Les Miserables!

Guess what!  Jed bought us tickets to go see Les Miserables when it came to Detroit!  He surprised me with them about a week beforehand. I was so excited!  Jed had seen this Broadway twice already, but I hadn't ever seen it, although I've read the book, heard the music, and seen the movie. 
I was thrilled with his thoughtful and exciting surprise date! 

Since the theater was downtown Detroit,  we decided to go to Mexicantown for dinner beforehand. We went to Las Galanos, and I ordered a dish with beef and cactus which was surprisingly good! :) We also shared fried icecream, which was the first time either of us had had it.  That was fun. :)
When we drove from Mexicantown to the Fisher Theater, I couldn't believe the rundown state of the inner city. I mean, everyone talks about it, but I think this was the first time I had seen it during daylight and it was pretty appalling.  The streets were lined with old empty buildings all boarded up with plywood. This old hotel had two rundown houses sitting practically on top of it, with their windows boarded up or gaping open. As we were driving by all this, I was so intrigued that I couldn't help but take some pictures.

This is funny - It was dusk when we were driving through the city and as I looked around I kept saying, "Oh wow. Look at that building, Jed! Woah - check out that one! Do you see that?"  I kept rubber-necking as we passed the old abandoned buildings, and at one point when I turned back around in my seat, I saw that our road was leading us straight into this forsaken looking black-pit-of-a-tunnel. Half of the empty underpass was blocked off with old barricades, as you can see. The cement was crumbling on the pillars and there was graffiti all over the concrete walls leading up to it. There was a wall of old plywood covering up part of the cement overpass, don't ask me why... It was completely deserted; there was no life to be seen - not a single lonely car, not even a solitary blade of grass. There was another empty road merging with ours, leading into the hole as well, as if it was funneling all its unsuspecting victims into its clutches.  And behind this grim scene a grey empty building with black windows rose like a specter, towering overhead. In a split second, my eyes took all this in, and most of all that we were about to plummet into the black abyss, and I gasped, "Jed! Do not take us in there! It is like the gaping jaws of hell!"
S-C-A-R-Y.

Do not be frightened: we emerged alive out of its depths.

And then we turned around and did it again.

This was the eerie specter-building behind The Jaws. It was this huge enormous building that was just a skeleton. All the windows were shattered, it was surrounded by a chain link fence, and it was overgrown with weeds. Talk about spooky...

A close up of the front windows all broken... It was towering over the road like this. I told Jed it would make a terrific haunted house, and he said, "Yeah, we should come back on Halloween." Then we had a good laugh imagining us pushing our kids ahead of us as we called out in a trembling voice, "Trick or treat?....."      :)

Okay, so anyway, back to our awesome Broadway show! (Yes, we did make it there alive. And no, the entire downtown isn't all like that... I do suspect we passed a few inhabited buildings... just teasing. :) ) 
The Fisher Theater is very pretty inside!  It had ornate designs along the vaulted ceilings and mosaic patterns up the walls. There were elegant hanging chandeliers every so often down the hallway.  And the theater was perfect. Our seats were on the main floor in the center - they were great seats! But any seat in that theater would be good.

The show was spectacular! I absolutely loved it. Being right there in person, hearing the swelling orchestra and the rich voices, was incredible!  All the performers had phenomenal voices and the story line, of course, was poignant and dramatic. It was so neat! I think I especially enjoyed it because I was familiar with the plot and could 'take it all in' more deeply since I wasn't struggling to understand what was happening.  It was amazing. I loved going on this special and unique date with Jed. He is so romantic! :) 

 (Now I just can't wait to go see it again!)