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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: perfectchaos180 on July 07, 2011, 01:36:11 PM
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So in honor of my new avatar.... I decided to make a thread for this!
Does anyone else share my love for Les Miserables???
I have become obsessed with it over the past couple of months after first hearing it in April. It is truly an amazing work of art in every way. Every song is great (except for maybe Dog Eats Dog), and Valjean's Death/The Finale is the most thought provoking and touching piece of art I have ever witnessed.
For those who have never listened to it, I urge you to. I never liked musicals (and still don't), but this one is just... different, and thats not just my thinking that is a largely shared opinion. It was recommended to me by other prog lovers, and so I pass the word onto you!
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I think it's amazing. Agreed with you on the end. I saw it live at the Fulton Opera House, which is so worth it.
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Saw it while it was still on Broadway, loved it!
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The greatest musical of all-time. Nothing else even comes close.
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I have tickets to see it in October! I am so excited! :D
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The greatest musical of all-time. Nothing else even comes close.
1. Billy Elliot the Musical
2. Les Miserable
...imo of course. ;)
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Rina will come back for this...
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Rina will come back for this...
Phantom of the Opera is overrated.
Now she'll be back.
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Seeing it in August. I've never heard it but my parents are crazy about it.
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Rina will come back for this...
Phantom of the Opera is overrated.
Now she'll be back.
(https://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm109/friedclams182/jack%20sht/Motherofgod.jpg)
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Rina will come back for this...
Phantom of the Opera is overrated.
Now she'll be back.
(https://jestdesigns.com/images/cougar/cougar-you-are-going-down-little-boy_400x.gif)
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I really like it. I saw it on broadway and one of the best moments was during Javier's suicide. Best performance of the night bar none, though I love the ending as well.
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haha Javier, I thought Les Mis was French not Spanish :P
also, I was told I would like Sweeny Todd and Phantom of the Opera, but I did not enjoy either of them a ton (but they were still good)
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On a serious note:
I absolutely adore Les Mis, it's one of my favorites. "Who Am I" and "I Dreamed a Dream" leave me in tears and "On My Own" is also heart wrentching. So many good scores in there, I love "Master of the House", there's a certain actor that does such an amazing job with it.. Javert's suicide really threw in a surprise for the ending, and I have nothing negative to say about the whole show.. :heart
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I can never remember how to spell his name, so I tried the best I could. I'm not a French student :lol
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Javert is probably my favorite character. He's an antagonist of sorts, but you have to feel for the guy. After so much buildup, his suicide is easily one of the most emotional parts of the show.
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The greatest musical of all-time. Nothing else even comes close.
I don't know if 'nothing comes close', but yes, it is the greatest. Saw it on it's Toronto run in the late 90s, with Colm Wilkinson. 3rd row. So amazing! The 25th Anniv O2 video is pretty damn cool.
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I saw it on Broadway on 2002/2003 during the last month of its run before it closed. I liked it a lot, but am not nearly familiar with it enough to comment more than that.
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I think I am one of the few people who enjoy the 25th anniversary DVD more than the 10th.... Yeah Nick Jonas is Nick Jonas but I think everyone else is AMAZING
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I was adamant to make this thread. I swear. This is my favourite book of all time (I think it's the best book ever written, too). And this musical is just... SUBLIME! Les Misérables.
Who do you think played the best Fantine?
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Also, should I get the 10th or 25th anniversary DVD?
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IMO Lea Salonga makes the best anything... so she is the best Fantine haha
and like I said, I am partial to the 25th, but it seems everyone else on the planet is partial to the 10th. The production is better on the 25th, and the orchestra is louded and more epic, and it also has more songs (the 10th cut out a lot of in between stuff, such as Eponine delivering Marius' letter to JVJ at the beginning of act 1)
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Absolutely adore the musical, and I love the book (one of my favs of all time). I have 3 recordings of the show (B'way Cast, Complete Symphonic Recording, 10th Anniversary) and I got the chance to see it on Broadway in 98
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IMO Lea Salonga makes the best anything... so she is the best Fantine haha
and like I said, I am partial to the 25th, but it seems everyone else on the planet is partial to the 10th. The production is better on the 25th, and the orchestra is louded and more epic, and it also has more songs (the 10th cut out a lot of in between stuff, such as Eponine delivering Marius' letter to JVJ at the beginning of act 1)
The production is certainly better on the 25th, but I just love the cast and performance so much more in the 10th.
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IMO Lea Salonga makes the best anything... so she is the best Fantine haha
and like I said, I am partial to the 25th, but it seems everyone else on the planet is partial to the 10th. The production is better on the 25th, and the orchestra is louded and more epic, and it also has more songs (the 10th cut out a lot of in between stuff, such as Eponine delivering Marius' letter to JVJ at the beginning of act 1)
The production is certainly better on the 25th, but I just love the cast and performance so much more in the 10th.
I have the Complete Symphonic Recording and the way the singer here sings I Dreamed a Dream sounds... weak, she even is out of breath in the song. But there are other amazing performances like Master of the House (lol, do you remember the Seinfeld episode where they had this song stuck in their head?).
As for Lea Salonga, from what I have snipped, she abuses the vibrato way too much.
For what I've looked at, the 10th anniversary looks like at parts it makes a recount of the previous iterations of this play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io-nhN0XMUE (this is the complete performance).
I wish there could be a consensus of which is the best performance, like Jesus Christ Super Star being the movie (the original 1973 one, the one we all know).
