I had never seen "Les Misérables," because from what clips I had seen and heard over the years, I didn't think I'd like it.

But, I have a lot of admiration these days for Broadway By The Bay, which has been putting fabulous productions on stage — seriously excellent work, such as the unforgettable "Cabaret" in 2013.

And, Joanne Engelhardt, whose judgment I respect, saw this production of "Les Misérables" and raved about how great it was.

So I went, and found out I was wrong: I didn't just not like it. I hated it.

I got as far as when Fantine is in the hospital, and Valjean is promising to take care of Cosette, before I realized that I could not be in the same room with this overwrought, endless deluge of pathos and music I didn't like, and left.

I'd heard and enthusiastically applauded fabulous singing by Adam S. Campbell as Valjean and Mia Fryvecind Gimenez as Fantine, and liked Anthony Bernal's performance as Javert. In fact, the cast, direction, design, orchestra were all great. I didn't last long enough to see Jason Rehklau or much of Melissa Reinertson, whom I'd been looking forward to seeing, because I have seen them before and liked them.

(I was seated too far back to really see them anyway; my bad, because of my late request for tickets.)

But I had to go. Sorry. I suggest you read Ms. Engelhardt's review in The Daily News.

I've been thinking about why I dislike this show so much. At first I thought it might be because it is a sung-through musical with too many grim songs. "I Dreamed a Dream" was pretty great, but mostly it is grim song leading to grim song leading to another grim song. Some amazing vocals, sure, but grim following grim.

But I don't think that's it. There are plenty of shows that are grim as hell and still absolutely worth watching. I don't mind sung-through at all, and even admire it. I suspect that, more to the point, it reminds me too much of the work of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice. It is, clearly, superior to "Cats" and "Evita," but I still didn't like it.

And I have to say, lots of people love this show — it's had huge success in London, New York and in road shows, and on Saturday night, the beautiful old Fox Theatre in Redwood City was packed with an audience that seemed to love every bit of it. Everybody but me, that is, and a little boy sitting in front of me who was obviously bored out of his mind, but under the thumbs of two women I guessed were his mother and her sister.

The set, by Kelly James Tighe, is very impressive, stretched way high to the flys. Lots of fine work with curtains, which is not to be underappreciated. Sound was good. Costumes for the gigantic and excellent cast were quite good.

There were times that the lighting bothered me. Sure, it's supposed to be dark and dank in 1800s France, but let us see the chorus, please.

But, obviously, you get to ignore everything I say, because I didn't stay for the entire show. Go read Ms. Engelhardt's review. She stayed, and she liked it.

Update: An actor I like and respect posted something on Facebook to engender a conversation about this review, for which I anonymously thank him, because I am thrilled to see people discussing what I do. He apparently blocked it from my view, but luckily for me, he is not the only actor of my acquaintance on this particular planet, and someone else copied the responses and sent them to me.

I was nailed by some people for calling "Les Miz" a "spoken-through" musical, when in fact it is a "sung-through" musical. Call it a typo, call it a brain fart, either way, it was a mistake, and I am always glad to have my mistakes corrected.

And some people were highly critical of me because I didn't stay for the entire show, but posted a review about it anyway. One person said, "I don't care for the show's music to be truthful. However a critic has a responsibility to stay to evaluate the full production itself. Or STFU." (STFU means Shut The Fuck Up," I reckon.)

And I can tell you, there have been times I have not posted articles because I disliked some element of it so very much. For instance, I once interviewed a certainly extremely well-respected and honored actor, who was doing a show for an extremely well-respected and honored theater company, but I disliked him so much when we talked that I did not post a story about him.

There is so much that can be written about in the theater world that I don't feel a strong need to give public attention to someone I don't feel good about.

So why did I review this show, even though I disliked it so much that I couldn't bear to sit through it?

Because the production itself was excellent, and the performers were brilliant.

The people who put this production together deserve some attention for doing such a great job, even if I don't happen to like the show. And, partly thanks to that blocked-from-my-view post in Facebook, some people now know that I think Adam S. Campbell, Mia Fryvecind Gimenez and Anthony Bernal were all excellent.

And, I'd like to point out, do you know of another reviewer who went to the trouble to get the names of every single person in that full cast photo, and post them with the photo? That took a lot of work, and the help of at least two people involved in the production, who I will thank anonymously, so they are not tainted by my acquaintance.

I may not like the show, but I like the performers.

Email John Orr at johnorr@regardingarts.com