Postscripts to Les Miserables

[jo]

The film adaptation of THE CONFRONTATION was so much more powerful because the enmity between Valjean and Javert was shown in a real fight, in addition to the sung dialog.

In the stage musical, it was simply sung by the protagonists to the audience -- not much drama!


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Amazing how Hugh Jackman has now gotten a solid following among kids (boys and girls), especially with The Greatest Showman!


But even more amazing that some have also admired his Valjean!


They are beginning to see the connection -- "Jean Valjean looks like The Greatest Showman"



LOL - when will they see the connection to WOLVERINE


Jo

[jo]

In care you're from the UK or plan to visit England in the future --

you may come across these filming locations.


www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/Miserables.php

[njr]

Jan 11, 2021 8:31:25 GMT -5 jo said:

In care you're from the UK or plan to visit England in the future --

you may come across these filming locations.


www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/Miserables.php

I was in Bath in 1980 and 2006. (River Avon - which I also saw in Stratford)

Nancy

[jo]

Jan 11, 2021 14:51:04 GMT -5 njr said:

Jan 11, 2021 8:31:25 GMT -5 jo said:

In care you're from the UK or plan to visit England in the future --

you may come across these filming locations.


www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/Miserables.php

I was in Bath in 1980 and 2006. (River Avon - which I also saw in Stratford)

Nancy

This was the exact location seen in the movie when Javert commits suicide.




They actually shot the scene in another location first, but Hooper was not satisfied with it...so they went to Bath for one of the last reshoots.


Jo

[jo]

I tried to look for the bridge in Paris where Javert seemed to have committed suicide -- that was before there was a film adaptation. It was supposed to be located in central Paris where the River Seine flows freely.

Eventually, many years after the film adaptation was released -- the bridge was finally identified. It was the Pont Au Change.




Jo

[njr]

Someone posted this political Les Miz One Day More parody on Paul McCartney’s official forum. So funny and the singers (James Corden, et al) are excellent!

youtu.be/E4aTjeCP0Lo

Nancy

[jo]

To Love Is to Act
LES MISÉRABLES AND VICTOR HUGO’S VISION FOR LEADING LIVES OF CONSCIENCE
To Love Is to Act
MARVA A. BARNETT

Distributed for Swan Isle Press
With a Foreword by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
256 pages | 34 halftones | 6 x 9

“To love is to act”— “Aimer, c’est agir.” These words, which Victor Hugo wrote three days before he died, epitomize his life’s philosophy. His love of freedom, democracy, and all people—especially the poor and wretched—drove him not only to write his epic Les Misérables but also to follow his conscience. We have much to learn from Hugo, who battled for justice, lobbied against slavery and the death penalty, and fought for the rights of women and children. In a series of essays that interweave Hugo’s life with Les Misérables and point to the novel’s contemporary relevance, To Love Is to Act explores how Hugo reveals his guiding principles for life, including his belief in the redemptive power of love and forgiveness. Enriching the book are insights from artists who captured the novel’s heart in the famed musical, Les Mis creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, producer of the musical Les Misérables Cameron Mackintosh, film director Tom Hooper, and award-winning actors who have portrayed Jean Valjean: Colm Wilkinson and Hugh Jackman.



REVIEW QUOTES

Jean-Marc Hovasse, Professor of French Literature, Sorbonne University, Paris

“Marva Barnett, a top expert on Les Misérables, has had a brilliant insight: this novel cannot be reduced to its origins, its making, its publication, or its reception—all of which have been recounted a hundred times. Her goal, instead, is to dive right to the heart of the book: to show what it actually says on life’s essential topics, to explain its undiminished power to fascinate, its eternal newness. To accomplish this, she has concentrated in unparalleled fashion on its most successful adaptation, the record-setting musical—and she offers a contrarian itinerary, a stimulating and lively one that mixes quotes with musings, images with accounts, dialogues with secrets, from Mis to Misérables, from actors to roles, from the movie to the novel.”



Hugh Jackman, actor

“In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo inspires us with both his humanity and his fight to eliminate poverty, which is to me still our greatest issue today. In To Love Is to Act, Marva Barnett insightfully explores Hugo’s call upon us to live through love and conscience, to ask ourselves just what we are prepared to stand up for and what we are prepared to do. Particularly after playing Jean Valjean, I admire Valjean’s tenacity to fight through his regrets and pain and to commit himself to an ideal, to work selflessly for something higher than himself. Readers of To Love Is to Act will find themselves intrigued by Hugo’s guiding life principles and, like fans of Les Mis, aspiring to be better people every day.”



Sir Cameron Mackintosh, producer of the musical Les Misérables

"Victor Hugo’s monumental story remains an uplifting triumph because at its beating heart there is always a ray of light that inspires the survival of the human spirit in a dark, unjust and dangerous world. The story’s social resonance remains as potent now as when it was first published over 150 years ago. The characters of Les Misérables are so brilliantly observed that new generations recognise and embrace them as their own all over the world. That this great novel has also inspired one of the most successful, powerful and emotional musicals of all time is a dream I have no doubt Hugo would have liked to dream himself as it has brought his masterwork to a far wider audience than he could ever have dreamed of."


