The Wild Blog in the West

So now I've seen Les Miserables twice, and I should be seeing it once or twice more within the next couple of weeks.  I'm happy to report that things that bothered me the first time bothered me less the second time.  Mostly.  I still think that "The Attack on the Rue Plumet" is horribly butchered.  I also didn't warm to Russell Crowe's vocals, but the only parts where I would say he's really bad are the introduction scene with Valjean/Monsieur Madeleine and the "Runaway Cart" scene.  Both call for him to sing some notes that are really out of his range, and he ends up sounding whiny. Even though I was less bothered overall, there are parts that I wish had stayed in:   Parts of the Musical That Should Have Stayed In 1.  "And now I know how freedom feels..."   As I mentioned in the review, changing sung parts to dialogue does nothing to improve the Prologue.  The part where Valjean steals the silver and is caught is handled so

Finally the big day arrived.  On Christmas Day, I went with two companions to see the movie Les Miserables in a packed theatre.  It was the type of experience where even if you order your tickets in advance and arrive 45 minutes early, you still have to wait at the end of a long line.  Since I rarely go to the movies these days, I don't think I've had that experience since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King . So was it worth it?  Of course!  Overall, I thought the movie version was great -- very much what I was hoping for.  I intend to see it again this weekend, and probably again after that, dragging as many friends as I can with me. I will confess, though, that the journey to "This was great!" was not a smooth one.  In the first half hour, I found myself wincing and cringing quite a lot, wondering if maybe the critical naysayers had a point.  However, there was a point where the movie seemed to settle down, smooth out, and just flow better.  It was never pe

Many were probably expecting that my next critique would be of RENT , the movie musical bomb of 2004.  I do intend to critique  RENT , but have been slowed by the fact that I've never seen the movie, nor have much desire to see it.  Despite seeing the stage production in London with the original Mark and Roger, I have never been a fan.  Besides, why have negativity so close to the holidays?  I decided therefore to look at a movie musical that works pretty well: Dreamgirls . I should state upfront that I have never seen the stage production, apart from the Tony Awards clip with Jennifer Holliday's legendary performance .  If I had, maybe I would view the movie as a terrible adaptation.  Since I haven't, I can say that the movie is entertaining and reasonably poignant, and a decent look at the history of Motown. From what little I know of the stage production, it appears that the movie made the Motown connection much more overt, as well as the fact that the musical is a

There are actually quite a few things I like about this adaptation.  Even though Evita was the more successful of the two Andrew Lloyd Webber movie musicals, I find myself coming back to The Phantom of the Opera  more often. Not because I'm a huge fan of Phantom .  While I nearly wore out the CD when I was 15, I came to dislike the hackneyed lyrics, bombastic score, and incoherent ensemble numbers.  In total, there are maybe three songs I really like from the musical: "Masquerade," "The Point of No Return," and, of course, "The Phantom of the Opera."  "Music of the Night"?  Pretty, but bored me on subsequent listens.  The same with "All I Ask of You," a very similar song. And it's not because the film version of  Phantom is so ambitious or well executed.   Evita was the much more ambitious film, and in many ways it succeeded in its goals of being a grand epic.   Phantom , on the other hand, seemed to have no goals larger t

I have tickets to see the movie Les Miserables on Christmas Day.  Barring some major storm, illness, or accident, I will see the movie.  So often I thought this day would never come.  Yet now that it's almost here, I have just one problem: so many clips are getting released, I feel as though I've already seen the movie! Not only that, but reviews are getting released right and left.  Most of them are not the least bit shy about revealing spoilers.  I've read at least five depictions of the opening scene.  I've read that Anne Hathaway is destined to turn me into a soggy puddle.  I've seen clips of "The Work Song," "What Have I Done?", "At the End of the Day," "I Dreamed a Dream," "Who Am I?", "The Confrontation," "Master of the House," "Suddenly," "In My Life," "A Heart Full of Love," "On My Own," "Bring Him Home," and "Do You Hear the People

While I await my chance to see Les Miserables and hope that it's one of the movie musicals that "got it right," I thought it would be interesting to look at other musicals made in the last 15 years or so that didn't transfer so well to the big screen. Back in 1996, I was absolutely foaming at the mouth in anticipation of the film version of Evita .  Somehow, I had fallen in love with the concept album and could not wait to see it up on the screen.  The massive crowd scenes and elaborate costumes convinced me that it would be EPIC.  And then there was Madonna, who was supposedly "born" for the role, being a charismatic pop star with a penchant for constantly changing her wardrobe.  What could go wrong? For those completely unfamiliar with the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which launched in 1978 following a concept album that was released in 1976, here is a little background.  Eva Peron was the second wife of Juan Peron, president of Argentina from 1946