I watched Les Miserables with my older two kids and my mom last week (YES I AM A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE I LET THEM WATCH A MOVIE WITH PROSTITUTES IN IT, but whatever, they don’t go to public school so they’ve got to get their inappropriate exposure to sexual topics somewhere and what better place than a famous musical with historical value?).
During the movie the inherent diametrically opposed relationships of men and women with musicals manifested in my 6 year old girl and her 5 year old brother.
At one point, Eowyn looked at me with a dreamy look on her face and said, “I love that they sing everything!”
A few minutes later, Ash piped up next to me, “Why do they have to sing everything?”
At the end of the movie, Mom and I asked the kids what their favorite part was. Eowyn described a moment when little Cosette, newly discovered by and sheltered under the arm of Valjean, is being emphatically coaxed back to the falsely loving arms of the cruel innkeeper and his wife in hopes of tricking Valjean into paying to take this unwelcome burden away from them. Cosette shrinks back into Valjean’s embrace and nods a tiny nod “no” and something about that tiny nod captured Eowyn’s imagination and she recounted the moment to us with great precision.
Ash, on the other hand, who had seen a preview for the remastered Jurassic Park just before we started Les Mis and been entirely entranced, said:
“I don’t know. All I can think about is the dinosaur movie.”
…
And just in case you are not convinced that I speak truth, let’s just see what two of the sagest philosophers of our age have to say about men, women and musicals:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e11-broadway-bro-down
Miss Order 