Les Misérables: There will never be anything better....- Page 4

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 1:47am

Does anyone have a link to Stéphane Ly-Cuong's interview with Claude-Michel Schönberg (in which, among other things, CMS said that backstage the Parisian cast of LM was a nightmare, but onstage they were wonderful)? It was on Playbill sometime in the late '90s but I can never find it these days. Updated On: 12/7/04 at 01:47 AM

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 2:29am

::goes looking::

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 2:34am

OH!

I give up - some one post if they can find it!

[fiyeros_elphaba]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 7:16am

how could anyone not love Les Mis?

[jo]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 8:31am

I am a great fan of LES MISERABLES - as a matter of fact, it is my favourite musical! I love the sweeping historical drama, the lush and dramatic musical score, and the portrayal of the individual characters and their stories.

I first saw the musical on Broadway in early 1988 and I related to it like no other show I have ever seen. Two years before that, my own country went through a political upheaval which created such strong images of our people's struggle to regain political freedom ( giving rise to the expression "people power", to refer to bloodless revolutions on the streets). Seeing the scenes of the young students talking about their ideals and, later on, at the barricades, were very reminiscent of real-life drama to me. I sat at the theatre awed and emotionally affected by the music and the story. Unforgettable!

Over the years, I have seen the show a total of nine times - several times on Broadway and at the West End, once in Paris ( I saw the Mackintosh version in 1992) and once here in Manila, where Mr. Mackintosh allowed a local production. I have the three most famous recordings ( The London OCR, the Complete Symphonic Recording, and the Tenth Anniversary Concert), the Original Concept Recording from France ( which recording was what Cameron fell in love with and which became the musical model for all the future shows), the Broadway OCR, OCRs from Austria, Sweden, Spain, France ( the Mackintosh version), various studio recordings and regional productions, and various instrumental versions. I have the video of STAGE BY STAGE and the DVD of the Tenth Anniversary Concert ( now, that is quite a dream cast!). I also have the book by Edward Behr which is very informative on the making of the musical. I even struggled through what must have been a thousand pages of a translated version of Victor Hugo's monumental work, to get a better appreciation of the political, social and cultural times in which the events took place and how the characters developed.

One musical theatre actor and singer I have discovered through Les Miserables is Michael Ball. He created the role of Marius when the show opened at the Barbican,a show that was a collaboration between Cameron Mackintosh and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Cameron Mackintosh calls Michael the "definitive voice " of Marius... A few weeks ago and 19 years after the opening of the original show, Cameron Mackintosh asked Michael Ball to sing the role of Jean Valjean at the Windsor Palace special presentation/concert at the state dinner for the visiting French President. Certainly, that represented a full circle for one of the "young rebel students" in the original Les Mis who now portrays the mature man who carried him originally in the sewers of Paris and who sang Bring Him Home to him so poignantly. I hope that when the 20th anniversary of the show comes around, that Michael Ball will reprise the role of Jean Valjean should there be a special commemorative show in 2005.

The show has many personal memories for me. Les Miserables may not be the perfect artistic stage musical - but I doubt anything can beat it for its emotional appeal and impact on most people. It is, to many of us, the best-loved musical of all time!

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 4:26pm

How can this thread be dying?

[AbsolutKnight]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 4:39pm

because there will always be 15 more "you know what" threads started on the same day.

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 4:57pm

You know what, Les Mis has closed! This thread is my little daily dose of Les Mis!

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 9:39pm

" You know what, Les Mis has closed! This thread is my little daily dose of Les Mis!"

The people in London and on the US tour might beg to differ.

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 9:42pm

Oy,

Musetta, I am a Les Mis fan. Why must you be SO difficult?

Seeing as how I live in NYC, I don't get much Les Mis anymore. What about Berlin and the Czech Republic?

Posted: 12/7/04 at 10:06pm

hmm...how I miss les mis. my first broadway show. ::sigh::

Posted: 12/7/04 at 10:23pm

has anyone ever seen Les Miseranimals (something like that) from Animaniacs... it's a Rita and Runt cartoon musical thing-a-ma-bop... and it's really funny.
p.s.- Bernadette Peters does the voice of Rita in all of Animaniacs stuff, and she sings in this some really cute stuff.
p.p.s.- isn't it great how there happens to be a bunch of Sondheim references in Animaniacs? i luv it!

