Oooh là là là, Les Miséra-bleh.

[tenlittlebullets]

You know what?

I don't like the musical of Les Misérables.

At all.

I read the book first.  It was constant exposure to the musical that drove me to obsession, but the first understanding I had of the story came through the book.  Once upon a time I wasn't that aware of what a crappy adaptation of Hugo's story and message it is, and even after that I could ignore it for a time.  But it seems like all the attitudes, misunderstandings, and bizarre but commonly accepted perspectives that bug me about the fandom stem directly from the musical, which, though it's got its events pretty straight, isn't a very good adaptation.

LM is more than its plot.  Do you think it would've endured as long as it has if it were just a way-too-long novel about a bread thief, a whore with a heart of gold, some slimy innkeepers, and a bunch of students rioting in the streets?  And yet the fandom is full of people who skip, not only the fifty-page digressions, but Hugo's little detours into direct social commentary (riot vs. insurrection, for example), as if the plot were completely divorced from Hugo's ramblings.  The plot gives LM its length and breadth, and they're both vast, but the digressions and commentary fill in its depth.  If you take the plot by itself you get monstrosities of misinterpretation, the entire show being a prime example.

The musical preserves almost all the events of the plot, but destroys the message without really meaning to--it ignores the impact of social class on the characters' interactions, dismisses hope for the future in a flood of whiny angst, gives no historical context, and tries to tie together all its schizophrenic, conflicting stabs at a theme with some vague stuff about how "to love another person is to see the face of god."  Whereas if you took the musical minus the tacked-on finale and asked Joe Blow to pick out a line that summarized what it was trying to say, it'd probably be "Nothing changes, nothing ever will."  Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle, it's not bad fanfiction that's making Hugo spin in his grave.

And what redeeming values does the show have?  Nifty staging, set and lighting design, a few catchy tunes... and that's about it.  The costumes are ugly and historically inaccurate.  The music is neither absurdly pretty, like Phantom, nor complex--unless you take the incessant repetition of a few motifs for complexity.  The lyrics are awkward.

Also, it bashes you over the head with what emotion you're supposed to be feeling at any given point.  The first few times I saw/listened to the show I resented it.  After I got used to it, the tearjerking effect wore off and I didn't mind as much, but the songs had also lost any emotional appeal they might have had in the first place.  Bleh.

I could rant (and have in the past) about specific characterization issues that bug me--Valjean magically becoming a good man and never undergoing a real moral struggle after the Bishop, the teenybopperization of Eponine, Javert the religious psycho, the treatment of the insurrection--but you've heard it all before and probably don't want to hear it again.

So why do I collect bootlegs and recordings of the musical?

Beats me.  I need a hobby of some sort, and better Les Mis than Cats.

At any rate, I'm depressing myself.  I think I'm going to go read a few chapters of the Brick to cheer myself up.

Edit: In reward for slogging through that, some amusement for the German-speaking: Bloopers from the Duisburg(?) production.

Comments

[shawk.livejournal.com]

See, I am the sort of person who enjoys different interpretations of things, even if clearly some are more correct than others. This in part is the draw of the musical for me. The musical usually has not laid out the characters in a terribly complex way, so the actors can take the roles in a number of directions, should they chose. I mean, Jerome Pradon was an unhinged, maniacal, completely freaky and twitchy Javert, which doesn't have a whole lot of backing in the novel, yet he somehow made it work, and I found that fascinating.

On a shallower note, I like lots of pretty singing boys. And baritones in general. ;)

I'm not sure that makes up for what the musical has done for/to fandom, but you know. Most fandoms in general, especially when it comes novels that have been made into movies/musicals/whatever, are this way-- a large population of people who care about/write fic in the vein of fanon, and the few, the proud, the novel fans. And since no adaption ever really captures the whole spirit of a novel, around and around we go.

But then, I'm a big proponent of the "you like what you like and damn the rest" way of life. ;)

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

I enjoy different interpretations too, but it annoys me that the widely-accepted interpretations are so off base. If Javert the obsessive religious maniac were a crackfic staple instead of pseudo-canon, I'd probably love him for his bizarreness, but constant exposure has worn down the appeal.

My obsessive recording-collecting is partly a search for off-the-wall interpretations (in addition to filling in the need for a hobby), but it's gotten to the point where the actor has to be doing something really wacky to catch my eye. I've become way too jaded. XD

Pretty singing boys = one of the reasons I went back to see the show ten times. When all else fails and you're bored to tears, there's always eye candy.

[shawk.livejournal.com]

No doubt, the musical is to blame for a lot of the fanon shorthand that is off-base, but it has also been the gateway for a lot of people who grow to appreciate the novel. I guess it's sort of a "hate the playa, not the game" situation. Of course, I tend to isolate myself in a world where I only read fanfiction written or recommended by friends. This has likely insulated me from the reality of the fandom, but then, probably 80% of every fandom's fanfic is utter tripe, I suspect.

But I can't even really explain why I like the musical so much, outside of the pretty singing boys. But then there are times, like when I saw Michael McCarthy as Javert in San Francisco, when the novel and the musical are briefly one, and it's fantastic. He's pretty much the perfect Javert as far as I am concerned: implacable, impersonal, almost a force of nature. It made "Suicide" incredibly powerful because his Javert was taking on some human concepts that were entirely foreign to him, and he just broke.

