Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

Chadwick was not a fan of Les Misérables. He didn't hate it, but he didn't eat, sleep, and breathe musicals like I do, so he tolerated my love for Les Mis in the same way that I smiled and nodded when he would talk about The Walking Dead.

Not a fan, occasional dressing up
as Enjolras notwithstanding.

But. He could tear up the music. He could sing "The Confrontation" (either part), usually as a parody, but geez, could he ever sing it. He also did a fairly good "I Dreamed a Dream." And, as you may have guessed, "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables."

The unfortunate side of this is that it was Nick Jonas' Marius in the 25th anniversary concert that really got Chadwick interested in learning this song-- I mean, we owned the original cast album with Michael Ball, for goodness' sake, but no, he had to get interested because of Nick Jonas. Heaven help me, some days.

Anyway. "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" ended up being one of Chadwick's favourite songs. That's not something I tell people very often, since it's a level of apropos foreshadowing that will turn your brain inside out if you think about it too much. (And for some reason, it upsets other people a lot more than it does me. I guess that's because I have a long list of things to be upset about.)

So it's a shame he missed out on seeing "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" on Broadway, because wow, would he have loved it. At the end of "Turning," the ladies all left candles on the stage, and I thought, "What? How are they going to get those off the stage? Wait, maybe the Barricade Boys..." And you can see it for yourself (well, two of them, anyway) in the clip below. The two you can see behind Marius (played by Chris McCarrell) are Wallace Smith as Enjolras and Jason Forbach as Feuilly, and I hope to see all three of them again at the earliest possible opportunity. In the meantime, I stalk them all on Twitter.




I can't do anything about the empty chair in my house where my Chadwick will sing no more. But filling my life with words and songs that make my tomorrows easier is a thing that I can do.