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Yeah...I'm resurrecting a 12-year old thread (one with posts by people who were mostly before my time here on DTF). What of it? :biggrin:
Back in 2019, my daughter (via my wife) bought me tickets for a post-March 2020 performance of Les Mis for Christmas. The daughter and I have seen a bunch of Broadway shows, including (completely by happenstance) the 13,000th performance of Phantom at the Majestic Theatre in NY. Unfortunately, the show got cancelled, and even more unfortunately, my wife bought the tickets from a third-party site and was unable to get a refund.
Anyhoo...Les Mis is coming back around and will be at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood before the daughter goes back to school. She and I are going on August 5. I've seen it 4-5 times (including in 2001 in London), but I can't remember the last time. She's never seen it, and I scored really good orchestra seats. I'm getting pumped. It is easily my favorite Broadway show of all time. Need to break out The Complete Symphonic Recording to get myself ready.
Anyone else going this time around? I think it's up in SFO before coming down to the Pantages and then to the Segerstrom Center in Orange County.
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Cool, didn't know it was in town. Seen it twice, once here and once in Sacramento. Fantastic play. Just love the theater, really need to go more often.
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Huge musical nerd. Les Mis isn't my fav but it's in my top ten.
My favs would be.
1. Evita
2. Falsettos
3. Into the Woods
4. Company
5. Sunday in the Park with George.
Below that sits Les Mis. My first Exposure was the 10th anniversary cast......Still the best cast IMO.
Saw it a couple times on Broadway.
Once before they trimmed the score. think it had to do with paying everybody overtime each performance, lol Classic musical though.
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Huge musical nerd. Les Mis isn't my fav but it's in my top ten.
My favs would be.
1. Evita
2. Falsettos
3. Into the Woods
4. Company
5. Sunday in the Park with George.
Below that sits Les Mis. My first Exposure was the 10th anniversary cast......Still the best cast IMO.
Saw it a couple times on Broadway.
Once before they trimmed the score. think it had to do with paying everybody overtime each performance, lol Classic musical though.
I've only seen a handful of musicals. Off the top of my head:
1. Les Mis (4-5x)
2. Wicked (twice...maybe thrice)
3. Phantom (twice)
4. Be More Chill
5. Hamilton
6. Dear Evan Hansen
Les Mis is, by far, my favorite. I was largely unimpressed by Hamilton and didn't care for DEH.
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I've seen tons, my father took us to a lot when we were younger trying to culture us up.
Highlights would be...
The Who's Tommy (2x, once the original Broadway touring cast)
Evita on Broadway
Cats (4 times, once on Broadway)
Les Mis
Annie (3 times)
The Wiz
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Tommy was by far my favorite of course, especially considering the source material is a top album for me.
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In no particular order, and I'm surprised they weren't listed by others ...
Rock of Ages
We Will Rock You
Mama Mia
Were three of the best 'rock' adapted musicals I ever saw. The Bat Out Of Hell one wasn't bad either.
But after Les Mis (my fave), the best I ever saw was Come From Away. I think that was the last musical I've seen (thanks COVID!)
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The daughter and I went to Les Mis last night at the Pantages Theatre. Excellent, as always!
I gave the kid a synopsis on the drive up to Hollywood, and she said it helped. I kinda noted things I had forgotten as the show was going. I was pretty accurate!
I bought parking in advance, which was a big win.
There were a couple of slight changes, I think the most notable was that Gavroche's "Little People" song as he was dying was heavily cut. I was totally ok with that since I usually find Gavroche very annoying (although this one wasn't bad). They also didn't have a rotating stage, so some of the choreography was different. The way they did the sewer scenes was very clever. Valjean was AMAZING. They extended the end of "Bring Him Home" a bit and nearly brought the house down. His breath control was incredible. The only slight disappointment is that I didn't think all that much of the actress who played Eponine, who is typically one of my favorite characters. "On My Own" is typically a big number, but she didn't really convey the emotion very well.
The only other negative was the woman in front of my daughter who constantly had her phone going. After the third time, when she was actively texting someone, I politely asked her to turn it off. She responded by getting up and walking out and saying, "sorry, it's a medical emergency." She came back about 5 minutes later and didn't have her phone open for more than about 5 seconds. At intermission, she turned to me and said, "my niece just had a baby. I hope that's ok." No, bitch, it's not ok. And that is NOT a "medical emergency" (and if it is, then why are you here?). But I just smiled and said "congratulations." I really wanted to slap her. At the very least, turn the brightness down....
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In some alternate universe, someone posted on DTF...
The only other negative was this asshole behind me. My niece unexpectedly went into labour, and has had problems throughout her whole pregnancy. I was a discreet as I could be, and sent a few text messages to the group chat with my sisters. He has the nerve to gripe at me about it, so I kindly left the theater for a few moments to not bother this delicate flower or his daughter. I told him the situation, but I could tell he still wasn't impressed - like everything about the events from 8-11 last night should revolve around him.
:lol :lol
P.S. Just razzin ya, in case that wasn't clear.
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:rollin
The funny thing was that, on Sunday morning, I was looking at some comments on some random Facebook post, and someone griped about "the younger generation" having absolutely no manners or respect for other. I sort of scoffed given that the woman in question was at least my age, if not older.
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ONE DAY MOOOOOOORRRREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
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ONE DAY MOOOOOOORRRREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DESTINYYY