Heavens, she sings:

“Take my hand,

I’ll lead you to salvation.

Take my love,

For love is everlasting.

And remember

The truth that once was spoken,

To love another person

Is to see the face of God.”

Excuse me while I get a Kleenex.

— Randy Krzmarzick farms on the home place west of Sleepy Eye, where he lives with his wife, Pam.