UVA Today (University of Virginia)

"Barnett explores the power of 'Les Misérables,' and how Victor Hugo’s life experiences provoke and inform a novel that challenges us to live our best possible lives. Her book includes interviews with creators of the popular stage and screen musical."


Telos Group

"To Love Is to Act is a beautiful and timely collection of essays on how the themes of Hugo’s celebrated work Les Miserables represent the author’s deepest values, and how modern interpretations of them on stage and screen have proven how timeless they are. Her essays on seeing others, forgiveness, the ability of people to change, finding the strength to carry on amidst dark times, and the inseparability of love and action . . . . If you love Les Miserables—novel, musical or movie—you’ll love this book."

[jo]

His civilian award --

[njr]

^ Wonder what he said at the end that made them all laugh?

[jo]

(Note: Tweeter is watching the 25th Anniversary concert. In it, Valjean is performed by Alfie Boe)

[jo]

Hugh gives his impression of the dedication that Hooper and the actors gave to the work in the movie.

[jo]

Found this clip -- people waiting for Hugh to arrive for his appearance in IOWA FALLS, as guest of the Whitesell Family.

Most of this clip is the people waiting for Hugh to arrive, including one pretty young girl waiting for her turn when Hugh arrives.

[jo]

He arrives, singing "Do You Hear The People Sing" from Les Miserables

[jo]

He arrives, singing "Do You Hear The People Sing" from Les Miserables

[jo]

EDIT: Added this to my initial response.

People can express their opinions - what was not right is simply to base it on one interpretation of the literary work of Victor Hugo. The Trevor Nunn version (first English version of the original Paris musical) made such a saintly and purely sympathetic version of Valjean by ignoring some of his more human traits. Thus the road to redemption ( his first epiphany) was less remarkable. Also, if you read the book, there are passages where Valjean displays his jealousy of Marius ( because he is taking away his adopted daughter) and in the scene where he watched Marius sleeping ( Bring Him Home)and later scenes (rescuing Marius; conversation w/ Marius about his identity) showed Valjean overcoming this jealousy and caring for his daughter's loved one. People who probably saw only the Nunn musical are so easy to condemn


Jo

[jo]

It's true -- the Valjean Soliloquy in the stage musical version is breezed through, not celebrated as it was in the film adaptation as Valjean's first epiphany, his grace of redemption.

No one has ever sang it in a concert as a key Valjean song! In effect that is the heart of Les Miserables -- that someone who has been wronged by society can find a road to redemption! For that stunning moment ( celebrated in Hugo's book as Valjean's most important epiphany), we have to be thankful to Hooper and Hugh Jackman! Boublil & Schonberg must have been so elated to see that musical passage celebrated as the heart of the (movie) musical!

Jo

[jo]

I watched the Stage Version of LES MISERABLES with Alfie Boe and Michael Ball.

I really liked the Ball version of Javert's Suicide ( and partly wondered how that gut-wrenching scene was so much better than the first stage versions I have seen).

Here's why, in a review of the concert version by Broadwayworld.

Boe, as usual, shines in the concert environment, bringing out his powerful and complicated hero once more to be fronted by an exceptional Ball. His Javert leaves the scene with a heartfelt and deeply stirring "Soliloquy", which is perhaps the number which is done more justice by the film. The performer - who originated the role of Marius in 1985 - is transformed as the inspector, delivering the gut-wrenching reasoning behind his suicide with precision and heart.

Michael was acting his heart out! Not really that surprised - Michael was trained in drama, not musical theatre, but is blessed with an exceptional singing voice.


Not many are aware that the melody of Javert's Suicide is really the same as Valjean's Soliloquy. And to make the comparison of this stage number with the film version of Valjean's Soliloquy (and not versus the Boe version at the start) is a well-noted comment.

It further validates that Hugh's Valjean Soliloquy did create the most dramatic impact in the musical!



Jo

[jo]

After the concert, Michael spoke a few words. He noted that the show opened some 34 years ago ( concert was pre-pandemic)...and he originated the role of Marius ( he was 22 or so in 1984)...and now that he has gotten a little older ( he was 57 at the time of the concert in 2019), he is singing the role of Javert

I actually saw my first Les Miserables staging on Broadway in 1988 ( end of the first year run, but Colm had already left the show)...but when I bought the CD, I mistakenly bought the London cast recording. It was how I discovered Michael's glorious voice ( as Marius). By the time I had seen the London version, it was already with a replacement cast. Funny thing, at that time, Michael was due to open ASPECTS OF LOVE (by Andrew Lloyd Webber) and I had wanted to see him in it. Not knowing how to get tickets to a London stage show which was supposed to be pretty well sold out, I wrote to him c/o the Les Miserables theatre ( thinking he would still be in that show...while waiting for the opening of Aspects of Love). Guess what - the people at the Les Mis theatre forwarded the letter to where Michael was already in rehearsals for Aspects ( his 2nd ALWebber show, having gone as 2nd Raoul in Phantom, after LesMis). His PA replied and gave me instructions on how to get tickets (reports that the show was pretty well sold out)...I was on the waitlist of the theatre concerned and eventually was able to get tickets. And that was how I finally got to see "Marius" on stage but as a different character. I had front row tickets - and it seemed he was singing directly to me as he opened the show with an a capella version of the opening lines of Love Changes Everything.