But then again, I like Robert Hunt's Javert because it's consistent, even if not the portrayal I prefer.

I think I'm just to amiable. ;) I just take what I can get, imperfect as it may be.

Excuse me while I ramble in your journal...

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Bah, rambling is fun!

See, I am a fanfic whore and regularly trawl the front page of fanfiction.net's Les Mis section for fresh meat, so I suppose I get exposed to all the worst fanon. But what frustrates me is that this fandom does seem to have a higher general intelligence than most, so it seems doubly stupid for most of its members to still be caught up in viewpoints force-fed to them by the musical.

Funny, I've heard audios of McCarthy and I don't get what's so special about him. He has an excellent voice and he certainly gave a good performance, but nothing about him really jumped out at me. Ah well.

[shawk.livejournal.com]

I only troll through the Pit when I feel like torturing myself. ;)

Fortunately or unfortunately, it's easy to write from the musical. Everyone already knows the version of the character you're writing, and it's much more likely to get you a bunch of "Ur aMazing!1!! Write more pls!" comments. And a lot of people write for the props, so that's what they're going to write.

This is why you have to be a snob. ;)

Michael 'Midi' McCarthy: It depends on when with him, really, and who he was on with (high pressure situations like closing Broadway or performing with Colm Wilkinson up the stakes). He was Javert for a million years in pretty much every English-speaking country, so there was definitely some auto-pilot going on at times (although his auto-pilot was better than some fully-committed Javerts I have seen). And he had some great, thoughtful little moments, like right before "Suicide," he desperately tried to button up his coat as if restoring order to his clothing would restore order to his universe, but of course he can't do either.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Know what'd be fun? Writing purely musical-based fanfiction that exploits the gaps in the musical that aren't there in the book. Like what Valjean and Cosette did for ten years before Paris, or why Eponine is all buddy-buddy with Marius, or why Marius is all buddy-buddy with Enjolras, or who the hell got Fantine pregnant and ditched her, or just what the Thénardiers did after their triumphant exit at the wedding.

But that would require creativity, and I suppose that's beyond the scope of 80% of the fic authors. Besides, LM authors in general aren't nearly as aware of which canon they're drawing from as, say, Phantom of the Opera. Most of it seems to be book canon with a heavy tilt towards interpretations from the musical, or musical canon with a bit of backstory embroidery from the book.

Hmm. I think I have two of McCarthy--one of his final London performance and one of the Broadway closing. I haven't listened to the second one yet, though, so I have no idea if he's better there. The impression I get from the London bootleg is that he's very, very good, but again, nothing about him jumped out at me. :/ Maybe you have to see him.

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Of course, look at the other English-language adaptations. They fuck it up even worse. (and I like hot baritones playing Captain Vest *g*) One of these days I'm going to order the French miniseries (you can get in Region 1 from Canada, apparently). I'm still marginally weirded out by John Malkovich, and Marius is fugly, but the cut-up English bits they aired on Fox Family Channel were actually good, so the whole thing has to be fantastic, comparatively speaking. (Even if Asia Argento is a goth heroin addict.)

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

...I think the only originally English-language adaptation I've seen was the 1998 one, which is a trainwreck. The others--Depardieu miniseries, Gabin movie, Ventura miniseries--are French, and they're mostly faithful to the book.

The full Depardieu miniseries is a welcome departure from the English adaptations (from what I've heard of them), but it has a lot of weird, useless changes and I want to shoot their casting director. Some of the changes are nice touches, like Fantine's hair- and teeth-selling scene or Javert hassling Thénardier about selling Cosette, but some of them, like Valjean perving on Cosette or Fauchelevent at the barricade, make me wonder what the fuck they were thinking.

I'm probably judging the 2000 miniseries too harshly, because I've been spoiled rotten by the versions with Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura. They both have their faults, but even though nothing could really live up to fan expectations of accuracy, they come close. (I don't think the Ventura one was ever released in region 1, though, and more's the pity.)

But they all fail at hot guys playing Captain Vest. Okay, so maybe the musical has something going for it. XD

[adieumoncoeur.livejournal.com]

I find On My Own a bit too schmaltzy.


Vive la revolucion!

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Oh, shiny. I thought I was the only one who had been exposed to the book before the musical.

Butbutbut...! The digressions are fun to read. ;___; It’s not like they’re boring, or anything. At least, I didn’t think they were. But, then, I don’t think the book is particularly long, either. So I kind of fail.

Whereas if you took the musical minus the tacked-on finale and asked Joe Blow to pick out a line that summarized what it was trying to say, it'd probably be "Nothing changes, nothing ever will."
Depressingly, this is true. Both my grandparents seem to think that all the students were trying to commit suicide. Though, I suppose you could make a case for musical!R committing suicide, if you stretched things a bit.

I’ve always kind of assumed that the weird changes to the characters and oversimplification of things were to make the musical accessible to a wider group of people who probably haven’t had any previous exposure to the story. (Either that, or the writers didn’t understand the message properly themselves, which wouldn’t explain the OFC, which was slightly better in comparison.)

I could rant (and have in the past) about specific characterization issues that bug me--Valjean magically becoming a good man and never undergoing a real moral struggle after the Bishop, the teenybopperization of Eponine, Javert the religious psycho, the treatment of the insurrection--but you've heard it all before and probably don't want to hear it again.

Aw, but you should. It would be interesting to read.