HONG KONG (AP) - For Hong Kong spectators mentally and physically drained from six months of pro-democracy protests that have convulsed the city, a rousing performance of Les Miserables proved almost too much to bear.

Audience members wept, dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs, big tears rolling down their cheeks, as a Hong Kong theatre troupe aiming to both comfort and re-energise emotionally battered spectators belted out the rousing musical based on Victor Hugo's classic tale of rebellion in 19th-century France.