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 11:12pm

" has anyone ever seen Les Miseranimals"

Yes.
http://www.fuzzy.com/tooninfo/animaniacs/miseranimals.htm

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/7/04 at 11:16pm

Is it anyway online....?

[paradox_error]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 12:34am

Well, Les Mis is about my twentieth favourite musical!

1) Sunday in the Park With George
2) Sweeney Todd
3) Into The Woods
4) West Side Story
5) Gypsy
6) Company
7) Follies
Cabaret
9) Assassins
10) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
11) Passion
12) Anyone Can Whistle
13) A Little Night Music
14) Pacific Overtures
15) The Last 5 Years
16) Carousel
17) Avenue Q
1 South Pacific
19) Little Shop of Horrors

and at number 20) Les Miserables!!!

but I still love it!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 2:02am

has anyone ever seen Les Miseranimals (something like that) from Animaniacs... it's a Rita and Runt cartoon musical thing-a-ma-bop... and it's really funny.

Yes, I remember it! I must have seen it when I was 12 or something. I remember gasping in delight when I realized it was a play on Les Miz.

[mbjts]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 2:30am

"Les Miz" is my favorite musical.

I did not see the original cast (in fact, my first time was the original Los Angeles production). The other 11 times were on Broadway (all before the show was shortened). I think the musical is beautiful in any language. The show, for me, never had a wasted second.

I miss it, and hope it tours forever and reaches Omaha, NE one of these days!

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 2:36am

I think it WAS in Omaha... sometime in fall 2001. I remember that because I was thinking of going to see it there.

[mbjts]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 2:46am

"I think it WAS in Omaha... sometime in fall 2001. I remember that because I was thinking of going to see it there."

Yes it was; in fact I just missed it when I moved here from NYC!
Go figure!...

Posted: 12/8/04 at 7:05am

It's hard to make a subjective judgement on "best", but what Les Miz did very well was hit an emotional grand slam with with all audiences. It had a deep and complex story line as well. Of course there are those who "want to be entertained" to whom this show was a three hour ordeal. I saw it 11 times and had the fortune to direct the high school version as well, so it holds a special place in my heart and soul. I think it will still be well recieved for years; which is the best test of a show's greatness. Certainly it was my favorite of the "Euromusicals" , most of which will look dated, forced and overblown in years to come. The sad little orphan children sung about in "Miss Saigon" are now near forty years old.

[Poppy]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 8:57am

Ah, Les Miserables...also my favorite musical. I saw it a dozen times. J. Mark McVey my favorite Valjean. Rob Evan wasn't bad, although just a tad young when he brought it into Broadway way back when. I understand Evan was rehearsing "Jekyll & Hyde" at the Plymouth whilst being Valjean across the street. Anyhow he does a beautiful "Bring Him Home," ditto J. Mark and Eric Buckley.

[gherbert]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 9:44am

Les Miserables is everything WRONG with modern musical theatre.

It is an over-rated piece of dung with one melody, charm to equal the dirt on my shoe, and sound that blasts people out of their seats. It ran for about 15 years too long and is the reason that today musicals are about 1000% worse than they were in the forties through the seventies. It is a dispicable industralized crap-fest.

[Barnaby12345]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 10:29am

I couldn't agree less with you. Les Mis is absolutely amazing, every single aspect of it. Gherbert, I know you're saying that for attention and controversy, but Les Mis seriously is the best.

[gherbert]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 12:12pm

This is not a ploy for attention.

There is really nothing I hate more than this show because it and Cats sucked the life out of the Broadway musical and it is something we will have to recover from.

Les Mis is the reason why Broadway has become stale over the last twenty or so years. And I could go on and on about it.

But all I will say is that those who think that this is the best musical ever need to be sat down and smacked. What about the glorious AMERICAN musical theatre. AMERICAN musical theatre is the ONLY thing that this country created along with jazz and because of these ridiculous British pop operas it is gone.

And I hope you all are happy.

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 12/8/04 at 12:35pm

Oh no! Yet another example of American arrogance rearing its ugly head!

Patriotism flame war in 3...2...1...