...I feel like Mamma Mia, a movie that no one including its cast and team took seriously, is more conducive to that sort of thing than Les Miserables, a musical in which most of the characters die.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
Not to mention it's so long and it's virtually endless singing.
I went to one of those sing a long Sound of Musics several years ago and it was fun for an hour or so, then it just became totally tedious. And that was without wall-to-wall music.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around a sing-along version of anything. Isn't that something you do in the shower or when nobody's home? I'd first plug my ears with heavy duty earplugs before even considering attending such an event.
Who wants to listen to a bunch of men attempt to sing all the girl parts? It's fun when I do it here at home, but that's only one queen, and that's enough for me!
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
If you want to watch the movie without a singalong you can...go to a regular screening. The Les Misérables score isn't as easily suitable to a singalong as something like Hairspray, but geez, why not let people have their fun?
Meh, I assumed half in here are being half-serious. Which is why I contributed half-seriously. We're hardly a threat to sing along versions of Les Mis. Why so serious? LOL.
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
I don't know- I think a show like Les Mis, which is iconic in a way none of those above, not even Sweeney Todd, can match, WOULD generate buzz for "sing-it-yourself" screenings. Especially if they turned the subtitles on and the vocals off.
Only good thing that could come out of this is that some of the audience members have better singing voices that Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried and drown them out.
Actually, the town I grew up in had one showing only of a singalong version earlier this week. I don't know anyone who went but if I find out about how it was I can report back. The very thought makes me shudder, though.
Scratch and claw for every day you're worth!
Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming
You'll live forever here on earth.
I'm thinking more about everyone knowing one of the various, cut versions and striking contorted WTF expressions throughout when they find themselves singing parts not included in the film.
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
I spoke to a friend earlier who attended the screening and apparently it was horrific. There were no lyrics on the screen so it was basically "sing what you know." The crowd was a mix of annoying teenagers wearing Les Mis sweatshirts from before they were born and senior citizens. Apparently everyone belted "On My Own," "One Day More," and "I Dreamed a Dream" and interjected and massacred whatever other random lyrics they knew.
Sounds like a good time.
Scratch and claw for every day you're worth!
Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming
You'll live forever here on earth.
I think a sing-a-long Les Mis would be absolutely torturous.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
"Only good thing that could come out of this is that some of the audience members have better singing voices that Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried and drown them out."
Finally saw Les Mis the other day, my brain immediately began comparing aspects of Russell Crowe's singing to the gentleman who sings tracks 9, 11, and 12 on Florence Foster Jenkins Glory (????) of the Human Voice CD. Amanda Seyfried's voice didn't bother me as much as I was worried it would.
My avatar is a reminder to myself. I need lots of reminders...