The Wild Blog in the West

"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, Jacques Mercie

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 along to playback while perf

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 Mackintosh was holding a 2

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.   Les Miserables , like the sou

Say you were taking public transportation.  If you were in the middle of an activity, such as putting on cologne, makeup, or nail polish, and someone in the seat behind you said: "Excuse me, I'm sorry: your [insert activity] is causing me to have an allergic reaction," what would you do? In my case, my immediate response would be: "Oh, I'm so sorry!"  And I would promptly stop the activity.  Maybe afterward, I would wonder if my activity were really that bad, or if I should have really had to stop.  But my FIRST reaction would be: "Oh, I'm so SORRY."  Because I would understand that I was not in my own bathroom and that I was sharing this space with other people, and that other people could be affected by what I do.  Even when I'm in a shitty mood, I am mindful of this. Not an actual representation of my train.  This one is much, much nicer. So this morning, I was sitting behind a man and a woman on the BART train into San Franc

It struck me that the title could be construed to suggest that Daria itself was MTV's one great miss.  On the contrary, Daria was the best series to come out of MTV.  I would even venture to say that its very existence almost makes up for MTV's other drek.  Almost. So after I built up the show so well in the last post, what was it that was Daria 's great miss?  Well, for a show that managed to create such complex characters and a high schooler who was unique, yet to whom we could all relate, Daria never really seemed to get high school. It is far from the only show to miss in that respect.   Saved By the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210 divided the school into Popular Kids and Everyone Else.  Occasionally an unknown character might pop up to "school" the Popular Kids about the Specialness of other students, but that person usually vanished by the next episode.   Buffy acknowledged the unpopular kids, to the extent that they really were unpopular, but the rest of t