On 15th September 2006, the 21st anniversary cast of Les Miserables gathered in the Mermaid Theatre, London to record the show's 21st birthday concert for broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 8th October. The webmaster of Sophia-Ragavelas.com, foregoing his usual t-shirt and jeans for something much smarter (this was being recorded by the BBC, after all), was amongst the lucky ticket holders. This is the story of the day.

The advice to ticketholders was to be in their seats 15 minutes before the scheduled 3pm start time. Just for BBC purposes, surely, get some sound balance for their recording equipment etc, and so it proved when the BBC producer introduced himself to the audience and invited everybody to applaud so they could judge their sound levels. The next standard sound level test was to applaud wildly and cheer loudly - "as I introduce....Sir Cameron Mackintosh" and sure enough the man himself appeared on stage to a fantastic reception. Sir Cameron reminisced about the early days of Les Mis and how he'd first heard the original concept album and had wanted to meet the composers - then suddenly, there on stage - Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. Again more memories of the formative days of Les Miserables, how the inspiration came in the late 1970's some seven years before it first hit the London stage and how the show had developed with the help of a fantastic lyricist, at which point Herbert Kretzmer was brought onstage from out of the audience, followed by director John Caird. More Les Mis reminicenses and Frances Ruffelle, in the audience, got to her feet to acknowledge the applause after she was introduced by Sir Cameron.

Then, time for the concert itself. The stage of the Mermaid Theatre, dominated by the Cosette logo with words commerorating the 21st anniversary, was filled with the BBC Concert Orchestra and then the cast of Les Miserables, the principles seated in a line across the stage, and the ensemble, dressed in white 21st anniversary t-shirts, in two ranks down the sides of the stage. Black was the colour of the day for the principles, the men in black jackets and trousers with white shirts and the ladies beautiful in black evening dresses (that's my Trinny & Susannah bit of this review out of the way!) and I have to say that, even though this website is dedicated to her talent and performances, Sophia Ragavelas looked simply stunning.

The familiar opening notes started the show and guest narrator, Anthony Andrews began with his opening lines "Toulon 1810, Jean Valjean has served 19 years in prison for theft" (note, this is from memory - to save myself from criticism if I've remembered everything wrong when you hear the broadcast!) and almost immediately it was straight in to Javert's "now bring me prisoner 24601...", and the much abbreviated concert version of the show was underway. If you're a Les Mis fan listening to the broadcast be warned that they didn't perform the likes of Castle on a Cloud or Attack on Rue Plumet and Thenardier's part of Master of the House was slightly butchered. As a Les Mis fan at the concert, Anthony Andrews' narration throughout seemed somewhat superfluous, but I'm sure that it will help listeners who aren't so familiar with the show.

Sophia, has really grown into the role of Fantine over the past few months. I Dreamed a Dream was beautiful and, even if it wasn't in the context of an actual show, can I confess to shedding a little tear during Come to Me? The emotion and sadness she gives that song leaves me drained just watching and listening to it.

As for the rest of the cast, well, Sophia aside, if I was given the choice of just one song that I had to listen to everyday until I died then I'd have to choose Bring Him Home as sung by John Owen Jones. What a voice and what a talent - you could here a pin drop in the audience when he's onstage and, even in the concert version his interaction with Hans Peter Janssens (who sounded fantastic despite apparently suffering from a throat infection) in their songs together is perfect. Other highlights of the concert were Sabrina Alouche's On My Own, beautifully sung and Jon Lee's Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. Again, even out of the context of the show, Jon's onstage chemistry with Gina Beck is palpable.

The standing ovation after the finale was long, enthusiatic and well deserved after a great concert.

Then, time for the man from the BBC to set up a few re-takes, for technical difficulties, missed lines etc so it all sounds even more perfect on the radio. Sophia re-did I Dreamed a Dream, again perfectly until the producer decided he was happy with what he'd got about three quarters of the way through the song just as she was gearing up for the big finish. I don't know, maybe Sophia was relieved that they abandoned that bit of recording there, but we in the audience were enjoying hearing it a second time. The time flew by during the hour or so of re-takes, John Owen Jones joking with the audience "only three hours to go" at one point and the abandoning of recording as soon as the producer was happy led to the most unintentionally humorous moment of the afternoon -" "say what you must, don't leave it there" "OK that's great, thanks","we'll leave it there then shall we". (OK, maybe you had to be there to fully understand)

You can hear the results of the finished version on 8th October on BBC Radio 2.