Les Miserables

If you've never seen this musical or read the book, this blog definitely contains spoilers.

I just got back from the seeing the film adaptation of the musical Les Miserables.  I really thought my reaction was going to be clear.  I wanted to love it, expected to hate it, and found myself doing both throughout the two and a half hours. As I was sitting there, sobbing, shaking my head, laughing, and sobbing while shaking my head, I realized that it was not fair.  This musical and I have been through too much together, and there was no way I could judge without massive bias.

Our love affair began when I was 11, in the 6^th grade, and my parents came home from a performance of it in L.A.  My mother’s first reaction to the show was that it was wonderful, and Miriam absolutely needed to see it.  I remember that it wasn’t like any other shows she thought I would like, this seemed much more important.  She was going to tell me the whole story first, so that I wouldn’t have any questions, and could immerse myself in the characters and their music.  She figured out a financially feasible way, buying me a ticket and convincing a friends’ mother that her daughter needed to see it too.

Other musicals and movies I had loved were stories that were relatively easy for children to digest.  The Music Man, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Singing in the Rain, White Christmas, to name just a few, all had very straight forward characters without a ton of complexity.  Les Miserables taught me that good and evil were not necessarily easily defined.  That humanity is, and always has been, extremely complex.  Apparently, books can have varied, interesting and surprising things within their covers, and that was fascinating to learn.

I should say, and this is the musical theatre geek in me, so bear with me, the music stirred my soul like nothing else ever had.  The powerful, beautiful music that told this complex story about poor, desperate people in 1800’s France, changed me.  It made me feel passion I’d never felt before, and I embraced it deeply.

I fell hard that night, and while I think my friend enjoyed it, I’m pretty sure she never really looked back.  The next holiday/birthday that came up, I requested the soundtrack. The next year, my school took a trip to see it, and since by then I had the whole thing memorized, and we got a very good school discount, there was little question of my going.  I was not disappointed, it was maybe even more beautiful the second time around.  The year after, I read the 400 page version of the book, because I wanted to know everything.

I “performed”, in the comfort of my bedroom and my parents’ bathroom (the space between the two sinks made a great stage), Castle on a Cloud over and over again, until someone got me the sheet music and I realized that, actually, I couldn’t hit those notes.  Gavroche was the other character I “performed” and those notes I could hit.  I loved playing him, and while I knew they always cast little boys, I dreamed (a dream.  Ha!) that I would be so convincing, I was still definitely cast-able as him.  “Little People” was my jam.

At the time I was also performing, every scene from the 8 hour mini-series “Anne of Green Gables”, so I don’t want to typecast myself when I say that playing Gavroche greatly influenced my acting career.

I moved to NYC after college many years later, and have since played Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” The Boy in “Henry IV pt.1”, “Henry IV pt.2”, and “Henry V”.  I’ve played Arthur in “King John”, Rumple in a modern version of “Rumplestiltskin”, and most recently Arviragus in “Cymbeline” (although he barely counts because he is in his early twenties, so while he is a young boy, he isn’t that young.  Since I chose to bring a lot of that youthful energy into him, I decided he counted.). 

Eponine also did not escape my attempt at many performances, but I always knew my voice couldn’t actually do that.  I still want to play Gavroche.

In high school, the tape I had, which was the London recording, was so old and loved it got destroyed (yes, the tape, I am that old), so I got the CD from the American version, and memorized that as well.  It was like finding hidden treasure – some of the songs were slightly different, some bits were new - having more room on a CD, and I had to get used to using an American accent when I sang along.  My high school friends and I would have fun trying to sing the Confrontation song between Val Jean and Javert, and there were battles between camp Les Mis and camp Phantom.  Camp Phantom was just wrong, in my book. 

When I was in college, I saw Les Mis again in New York, and literally just sobbed my way through the whole thing.  College was challenging to say the least, and being in an acting program, where all of my passions were busy being honed, picked and prodded, I was reminded of why I signed up in the first place.  I don’t think I even cried at the end when I first fell in love with it as a kid, but suddenly this show became more than “my favorite musical”, the show became an anchor to myself.  It was a dear old friend, who came to give me a big hug and tell me that all was truly right with the world. 

When I studied abroad in London, I went again, just to say hello.  I cried too, but this time I was prepared for my tears.

And now I saw the movie.  A friend asked me to give a quick summary (it’s on FB, you can see it) and the answer wasn’t so quick.  It’s beautiful, but deeply flawed.  Hollywood is petrified of making anything without celebrity, and that leaves much of its integrity severely lacking.  If you compare the film soundtrack to either the original Broadway or West End productions, the answer is clear.  While Hugh Jackman is truly wonderful and could be thrown on stage tomorrow getting rave reviews from the toughest of our Broadway critics, and Anne Hathaway practically redefined a role, giving Fantine the arc and the depth that can often be washed over on the stage (I had a hard time stifling my sobs during her moments), the miscasting of other, vital roles hurt the telling of this story. 

As I said on Facebook, the truth is, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried wouldn’t have gotten callbacks for these roles in 1989.  Crowe’s voice is decent, but his diction was shockingly bad.  Javert is such a layered, complicated character, and I didn’t see any of it.  He is an extraordinary actor, who was, in every way, wrong for this part.  Seyfried was right for the part, had her voice been able to handle it.  She has a sweet, quiet voice, incapable of operetta.  It was almost comical how she cut words short to avoid having to sing through the measure.  When she had no choice, there was a lot of strain.  It was most apparent during “A Heart Full of Love”, when Samantha Barks (fabulous as Eponine, thank you theatrical training and experience) and Eddie Redmayne (really very good, and actually not much of a musical theatre background, but sometimes that works out), made the song a trio, there was a definite moment of, ‘one of these voices is not like the others’.

I didn’t like that they added the scene where Javert gets back into uniform after Val Jean sets him free, and catches Val Jean and Marius climbing out of the sewers the next morning.  It was absolutely unnecessary, and depletes the immediacy needed for Javert’s Suicide.  It actually takes away the sense of the beginning of the song.  Honestly, cut that scene, and put Little People back in.  They cut that.  Unforgivable.  While I am unabashedly giving unasked for opinions, the little boy who played Gavroche, Daniel Huttlestone, did such an amazing job.  In fact, while we’re here, Isabelle Allen as Young Cosette, is also wonderful.

I hope that Aaron Tveit and George Blagden get notice for the roles often forgotten about, but no less beautiful and important, Enjolras and Grantaire, because when they showed up, after some awkward moments with Seyfried, I relaxed knowing they were going to take me on the journey I showed up for.

Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were vaguely unforgettable, and I’m not 100% sure that it is their fault.  Master of the House is supposed to be a big, funny, group number, and while it was sung that way, it was shot differently.  We saw a lot of shaky cam work following the two of them thieving from their clientele, with no connection to each other.  This part is supposed to be fun, and no one in my theatre was laughing.  Also, and I know that it’s film, but I needed them to be bigger.  They are supposed to be ridiculous.

With all that critique, while I wish they wouldn’t have sold out, and allowed this movie to be much better than it is, I still loved watching my story on the screen, with the music that helped define who I am today.  I can’t love it or hate it like I wanted to.  My affair with this musical will continue its journey, in all its complexities.  It’s where I am today, and that may change tomorrow.  Right now, I just hope it comes back to Broadway soon.  I’m ready for it.