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This is my favorite musical, although it’s kind of neck and neck with Hamilton right now. I really want to play Javert, but I don’t think that will ever happen. I could be Eponine, but I’m not sure I want to. Better than Cosette, though. Actually, I’m not so sure.
Any way, just wanted a thread to discuss Les Mis.
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Watching the movie right now. It’s a little intense, the play is better. I can’t actually recommend Les Mis if you are looking for something CB appropriate. Most of the cursing isn’t too bad, it’s just that “Lovely Ladies” is… bad. Still, there are plenty of clean or cleanish songs. I can list them if anybody’s interested.
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Our music teacher showed us the movie during class last semester! One thing that struck me intensely was the massive religious backdrop that dominated the entire plot line. The massive contrast over the ideals of Christianity was a very prominent feature for me. On one side, you have the two-faced common people who scrape and scavenge for every last bit of wealth and money and fame-those who use religion as a tool; saying ‘It’s what a good christian would do’, when begging for money by pretending to be a poor mother with a baby. And on the other hand you have people who are the actual essence of Christianity or the greater good, like Jean himself, or the bishop who saved him and gave away his entire silver to help him… (In the book, the bishop died of poverty soon after Jean left, because the silver in his church were the only things of value he had.) It’s useful to read the actual book to help understand the details, because the musical cut off lots of info and plot.
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I just read something that said “Eponine is my least favorite character because her whole personality is based on Marius” and I was like “who was it who dressed as a man to join the barricade, stood up to her father despite threats to keep Cosette, Marius, and, by extension, Valjean safe, and didn’t blame anyone for the fact that Marius was not in love with her?” That quote made me mad.
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I just remembered about this thread…I’ve recently gotten into Les Miserables as well. @Climate bee, I agree with your assessment of that person’s comment–I’ve read the novel, and in it as well as the musical, Eponine is a remarkably strong character for a girl written in the 1860s and in no way just someone who’s hopelessly in love with Marius. I feel like Cosette has a bit of depth to her–just because she’s always wondering about the answers no one gives her–but only in the musical, not so much the book. If I were ever in a production of Les Mis (ignoring for a second how that would happen), I don’t know who I’d like to play…Eponine’s interesting, but my voice is better lower so Fantine then?