Profile for WestEndAndy

I agree. There was a raw energy and 'bite' to the original stage production that I miss in the concert productions. Though I enjoyed the film, nothing can match the power of the grungy synth-heavy band in 'Look Down', nor the visceral impact of Javert's suicide or the sewer scene. I think it is extraordinary there is no credit in the publicity anywhere to the brilliant work of Trevor Nunn and John Caird. Maybe they agreed a buyout. Somehow I doubt it.

There are some very stupid, self-satisfied, opinionated people out there and some of them are critics.

I haven't seen the film yet, but I expect it to gross well over a billion worldwide, maybe over 2 billion.
Les Mis is just not like any other movie musical. You are talking about the most successful musical in the history of the world. It has much more appeal than even Mamma Mia or The Sound of Music. They are both enjoyable confections, whereas by all accounts this is as much of a blockbuster as the stage show.

Laugh now, while you can.

Double post

On the subject of the score and the various different versions, can somebody enlighten me about one moment?

In the original staging the building of the barricade was breathtaking. The two halves of the Paris tenements trundled together and then tilted vertically 90 degrees before slotting together. This was set to the grand chords that are used for the Overture, before Look Down. Then in the London production there was a burst of Red and Black before the revolutionaries rushed on to the newly 'built' barricade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7RXWDIZfLY

In every version since, this has been cut and the excitement is lost, to my mind.
When something works so magnificently, why muck about with it?

I still like the OLC best.It has a fantastic set of principals, some like Michael Ball virtually unknown at the time, and the sound is full and grand with lots of nice fat reverb. Too many studio recordings are dry and too close-miked for my taste. The OLC sounds like it did in the theatre.

Oddly, as a longtime Les Mis fanatic (now reading the novel in preparation for seeing the picture) the music didn't impress me much on first hearing. I was awed by the staging at the Barbican i

I think it is superb. I held out for three days against watching it, but curiosity got the better of me. I am glad I did look, as I was starting to worry after some of the negativity on this thread and others.

What the clip shows is that this film is not just a film of the stage show. The numbers have been rethought in cinematic terms. There is more emphasis in telling the story. The song builds from a hushed, dreamy opening to a climax every bit as powerful and epic as the original

From the normally impeccable Don Black, an example of poor word-setting.

"They'll say Norma's back again".

The soaring first note of the melody requires a much stronger word than 'They'll'.
Maybe something like "Norma's back where she belongs".

Greg looks more like NPH than NPH himself does.

For me JCS is a deeply tacky, deeply tasteless and deeply dated mess of a show, more rock concert than musical. But then I might be untypical, as the only show of Webber's that I have ever quite liked was Aspects of Boredom. And I think that was mostly the orchestration by David Caddick, the real genius behind Phantom and the rest.

Of course she should be a Dame. So should Torvill and Dean, the greatest ice dancers in history. And the architect Zaha Hadid.

Entrance rounds are quite rare in the UK, in my experience. They are more common in the provinces than the W.E. and at matinees when the average age of the audience is higher. I do remember as a boy hearing the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin play Elgar at the Royal Festival Hall and getting, so it seemed to me at the time, a more thunderous round of applause on entering the hall than after the performance. That was rather sad.

Move On.

Happy 80th, Mr S.

Maybe she should throw the slippers at him.

I went up to him outside the Phoenix Theatre in London in 1989 during a run of INTO THE WOODS. I did the usual "I just want to say how much..." and I singled out MERRILY as my favourite score. He was very gracious and wiped his hand before shaking mine as he was eating a cream bun. A lovely memory.

I saw that production, and yes, there was a modern dance ballet of sorts during the Chromalume music. It didn't really work.

Colin Firth or even Hugh Grant. Bridget Jones 3 here we come.

I didn't like the London revival at all. Sending up ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE as a drunk number was a cheap laugh ("the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before") and the sets were cheapskate. They also cut the Overture. Jonathan Pryce had no class and Denis Waterman looked as though he just wanted to go home.

Granted, you COULD find the right actors. Julie as Mrs Higgins would be wonderful.
You COULD use loads of bluescreen and CGI fog and lighting. Just why?

Shooting on location won't work. London 2008 looks nothing like it did in 2012 (correction -1912!) .?format=auto&width=600 You need gaslight, horse-s**t and fog.The whole thing would have to be dubbed because of background noise.
Another one for the bargain bin.

Why isn't Mackintosh doing his own show Les Mis or Miss Saigon instead of messing with something that works?
A crazy, heartless, brainless idea.