Works Cited for "Do You See the People Sing?"

Chicago. Dir. Rob Marshall. Perf. Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly. Miramax, 2002. DVD.

Denby, David. "There's Still Hope for People Who Love "Les Mis"" Rev. of Les Misérables. The New Yorker n.d.: n. pag. The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Hairspray. Dir. Adam Shankman. Perf. Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron. New Line Cinema Corporation, 2007. DVD.

Hooper, Tom. "Tom Hooper 'confused' by Criticism of 'Les Mis'" Interview by Susan Wloszczyna. USA Today. Gannett, 24 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/01/24/les-miserables-tom-hooper-criticism/1839153/>.

Hooper, Tom. "Tom Hooper Defends His 'Les Misérables ' Close-Ups & Reveals Who's The Bigger Musical Geek: Jackman or Hathaway." Interview by Frank Digiacomo. Movieline. PMC, 25 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://movieline.com/2012/12/25/tom-hooper-interview-les-miserables-defends-close-ups/>.

Jacobs, Lea. "The Innovation of Re-Recording in the Hollywood Studios." Film History. Vol. 24. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2012. 5-34. Print.

Kearney, Christine. "Les Miserables Movie Relies on Close-ups for Emotional Punch." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Laszlo, Ervin. "Aesthetics Of Live Musical Performance." The British Journal of Aesthetics 7.3 (1967): 261-73. Print.

Nine. Dir. Rob Marshall. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson, Stacy Ferguson. Sony, 2009. DVD.

The Phantom of the Opera. Dir. Joel Schumacher. Perf. Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, Patrick Wilson. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004. DVD.

Schaefer, Stephen. "Musical Chairs." Entertainment Weekly 18 Oct. 1991: n. pag. Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly, Inc. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Travers, Peter. "Les Misérables." Rev. of Les Misérables. Rolling Stone 21 Dec. 2012: n. pag. Rolling Stone. Jann S. Wenner, 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

(PS, used the shell of an old post to post this. Hence, it says I wrote this in October 2012.)

Screenplay For "Les Mis" *Updated!

Whoa. Universal released the WHOLE SCREENPLAY for the Les Mis film. Then took it down. But read this post carefully to find out more...


I'm reading the script now.
Random thoughts as I read (page numbers follow the PDF numbers in Mac Preview, NOT the numbers on the head of the pages). One of my favorite additions is a bit about Fantine selling her teeth. It's so great and truly heartbreaking--and from the book! This whole screenplay adds way more in from the original novel than we ever could have hoped.
--The added lyrics I've seen are really good.
More...coming...after work lol.



--The transition from the "Prologue" to "End of the Day" is exactly how I hoped it would be.
--The have Fantine defend herself in "End of the Day" by ALSO singing the line, "At the end of the day she’s the one who began it!" (page 18)
--Javert gets his own actual introduction song. Interesting idea.  (page 20-21)
--"Runaway Cart" is moved up to right after "End of the Day" (page 21) There is no "I have only known one other..." scene.
--Valjean says to Fauchelevent, "No more cart driving for you!" (page 23) That line better stay.
--"Lovely Ladies" is accompanied by a man on an organ grinder. (page 24) Oh alright.
--Fantine sells her teeth! (page 26)
--Here's your reward for reading this far.
--The main brothel is in the hull of an old ship. Also the whole "Lovely Ladies" sequence sounds like it's gonna be insane and perfect.
--On pages 29 and 30 we have "I Dreamed a Dream," and there isn't much staging info given. So we'll see how it all works out, but I'm sure it'll be beautiful and devastating.
--Bamatabois stuffs snow down Fantine's shirt (page 31). More book references!
--Also on page 31, Bamatabois is given the direction, "Furious but aroused." Oh alright.
--Page 35, we have a new-ish scene between Javert and Valjean. It's an improved version of the "I have only known one other..." scene from the show. It's actually closer (once again) to the book, where Javert admits that he denounced Valjean to the French authorities, but now knows it was a mistake as the "real"culprit has been caught.
--Page 38, we kinda get a line back from the Original London Cast that I always loved. Valjean used to yell, at the end of "Who Am I?", "You know where to find me!" He says her, "Ask inspector Javert. He knows where to find me." But I doubt Hugh is gonna scream/sing it like Colm did.
--Oh my god pages 38-39, as Fantine dies, she hallucinates seeing Cosette and WE SEE IT. Gonna just start crying now.

