As anybody who kills time on the internet surely knows, the trailer for the movie version of “Les Miserables” hit the web today. If I had a dollar for every giddy post I saw about it in my Facebook feed, I could have covered our delicious Chick-fil-A dinners tonight, plus milkshakes. (Hey, it’s something.) I dutifully watched it at my desk, and, well… here’s the thing. I have a confession to make:
I have never seen “Les Miserables.”
Yes, I was a music major in college; yes, I was a borderline theater nerd in high school (full-on choir nerd, for sure); yes, I consider myself a lover of musicals. And yet! Somehow I managed to completely miss “Les Miz.” I’m pretty sure this disqualifies me from being a true musical theater nerd. (My hetero lifemate, Abby, is perhaps the most committed of this kind. Anywhere she encounters satellite radio — rental cars, her mom’s car — she turns it to the Broadway station and doesn’t give anyone a choice about it. Thus I have yet to experience the joy of Pearl Jam Radio.)
There are, of course, such inescapable tunes as “On My Own,” (most memorably performed by Joey Potter), “Stars” and “Bring Him Home.” I’ve heard them, but I couldn’t even sing you one of them in its entirety. I think my older sister knows the show, which has me puzzled as to how I missed it when so much of what she was into trickled down to me. My theory is that I was stuck on “Cats” and the golden age of Disney Classics for the better part of my childhood.
All of this is to say that, while I will happily pick apart the vocal abilities of any and all actors involved, I don’t have any stake in or point of reference for the casting decisions, which I gather are and will continue to be a topic of hot debate. I may or may not go see the film; I’m indifferent. If we were talking about a movie remake of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” though, I’d be all over it.
I haven’t actually seen it either. I loved Les Mis because (1) I had friends in college who were obsessed (which would explain maybe why it didn’t trickle down to you — NJ –> GA is far), and (2) I loved Miss Saigon and they are THE SAME MUSICAL. Both wartime settings. Both starred Lea Salonga (who is awesome) as Eponine and Kim (and Princess Jasmine, but who’s counting). Both Eponine and Kim lost their love triangles to the more affluent/more american/prettier other women, and died in the arms of the man who rejected them while singing to him. I think both even dropped the last line of the song (due to untimely demise). True story.
Ahhhh, that makes much more sense now. I knew you were big on Miss Saigon, and therefore I associate Lea Salonga much more strongly with that show. Which, incidentally, I know even less of and have not seen.
I hope I’m not the only musical nerd who hated Joel Schumacher’s Phantom of the Opera, so my take on Les Mis is that we should set our musical expectations low…
Oh my LORD was that bad. I try to avoid seeing Gerard Butler in anything as a result. Yeah. Awful.
Kathleen! I’m shocked. No “Little People?” No “Do You Hear the People Sing???”
Wait. Not even the concert versions on PBS? how is this possible?
‘Tis true. I don’t think I watched much PBS as a child? No idea.