Les Misérables: So, what did you think? — Page 18

I wonder how much Cosette remembers about those early years with her mother. How her life was then, even before the Thenardiers.

In "Castle on a Cloud" we get some insight when she sings: "There is a lady all in white / Holds me and sings a lullaby / She's nice to see and she's soft to touch / She says 'Cosette, I love you very much.'" I've always assumed that stanza described the moment when she and her mother parted ways, with Fantine telling her one last time that she loved her. It was also the last time someone showed her any kindness (until Valjean came along) so it's reasonable that it's an image that sticks out in her mind. But I'm not sure if she associates that lovely image with her mother, since all she hears is what a rotten person her mother is ("Like mother, like daughter, the scum of the street!"). So even though her cherished memory is that of a beautiful woman hugging her and telling her she loves her, she doesn't make the connection with her mother 'cause the Thénardiers probably poisoned her against Fantine. (This is all conjecture, of course.)


Does she remember the way men treated her mother or her? Does she even remember much about life with the Thenardiers? And how much of that rubbed off on her outlook on life?

I was around the same age (eight) as Cosette when I was adopted and I do remember a lot about my early life, the good and the ugly, but mostly the latter with dashes of the former. Therefore, I would assume that Cosette did, too, unless she totally blocked it out. But even so, having an abusive, neglected upbringing does affect you.


How did she change when Jean Valjean took her in? How was her life in the convent? What did that do to her views of good and bad and love and hate? How does she know (in all of three minutes) that Marius won't leave her or abandon her the way her own (natural) father did? Why does she decide to trust him so openly and confidently?

This is why Cosette, more than anyone, needed her own solo and more character development. Especially more than Éponine, who gets to sing a pointless song about something we already knew -- her unrequited love for Marius. It adds nothing to the storyline and is like an island unto itself. Éponine's beefed up part should've been best used to develop Cosette and answer some of the questions above. I was hoping the film would take the opportunity to correct this, but no...

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Updated On: 1/1/13 at 02:56 PM

Cosette and Marius had a little more development in the book--they see each other over the course of months instead of just meeting eyes once. Also, their romance is supposed to be considered a little "silly" by the reader. I don't think Hugo would have included Marius finding Cosette ugly when she's 13 or 14 and the "Ursula chapter" if we were meant to take the romance 100% seriously.

"So even though her cherished memory is that of a beautiful woman hugging her and telling her she loves her, she doesn't make the connection with her mother 'cause the Thénardiers probably poisoned her against Fantine. (This is all conjecture, of course.)"

In the novel, young Cosette doesn't think that she has a mother. She says something along the lines of, "Everyone else seems to have one. But I don't think I do."

I'd also like to know what adult Cosette was thinking in the musical. They could have given her a really good solo exploring her past trauma, memories of her mother, and confusion about who Valjean really is (moreso than "In My Life" does).

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Updated On: 1/1/13 at 03:19 PM

Those are all things missing from the musical's characters, SporkGoddess.

I have a basic problem with Les Miz in that I think a lot of the lyrics are demonstrative. They tell us things we are already seeing and knowing. Marius's big song, "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables," doesn't give us any insight into his past or his feelings before, during, or after his association with the other students. He misses them, things were better and hopeful then, and that's all gone now. It's an emotional moment, but not a revealing one. He is devastated by the loss.

We can already see that. Tell us what we don't know, and can't see. Tell us what you've learned from this. What you would have done differently, if anything, and why you were fighting with them to begin with. What did you hope to achieve? How has all of this changed you? Where will you go from here? A missed opportunity for more of a backstory and character development.

I Dreamed a Dream is a rare exception where we learn more of Fantine's backstory ("He slept a summer by my side ..."), also because we get to see a bit of where she has been, what happens to her, and what she has become as a result of her fate, all on stage. And we definitely hear how all of this has changed her.

As far as "instant lovers" ...

Anthony and Joanna both serve the primary plot far better than Marius and Cosette. They feel more essential and integrated into the main story. You can't tell the Bond/Sondheim/Wheeler version of Sweeney Todd without them. I think once Cosette grows up, she's pretty much done serving the plot of Les Miz. And Marius exists merely to love her in an instant and fight a battle we know next to nothing about. That's where the weakness lies.

Also, Green Finch and Linnet Bird says quite a lot about Joanna, her curiosity, her naïveté, her hopes, her fears, and even her understanding (to a degree) of her own "caged" situation. Anthony has only slightly more backstory than Marius. At least we know where Anthony came from and what he has seen before he meets Joanna, but after that, they're "the lovers," trying to escape. Still, they are FAR more tied into the main plot with Sweeny and Mrs. Lovett than Marius and Cosette are tied into Valjean's story.

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Updated On: 1/1/13 at 03:41 PM

I dreamed a dream ... as opposed to I dreamed a hamburger?

It may be redundant, but it's one sentence.

And life has killed the dream that Fantine dreams. It's all one sentence.

I suppose it's no different than someone saying "I sing the song" or "I live my life."

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Johanna and Anthony are also a bit of a deconstruction of the "love at first sight" trope - as mentioned above, we have the ridiculous lyrics about how Johanna doesn't even know Anthony's name, and of course there's the final twist, in which sweet paragon Johanna, loved by Anthony and Sweeney as a symbol of all that is good and light, shoots her way out of Bedlam.

A could place to go to the bathroom is during "Suddenly." I actually went during "A Heart Full of Love" and don't feel like I missed anything.

Oh, I hate "Bring Him Home." Always have, always will. Although Randall Keith and Anthony Warlow sing it beautifully.

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What can I say? I have a problem with a congestive heart condition. I try not to drink before or during a movie. I actually went before even commercials or previews started. Only took a few sips of a coke but that was enough. I sat through the whole movie and escaped as titles came on even though I love the score and would sit through those just to hear it.

This part of the interview I do not know if I agree.

Anne Hathaway has done musicals on stage. When she was younger she played the lead in "Once Upon a Mattress" at the Arts school I think she went to. I know she played the lead in "Carnival" as well.

Here are Tom's comments:
where a lot of Anne’s singing has been in the privacy of her own home or at the Oscars, but not something like [Les Misérables].

I looked it up. This is about Anne Hathaway:
Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School, where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress.

I roller skated when I was in HS -- I was pretty good -- doesn't mean I'd want to do it in front of a paying audience now.

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Marius copes with death very well, apparently. Eponine dies in his arms and he's sad for all of a second or two and then sends Gavroche out with a letter for Cosette. All his communist buddies get scrapped and he's sad for a bit, but then goes back to his family's huge mansion and arranges his wedding.

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