Les Miserables

Anonymous
Hated it! Wanted to walk out. Does not translate well from the stage (to me)
Anonymous
I've seen the stage production 3 times and loved it. I really enjoyed the movie, too. It was not as powerful as the play, but it is a movie, so I expected that. The acting was very good. Aside from the two leads (I know), I thought the singing was excellent. I actually thought Crowe and Jackman sang pretty well, if not perfectly. Some of the changes that bugged me were director-based, not singing ability-based, I feel pretty sure (like speaking vs singing the last word of a song). I did not think "Bring Him Home" was sing very well, though. I enjoyed seeing the action closer up vs in the play. At first, it was a little hard to reconcile the realism with the sung lines, but I got over that in the first few minutes. I thought Gavroche was great, and I thought Redmayne was a great pick for Marius. I was much more impressed with the acting of Jackman and Crowe than I expected. Samantha Barks sang beautifully as Eponine, too, and seeing Colm Wilkinson as the bishop was awesome.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I saw the musical on Broadway years ago and walked out stunned at how much I hated it. I know tons of people love it but I was super excited to see it and didn't like it. The musical numbers were long and forced and I felt the same way about the plot. Have no plans to see the movie.
Saw stage production at Kennedy Center last year. It was......nice. I thought I would love it but I didn't. But then I bought the sound track and started listening to it over and over and I really fell in love with the music. Don't know why. It's more opera than it is musical and I'm not much of an opera person so I get why I wasn't bowled over by it with my first exposure. But the orchestration is so complex (at least for me, a novice) that it really holds up over multiple listenings. Looking forward to seeing the movie.


NOT at all.

And in fact I'd say that the worst thing about the show is the repetitive, plodding simplicity of the music, followed, of course, by the inferiority of pop-y "musical theater" voices (compared to operatic voices). It's a shame because the novel is very powerful, and would have benefited from a more serious treatment.
post reply Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture
Message Quick Reply
Go to: