Is Les Miserables popular in France?

[newintown]

Well, isn't is still basically the French show in translation?

I have the Berlin recording of Chicago in German, and I love it. Strangely, they don't call it Chikagö.

I've also heard a very fun German translation of My Fair Lady, in which Eliza sings in Berlin slang, and Higgins teachers her High German.

I've heard that the original French Les Misérables musical was just another Euro-poperetta that ran a few months to little acclaim; then Cameron Mackintosh heard a tape of it at a party and went bat****, and now we have to hear "I Dreamed A Dream" every five minutes, no matter where we are.

Anyone else hear anything?

[Reginald Tresilian]

I've heard highlights of the French score, but honestly I have no idea how much the piece as a whole adheres to the original.

At any rate, my point was not that the French were right in rejecting the film (if that is in fact the case); just that if they did, I didn't find it all that surprising.

[CarlosAlberto]

I have the french concept album. I have no idea what they are singing...but I know the melodies and it's interesting listening to it in French...I like it...and yes it is way more pop-influenced in the original French version.

[Elke]

I'm a Belgian, currently living in France (45 minutes from Paris)... I went to see the subtitled English version of Les Mis last week and when I left the theatre, I heard a French guy complaining to his girlfriend about how boring and overly dramatic it was. I suspect one of the reasons it was not at all what he expected, is because here in France, a 'musical' is actually called a 'comédie musicale'.

So people who are not very familiar with musical theatre, its history etc. do not expect to see something like Les Mis when they buy a ticket for a 'musical comedy'.

The selection of currently staged musicals here is quite limited too: Mamma Mia, The Full Monty, Sister Act, Robin Des Bois (French original), 1789 Les Amants De La Bastille (French original)... So yes, they're pretty much limited to a happy-go-lucky Broadway show OR a French original production / spectacle with lavish sets, special effects, large ensemble numbers,...

[phantom8019]

It's always interesting to see how these movies are received in their "home" nations. I recall reading that Evita did very well in Argentina, despite the government asking people not to see it.

[CarlosAlberto]

^ That doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. The Argentine government granted the filmmakers permission to film in the country and many Argentine locals were used as extras in the film and it generated revenue for them.

[phantom8019]

I know. I knew all that about it being shot there and Madonna personally asking to film at certain places.
But I recall reading an article when that film came out that someone in the government was urging people not to see it. Who knows. I may be mis-remembering.

[phantom8019]

Maybe some people in the government ended up not liking the movie. Wikipedia (for what it's worth) says this:

Following the success of the film, the government of Argentina released its own film biography of Per�n, entitled Eva Per�n, to correct alleged distortions in the Lloyd Webber account.[8]

[bobs3]

"Bobs3, si tu veux parler français de temps en temps ce serait avec plaisir."


Le plaisir serait tout l'à moi. Je serai à Paris la deux semaine de juin et je travaille à améliorer mon français. Il a été de deux ans puisque ma dernière visite.

[Mister Matt]

I would be surprised if American audiences didn't have a similar response to a French musical based on, say, "Huckleberry Finn."

Or Gone With the Wind, which the French turned into one of their spectacle musicals. I saw the DVD and...OOF! It's...quite...something. Just search "Autant en emporte le vent" on Youtube.

They even have their own French internet, just like in Japan.

I heard the US has their own in English. Can you imagine?!?!

[sabrelady]

The United States speaks English? I thot dey speaks Murican!
BOO YAH!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I think it's pretty xenophobic of France and Japan not not have their internets is American.

[newintown]

"I think it's pretty xenophobic of France and Japan not not have their internets is American."

I'd give that an A if I were an English teacher. (If I was an English teacher?)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

I probably deserve a couple of points knocked off due to my not correcting the "not not."

[newintown]

A-?

What about the unique phrase "not have their internets is American?"

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Yikes. This is why I don't usually take hallucinogens during the day.

[Reginald Tresilian]

You meant "not have their internetses be American," right, Phyl?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Internets [sic] is the only clever liberty I meant to take with that sentence.

[jo]

The original French production was staged at Palais des Sports in Paris and was seen by over 500,000 people over a 100-performance run. The contract expired for the use of the arena, hence the limited run. The original concept album sold around 260,000 copies in its initial release ( it was re-released 10 years later, after the musical became known worldwide).

I was lucky to have gotten a highlights copy of the original album back then ( which companion full cast recording was likely released at around the same time). Valjean was a baritone role, Fantine sang the song (L'Air de la Misere) which used the melody of On My Own. But songs like A La Volonte du Peuple ( Do You Hear the People Sing), Demain (One Day More), J'avais Reve D'Une Autre Vie (I Dreamed a Dream) and other iconic songs from the musical were already there, except Bring Him Home and Empty Chairs at Empty Tables ( which were introduced at the Barbican). I saw the 1991 Mogador production, but that was already based on the Mackintosh/Nunn reimagined production.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_(musical)

[Reginald Tresilian]

I always found it interesting that the final line of "I Dreamed a Dream" shows up as the second in "J'avais reve." That must make it way harder to act the song.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, I believe the French production subsequent to the concept album was seen as a huge success for the time--given that musicals weren't all that popular in France, it outdid expectations. As mentioned, it was staged as a series of Tableux Vivants--apparently a popular form at the time, without much connection between scenes (It was rightfully assumed that the audience knew the basic story). Cam Mac in his recent interview about the origins for The Guardian was wrong, or mis-remembers though when he says that the French version ended at the barricades. It doesn't have the prologue (pre At The End of the Day) and a number of other songs, but it goes through to Valjean's death.

I quite like the French album--partly cuz I love the cheesy synths (even more dated than thte London originals.) Boubil's lyrics are better than Kretzmer's Engish lyrics, but they're also less specific more like French pop/poetry (partly I guess, again, cuz they assumed audiences knew the story).

The current New Yorker has a short piece in their Talk of the Town section interviewing Kretzmer, who, while they say he maintains a friendly relationship with Boubil (he did the English lyrics for him for the Legrand musical Marguerite a few years back) sounds incredibly bitter. Maybe rightly so, as much as I think he's a sub-par lyricist, he points out just how little of his work was a direct translation, and also how so many songs, like Stars, weren't even in French so were all his doing lyric wise. Apparently Cam Mac insisted on giving him an "Adaptation" insstead of co-author credit, which almost made him seek legal action--and a recent BBC docu on the musical didn't even mentionhim.

[SporkGoddess]

The movie of Les Miz does not reflect the Victor Hugo we are taught here, at all. It is 2 hrs 30 minutes of heavy crying scenes. The books of les Miz are a lot more than that.

I'm American but I can completely agree with that. I love the Les Mis musical, but the novel is a masterpiece and the musical will never even approach its brilliance IMO.

[mrcacou]

About the French Original Album, it was a concept cast with all the popular pop singers of that time. That is a part of why it was a success then.

[EricMontreal22]

I'd change that to *some*. Still, it was a bigger success on its own terms than, say, the Whistle Down the Wind concept album or the Aida one which also features "all of the popular singers." (Granted both albums did each have huge singles, at least in the UK, but the sales reflected were more on that specific artists' album than on the concept recording).