PS: Except for more recent times when I have been unable to travel to London anymore, I had seen him in ASPECTS OF LOVE (LloydWebber), PASSION (Sondheim), CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG ( he originated the stage adaptation), KISMET (with the English National Opera and where he first performed with Boe), WOMAN IN WHITE ( ALWebber), HAIRSPRAY ( as Edna) and quite a few concerts. I missed seeing him in SWEENEY TODD and MACK & MABEL.

I also saw him on Broadway ( ASPECTS OF LOVE & WOMAN IN WHITE) and at Lincoln Center for the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta PATIENCE.


Jo

[jo]

An old Wall Street Journal article on Colm Wilkinson, at the time of the release of the LesMiserables home video.


www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-74014

The Original 'Les Miserables' Star Is Walking Away
By Alexandra Cheney
Updated March 21, 2013 6:25 pm ET

Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean, is retiring from "Les Miserables." An Irish-Canadian tenor, Wilkinson first brought the character to the stage in the West End of London in 1985 and continued the role in the Broadway production. In the Oscar-winning film directed by Tom Hooper, Wilkinson played the Bishop opposite Hugh Jackman, who filled the role of Valjean.

Speakeasy caught up with Wilkinson on the eve of the film's DVD and Blu-ray release, to talk about the future iteration of Victor Hugo's epic novel, his tips for Hugh Jackman and the importance of the song, "Bring Him Home."

Are you excited for the release of the DVD?

I'm really not a movie person. Over the years I've been involved in a few things. This movie is going to reach a lot more people who would not go to the theater or see this kind of movie. Movie musicals are a hard sell. This one is hugely popular and I think it will sell very, very well. Theatrical people will buy it, people who like Anne [Hathaway] will buy it. It's a great version, very epic and well done.

In the film you play the Bishop.


MOre...

Sorry, I could not reprint the whole article ( which I would have liked to reprint in full) because of a subscription wall. I was able to read it in full but failed to copy and paste at the same moment.

Here's why I wanted to do that --

When Colm was asked if Hugh had asked him for advice while they were filming, he said that Hugh is a talented person...and when Hugh asked him for advice he told Hugh " to find your own voice" and own the character.

He also talked how Bring Him Home was parodied because of its falsetto range.



And Hugh did his own interpretation of BRING HIM HOME! His take on the significance of the song was not simply as a prayer and plea to God for Marius's deliverance. Hugh's interpretation must have also included Valjean's own warring emotions about Marius. In the book and in one scene in the film (when Gavroche hands him the note to Cosette from Marius), his initial thoughts was the feeling of jealousy that Marius might be taking Cosette away from him. But as he looked at Marius sleeping at the barricades, his feelings of love for his adopted daughter won him over and led to his plea to God to spare the young man his daughter loved!

I also liked how the film adaptation brought back a reprise of BRING HIM HOME in Valjean's dying scene. He pleads to God to "Bring ME Home" - to be in God's keeping when he leaves the world. That particular plea was what brought tears to me, not how people say they are brought to tears by the falsetto sounds of the song in its initial iteration.

To each his own -- but I think there was too much maligning of Hugh's interpretation ( not a facsimile of the stage version) without thinking of why the film adaptation differed from how Trevor Nunn originally directed it.


Jo

[jo]

Ok - by some manipulating of the internet to find the exact quote, I found the exact quotation --

The one thing I said, was "find the song yourself, do it your way." That's the one conversation we had. "You have to do this character, this music, your way." I told him, "don't copy me, find your own way" and he found that.

[mamaleh]

Wilkinson obviously took his own advice earlier on, as the role originally called for a deep, low baritone, didn't it? But he was a tenor, so he "found his own way."

As for parodies of "Bring Him Home," the best one was in one of the iterations of FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, in the song "Bring It Down" (referring to the key as being way too high). It's pretty funny.

Ellen

[jo]

That is the parody he mentioned - "Forbidden Broadway"

The song BRING HIM HOME was actually written with him in mind.

The narrative according to the author of the book on the development of the English version of Les Miserables, Edward Behr, mentioned that they could not find someone for the role of Valjean, originally written as a baritonal range given that it probably sounded more natural for the role of a hardened convict. It was performed as such by the French baritone MBarrier in the original Paris version. Tim Rice referred Colm W to Trevor Nunn and Mackintosh as he looked the part but that he has a golden tenor voice. The songwriters had to transpose the entire Valjean range to his tenor voice. In the Paris version, though, there was no Bring Him Home... So Bring Him Home was written by Boublil-Schonberg with Colm's voice in mind. When he first sang it to his co-cast members, they were all dumbstruck by the beauty of his delivery. Colm is also a fine actor, not just a fine tenor!

Jo

[jo]