Tomorrow We'll Discover

I've been waiting for Tampereen Teatteri's production of Les Misérables for a year and a half.

Two months after having to say goodbye to my beloved Åbo Svenska Teater production, Tampereen Teatteri arrived to the rescue and announced they'll be premiering a new Finnish production of Les Mis in fall 2013.

Tomorrow, the wait is over.

The premiere is happening in less than 24 hours, and I will be there.

Whatever happens tomorrow, whether the show will turn out to be fantastic or the audience will fall asleep before the first intermission, whether I will laugh or cry or be bored to tears... In a way, the most exciting part of being a Les Mis fan is, once again, almost over.

The excitement of a new Finnish production of Les Mis being announced. The initial annoyance after hearing it'll be something of an ÅST Les Mis replica (what if it isn't as good? Or, even worse – what if it's better?). Then, all the previews, sneak peeks and promo photos... It has been so much fun keeping up with the updates, speculating and guessing.

Tomorrow, the speculations will be over for good.

There are many nice things in store after the premiere: seeing alternates and understudies, watching the performances evolve – not to mention the joy of seeing my favourite musical live again. But there's something special in the looking forward period. I'm confused: where did the year and a half go? Has it really been so long since the announcement?

And even though I'm feeling almost nostalgic about all that time – how will I survive the hours left until seven o'clock tomorrow?

My expectations for tomorrow are high.

I still have some worries about the production (the feelings I wrote about in this entry aren't all quite outdated yet), but in general, I'm feeling good. There are many people in the cast I'm very excited to see, the sneak peeks and press photos have looked nice, the comments from people who've seen the previews range from positive to gleeful.

Will this production of Les Mis be as special to me as the ÅST one? Probably not, not in the same way. ÅST's Les Mis was a life-altering experience for me and I doubt anything will ever be quite like it. But maybe the TT one will also be important to me, in a different way? Or maybe it'll just be a nice thing to have around for the times I feel like seeing my favourite musical live? Or something else – hate, love, indifference?

Tomorrow we'll discover.

Photo by Harri Hinkka.