Nick Jonas in Les Miserables

Well, they can have him.

~Steven

I liked him as Gavroche back in the day...and he can't possibly be worse than Ricky Martin was. Ugh. It took me years to get over his butchering of Marius.

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Yes, but isn't he a bit young for Marius?

I don't mean young in terms of the way he looks. I mean vocally young. Has he developed enough to be able to sing those songs?

My daughter was obsessed with him for a while so I got to hear more than my fair share of him over the past few years. He had a very pure voice as a child but it's gotten more gimmicky, for lack of a better word, as he's gotten older and his voice has deepened.

He needs to find a more mature variation of his old voice or it's not going to be pretty.

Even if he can handle the role, it's still ridiculous stunt casting. You see Nick Jonas as Marius, the whole time you'll be like "Nick Jonas just sang that ok. Nick Jonas did xyz" in a way that you don't do when watching the performances of other really famous but professional and strong actors. I just can't buy him in this serious a piece.

Also, Miley should be Cosette.

Even if he can handle the role, it's still ridiculous stunt casting. You see Nick Jonas as Marius, the whole time you'll be like "Nick Jonas just sang that ok. Nick Jonas did xyz" in a way that you don't do when watching the performances of other really famous but professional and strong actors. I just can't buy him in this serious a piece.

Thanks for speaking for everyone!

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I am not going to pass judgement yet. I don't like how there seems to be this prejudice that if someone is famous, they are automatically not going to be good.

AC126748, you just totally blew my mind. Mel C was in Blood Brothers?! When was this? Why wasn't I told? Was there a recording of it released (an official recording, like when Brooke Shields joined Wonderful Town)? Please tell me more. I saw a production of Blood Brothers a long time ago and really loved it. And I have loved Mel C forever. Spice Girls, I Turn To You...she's kind of awesome.

As for this...
Even if he can handle the role, it's still ridiculous stunt casting. You see Nick Jonas as Marius, the whole time you'll be like "Nick Jonas just sang that ok. Nick Jonas did xyz" in a way that you don't do when watching the performances of other really famous but professional and strong actors. I just can't buy him in this serious a piece.

This was more or less the same logic used in the Newsweek article. Because someone can't get a past performance or personal life of a performer out of their mind, they can't take the performance seriously. How limiting must this be for an audience member? When you see Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree Armfeldt do you think "well she can't be in love with those men; she's married to Michael Douglas" or confuse her with Velma Kelly? Do you spend all of La Cage wondering when Niles Crane and Eddie The Dog are going to join Georges onstage?

While I am not jumping through hoops over Nick Jonas joining Les Miserbles, I am always willing to give performers a chance. And I really don't understand this inability to see past the past of an actor. Whether it's something in their own life (public breakups, sexual orientation, bad boy image, etc.) or a role they played, we as an audience should try our best to look past those and simply accept that this person is playing a part.

Updated On: 5/28/10 at 02:09 PM

With Joey Lawrence as Javert, d'ya suppose?

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I don't know if you guys agree with me, but that was just a really random like never expected that/

Saw him in Annie Get Your Gun...I think it's too hard to judge from a child actor's performance how they'll do this time around, especially since he took a pop route as opposed to staying within theatre. Can't say I'm expecting too much out of him for this though!