--Page 42: Young Eponine what???
--Page 44: AHHH THEY PUT THE "SERGEANT OF WATERLOO" OPENING BACK IN TO "MASTER OF THE HOUSE." Or, at least, a good bit of it.
--Truly getting Sweeney Todd flashbacks as I read Mme Thénardier tricking customers to come into the inn.
--I'm not sure how the flashbacks to daytime are gonna work in "Master of the House." They struck me as bizarre, but we'll see how it turns out.
--Whoa they steal from Father Christmas. What even.
--Okay "Master of the House" is gonna be insane.
--They also have the scene at the well between Cosette and Valjean! (page 49-50)
--Page 52, they kept the "Colette/Cosette" gag, a long-running stage gag.
--Page 53 and 54, we see Javert visiting the Thénardiers, asking if Valjean picked up Coestte, and trying to get info from them. THEN, the Thénardiers mention sing about how they should have gotten more out of Valjean, SETTING UP THE ROBBERY IN PARIS AND FINALLY CLEARING UP THAT STUPID PLOT POINT THAT NEVER MADE SENSE IN THE SHOW!
--Page 53-54, we have the new song "Suddenly." Excited to hear it, but just reading the words leaves me kinda meh. We'll see.
--They have the famous chase scene between Javert and Valjean (with Cosette being dragged along), THEN they get to the convent and M Fauchelevent is there at the convent, like in the book! (Page 55-57).
--Page 58-59 gives us the introduction of Gavroche, and at the bottom of page 59 we have an AWESOME new verse for Gavroche about the state of the monarchy in France. Whoa. It also contains the lines, "Here is the thing about equality/everyone's equal when they're dead!"--which, to me, recall a similar set of lines from the 1980 Paris cast: "Entre nous et les bourgeois/C’est avec la mort, ma foi,/Le seul moment où y’a pas de différence." ("Between us and the bourgeois/it's then and death/the only moments where there isn't any difference between us"--the other moment referred to is when having sex, but I still feel like poor people have sex differently than bougie folks.)
--"Look Down" is now this: chorus "Look Down," two Gavroche verses, and the "Where are the leaders of the land?" bit. It ends with the police breaking up the crowd (who have gathered in front of Lamarque's house). We lose the "Where'd'ya think you're at, hangin' round me pitch?" verses and the bits associated.
--PAGE 62 HOLY CRAP M GILLENORMAND IS THERE WHAT EVEN. He admonishes Marius for "behaving like a child." Marius is like, "Peace, gramps," and leaves to go to...
--...GORBEAU TENEMENT, a crap hole of a place. Guess where that's from? Yup, DA BOOK. Also page 62.
--Pontmercy family ring, check; Eponine creeping on Marius through a hole, check; Marius being wayyyy dismissive of Eponine--super check. Still...page...62. We also have Eponine calling out Marius on being rich but "pretending to be poor."
--Also, bottom of page 62 (lot's going on on this one page) we have a great new bit between Marius and Eponine that tells us way more about Marius and his family than anything even hinted at in the stage show.
--The meeting of Marius/Cosette is changed. As "Look Down" doesn't have the Thénardiers (with the "these bloody students on our street"), Marius can't ask Eponine who they are. SO, we have him cross Cosette as he's leaving his house to mope. It's shot 33 and 34 here. Page 63.
--After this bit, we cut a little ways down the street to see the Thénardiers preparing their attack. Still page 63.

The Role of the Chorus in the Original 1980 Production

Before we begin, let me make it clear: this piece is all opinion. It's taken from the actual 1980 cast, of course, but I have no quoatations from B&S or Robert Hossein (the original director of the Paris production) to back it up.

But HERE IT GOESSSS.

One thing you may notice when listening to the original 1980 version of Les Misérables is the show's heightened emphasis on the chorus. In the modern productions, we get a sense that the chorus is a collection of individual characters. This is highlighted by the fact that there are many bit parts throughout the show. We have individual Factory Workers, individual Inn Patrons, individual Poor Folk...the 1980 version has this where needed, but when possible, they instead relied on HUGE CHORUSES OF SINGING FRENCHPEOPLE to get their point across. Why? I believe this was to highlight the facelessness that the underprivileged of the time experienced. Fantine, Eponine, the Students, Valjean, those are the faces of the revolution. But this incarnation reminds us that there were many more, unnamed, unknown, who suffered just as deeply. 

In this version, the chorus shows the faceless workers (all angry that they work an honest day's work, only to "find out" how one of their own is earning a bit more money); the chorus shows the faceless women, thrown to the bottom of life and forced to sell themselves to simply keep living (at the end of "J'avais rêvé," the prostitutes themselves join in Fantine's song, showing that Fantine is just one of many women pushed to the extreme--and actually giving more humanity to the Lovely Ladies in the process); the faceless petit bourgeoisie of Montreuil-sur-Mer (when Monsiuer Fauchlevent gets hit by the cart, we have the chorus--representing the whole town, and, by extension, the views of society--saying things like, "Back up, M le Maire, his sad life isn't worth giving up yours, no one on earth would miss him if he died!").

Hugo, in the novel, often referred to the poor as a "group" and as "masses", denominations that fit with the chorus as presented in the original production.

In the coming days (for real), I plan to add to this post a little video where you can hear what I'm talking about it. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Do you think the modern version downplays the "faceless mass" aspect, or does it make it more human? Do you think the modern version would have been different with fewer individual bit parts? Lemme know!