Sex, child abuse, theft and downright rebellion - it's all been going on at Queen's Park High School in Chester this week.
It is with trepidation that I turn up to the comprehensive school in Handbridge to watch a bunch of schoolchildren perform my (second) favourite musical, Les Misérables. Will they do justice to Shönberg's stunning music and Boublil (and of course Hugo's) beautiful words?
Within minutes I can relax. There is a full chain gang of prisoners and Inness Hallam is already a promising 24601 as he breaks parole to take up a new life as Monsieur Madeleine, factory owner and mayor of Montreuil-Sur-Mer.
Even in this new blameless guise Valjean makes mistakes and he dismisses Fantine, one of his workers, after her colleagues discover she has an illegitimate child.
And it is Fantine (Freya Brewis) who has already stolen show for me. Every Saturday night on BBC One's The Voice I hear the legendary Tom Jones and the dope Will.i.am advising young singers to 'take ownership' of the song they have chosen for the competition. And Freya does exactly that - she isn't Anne Hathaway, she isn't Ruthie Henshall, she is Freya Brewis and her interpretation of I Dreamed a Dream was very poignant and moving, and different.
Les Misérables isn't all glum and Andrew Stuttard (Thénardier) and Rosie Mossley (Madame Thénardier) lighten the mood with their comic rendition of Master of the House following an excellent performance of Castle on a Cloud by India Watts as the young Cosette.
Director Matt Yeoman, a drama teacher in the school, said before the production that 'we could easily find a Valjean, Javert, Eponine and the other 30 or so characters to play the main roles' from the talented students at the school and he was right. Alex Aram's uptight and righteous Javert comes into his own in his final suicide scene and Bianca McMullen's duet A Little Fall of Rain with Marius (Liam Thompson) at the barricades is again very touching. The role of the adult Cosette is a tough one for any soprano and Naomi Lush overcame nerves to reach the highest notes and create beautiful harmonies with Thompson and McMullen in challenging ensembles.
But a school production is not just about the stars - the girls who play factory workers, prostitutes and double up as boys on the barricades are excellent. And there are some stars amongst the boys - as students, criminals, guards and soldiers.
Yeoman and his team, including musical director Clare Scanlon, ventured on a unique collaboration with Chester Philharmonic Orchestra for this project. Performing with a live orchestra is a skill that requires expertise and there wasn't always an affinity between what was happening in the pit and on stage but the experience will have been a unique one for the QPHS students.
Les Misérables is an epic and an epic amount of work had obviously gone into this production - onstage, backstage, in the orchestra pit and no doubt in houses all over the city as the youngsters practised their songs over and over again. Well done to all.
PS - my favourite musical is another Boublil and Shönberg classic Miss Saigon .
