Les Miserables book: from stage to screen. A MUST have!

As a big fan of Les Misérables both on stage and screen I just have to promote this amazing book!. It's brilliant!

It has a beautiful padded cover and there are pages of fabulous photos and stage designs and of course lots of informative writing, but what makes this book so different is that it has 4 pockets throughout that contain lots of re-produced Les Mis paper memorabilia! There are posters from various productions, an invite for the party after the first night, set designs, costume designs, a ticket stub from the Broadway show, a programme for the original French production, a props list, pages from the script, a specially produced newspaper to promote the first tour, aerial set design, Jean Valjean's passport to freedom in French, a place mat from a gala dinner... There are 20 items listed. A MUST have for all the devoted fans of Les Misérables the musical.

I really liked the in depth and intelligent telling of the origins of the French version of Les Misérables, how it was picked up by Cameron Mackintosh and presented at the RSC Barbican Theatre, originally to often poor press reviews but astonishing box office growth to the point of sell out, and also its incredible history as the show has grown, developed, and become a worldwide phenomenon both on stage and screen. Les Misérables has become the 'people's musical' and loved for the passion and compassion of Hugo's original re-worked for the theatre.

 

 

There is plenty of informative writing about Tom Hooper's film version of Les Misérables , his vision for the film, the live singing and the rigours the cast went through to be chosen and to play the fantastic parts, etc...

 

                  

The shop price is £30 although I have found copies on Amazon for a lot less, including one direct from Amazon for £16.50.

PS: The Les Mis 25th Anniversary DVD is fantastic and the second disc is full of wonderful vids about Les Mis and a comprehensive full colour booklet.

Les Miserables. History in the making book. From page to stage.

I was thrilled to get a paperback copy of Les Miserables: History in the making, by Edward Behr in the post this weekend and can't stop reading it. It is jam packed with all that any Les Mis fan would want to know about the Victor Hugo novel and it's re-imagining by the RSC and the Les Mis composers and lyricists. I have been a fan both of the original musical and the recent film and have thoroughly enjoyed learning how the whole story went, as the expression goes, from the page to the stage.

The book explores the immensely popular musical's history from the French production and concept album that so inspired Cameron Mackintosh to back an English language translation back in the mid 1980s. It also covers those years and the growth of the musical to other countries around the world listing over 70 opening nights across the world from the original arena version of Les Miserables at the Palais des Sports on the 20th September 1980 in Paris to the Musichall Theatre Duisberg on the 26th of January 1996.

I was particularly taken with an engraving style picture of Jean Valjean and how close the image looked to the Hugh Jackman portrayal in the years after his parole. This painting in the first edition of Les Miserables made it possible for Colm Wilkinson to keep the beard which Trevor Nunn had initially wanted him to shave off for the musical.

As well as a wealth of written text, there are some fantastic photos of Les Mis from across the world and the whole libretto at the end of the book (illustrated with b/w photos).

"Bring him home!"

"Lovely ladies!!"

If you are as keen to order the book as I was you can order it through Amazon at this link below.

Les Miserables - the film of the musical

I went to see the Les Miserables film yesterday afternoon at the Broadway cinema in Nottingham. I had been looking forward to this for weeks and weeks and wasn't disappointed. I hadn't heard the best of reports online on Russell Crowe's singing abilities or the performances of the Thenardiers but, to be fair, they were just different from the West End stars as was the direction of the whole.

I particularly liked the immediacy of the piece with the live singing and I was intrigued by the  additional dialogue and new sung through lyrics in some scenes. The actual new song 'Suddenly' filled a story line gap but otherwise was unmemorable. I thought that the main actors' performances were stunning, especially Hugh as Jean Valjean/M. Madeleine and Anne Hathaway as the tragic Fantine.

Another surprise (not in the stage musical) was when Valjean and Cosette arrive at the North Gate of Paris and are on the run from Javert. Feet away from being caught they are met by M. Fauchelevent ( the man Jean Valjean rescued when trapped under the carriage) at a convent and he agrees to hide them there.

I loved the young lad who played Gavroche the second he popped out of the top of the elephant figure and made his way through the crowds stealing and dodging the law. I felt that I learnt much more from the film than I did the stage musical, namely the handing over of Javert's medal to Gavroche as he lay dead and the fact that the barricade was the last barricade left standing in the Victor Hugo's version of the June uprising of 1832. When they brought the cannons on to blast away the barricade I actually gasped.

The end was superb and I was thrilled to see Colm Wilkinson again at the end. Lastly, well for now, the settings were superb! Wow, what a film! And, of course I didn't cry.