The Wild Blog in the West

In 1986, Les Miserables would premiere at the Kennedy Center's Opera House in Washington, D.C. for an eight-week run.  The production then moved to Broadway in March of 1987.  It's not clear to me exactly when they occurred, but by the time Les Miz arrived on Broadway, it had undergone several changes. What would result would be the English-language version of Les Miz that we now consider "definitive" -- or at least we did until the 1998 changes came along that shortened things further, and then certain changes were made to the 2007 Broadway revival, and then the 25th Anniversary production made even more cuts to the songs and score. The Production As with London, I never had the privilege of seeing the original Broadway production live.  However, I did see the touring production a few years later, so I at least have a vague recollection of what that version of the musical was like.  The most obvious changes were the following: 1.  "Little People...

Since part of my intent with this Les Miserables retrospective/preview has been to review anything major released for the movie, I couldn't not mention the biggest bomb that dropped this week: the screenplay. Somehow officials from Universal -- or a disgruntled studio intern -- decided to post the entire screenplay of the movie on Universal's website.  At present, its page is no longer loading, which suggests that the release was a mistake.  Still, if Universal wanted to keep the movie completely under wraps until the last minute, the damage has been done: thousands have read the script by now, including yours truly. I was conflicted about whether to read it.  I'm the sort of person who readily consumes spoilers (part of my attraction to Game of Thrones and the  A Song of Ice and Fire series, for instance, was that I knew where certain characters ended up), but I also know that there are cases where it just isn't as powerful if you aren't surpris...

"Someone who looks like a convict, can carry a man on his back of  about 120 pounds and can sing like an angel." "You want Colm Wilkinson." So said Tim Rice to Trevor Nunn, as they discussed whom to cast as Jean Valjean in the English-language version of Les Miserables. Most Les Miz fans are already familiar with the story behind the musical's transition from the French stage to London's West End, so I won't provide more than basic details.  In 1982, Cameron Mackintosh first listened to the French concept album and was eager to produce an English language adaptation.  Trevor Nunn and John Caird would direct, while Herbert Kretzmer was brought in to rework the French lyrics and add new material, replacing poet James Fenton.  The entire Prologue was added, along with notable songs like "Bring Him Home," and although it retained the basic elements of the French adaptation, the story was substantially reworked. The English-langu...

As the movie date draws ever closer, I thought that this would be a good time to look at the musical as a whole and how it developed.  My intent is to only focus on the English-language releases, but I can't ignore the French concept album by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg that started it all. The story behind the concept album is that in the mid to late 1970s, Boublil and Schonberg attended a production of Oliver! and, upon seeing the Artful Dodger, suddenly had an image of Gavroche.  From there, the story grew, and the initial result was a concept album (released wide in 1989, but developed in the late 1970s). The concept album featured several tunes that are familiar to us today.  Some were so like their future versions that the English-language songs seem like mere translations; others were altered thematically and given to other characters; some were fleshed out, while others were dropped entirely.  The cast included Maurice Barrier as Valjean,...

While the cast was slowly being assembled, Mackintosh and company -- although at this point, I think it's more accurate to say Hooper and company -- were working behind the scenes to develop something truly special.  The first hint of what was to come came from Hugh Jackman, who went to London for four weeks in the fall of 2011 so that Hooper could conduct some tests, including for 3D.  Jackman came away stating that he was " really pumped about doing this ," something that he would repeat over Twitter shortly before movie rehearsals started.  He also mentioned that he hoped the singing would be performed live, as it allowed for a more spontaneous performance.  Jackman recalled having to lip-sync through a video for Oklahoma  and hating it. Live singing?  I did not realize it at the time, but that was something of a rarity.  Most of the time, actors in movie musicals record the entire soundtrack before filming the movie.  They then mime alo...

It was in 2007 that I first realized that a Les Miserables movie was possible.  Before then, I was convinced that it was just one of those musicals that could never be translated to the screen, for all sorts of unfair reasons.  While it is true that another staple of the British Mega Musicals,  Phantom of the Opera , premiered in 2004, its failure at the box office just made me less inclined to believe that Les Miz  would ever reach the big screen. Napoleon's Bastille elephant will become a familiar image in the movie. Then, by chance, I happened to look at the Les Miserables (the musical) Wikipedia page, which stated that in 2005, there was " renewed interest " in turning the musical into a movie.  I checked around the Internet to see what had come of this interest.  Over the next few years, I would check periodically, but never found anything.  It was as if I had dreamed the article.  The in 2010, I was vaguely aware that Cameron M...

I am a huge  Les Miserables  nerd.  Or, I guess it's fair to say, a  Les Miserables  the musical nerd.  Though I've read the novel and seen a couple movie incarnations, the musical has always had a special place in my heart.  I saw it for the first time with my French class when I was 13 years old.  I've since seen it five more times, in San Francisco, London, and Los Angeles.  I've seen the "old school" turntable version and the 25th Anniversary projection screen version -- otherwise known as "the version where we actually get to see Gavroche die" versus "the version where we get to see Grantaire scream about it."  I've purchased both the 10th and 25th Anniversary DVDs.  I have weighed in on Michael Maguire versus Anthony Warlow, Francis Ruffelle versus Lea Salonga, Colm Wilkinson versus Alfie Boe, and Patty Lupone versus Ruthie Henshall.     I am far from the only person obsessed with this musical.   ...