Comments on: In case you need to be impressed today, here is the cast of Les Misérables performing all their musical numbers live

By: Bionicgeek

Bionicgeek — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:31:00 +0000

This is much more impressive for me as a severely hearing impaired individual since, as much as I love to sing (and I do it well) I can’t make out parts of the singing/dialogue in live performances due to my cochlear implant. The fact that they are doing the audio this way with something that is subtitled is going to be sublime for me.

By: Brian Bara

Brian Bara — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 20:13:00 +0000

Hardly “groundbreaking.” Musicals were made like this into the 1950′s and in 1975 Peter Bogdanovich did the same thing with “At Long Last Love.” Yes, it’s unusual, but there’s nothing new or groundbreaking about it.

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 15:15:00 +0000

I got to see Marni Nixon, and hear her sing, at a classic film festival here in Athens a few years ago. She still had a beautiful voice.

By: N Poppleton

N Poppleton — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 14:57:00 +0000

And now the technique has an opportunity to be used in a good movie.

By: euansmith

euansmith — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Wow, I’m really impressed; Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe can do really good Australian accents.

By: benenglish

benenglish — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 08:17:00 +0000

Or that Marni Nixon was going to live forever.

By: aikimoe

aikimoe — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:55:00 +0000

And Duke Ellington’s band was doing it in ’38!

http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=80224876&ac=now

(“rapping” starts about halfway through)

By: invictus

invictus — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:09:00 +0000

I may be slightly biased since the Les Mis performance I saw was Colm Wilkinson’s last show, but I didn’t feel it detracted from the book. If it helps, think of the two as separate works of art that happen to share a name.

By: invictus

invictus — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:05:00 +0000

YES! The elephant lives again!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:12:00 +0000

I'm not sure which I find weirder, Angela Lansbury (who would go on to win three singing Tony awards) being dubbed in The Harvey Girls or Julie Andrews being dumped for (non-singer) Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Or Rosalind Russell doing Gypsy instead of Ethel Merman (for whom it was written). It would almost make you think that Hollywood doesn't think that music is an important part of a musical.

By: Noddy Ninetythree

Noddy Ninetythree — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 03:32:00 +0000

i feel the exact same.
i will see this.

making Hugo’s novel into a musical seemed insulting to me. A Musical… but I can never seem to remember that A Musical is nothing but an Opera in one’s own language.

i will see this.

By: Samuel Frank

Samuel Frank — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:34:00 +0000

Wide-eyed and trembling, Hollywood stumbles towards a day in which everyone in the movie musical can *actually sing.*

By: benenglish

benenglish — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Rex Harrison wasn’t a singer and didn’t really sing his musical numbers in My Fair Lady. In interviews, he called it “speaking on pitch.”

In other words, Rex Harrison was a rapper. And a damn good one, if you ask me.

We all know rap “fans” who think the Sugarhill Gang was where everything started. Except for the few who are willing to stretch the definitions of “rap predecessor” back to mid-1960s Muhammed Ali poems, even the best informed historians generally don’t trace rap further back than 1970 and The Last Poets.

I like to piss ‘em all off by pointing out that Blondie charted first with a rap song and that an old white guy named Rex was rappin’ up a storm on the big screen in 1964.

Then again, they usually don’t get pissed off. They usually just look at me like I’m crazy… :-)

By: WonBall

WonBall — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:12:00 +0000

A pity that the elephant is cut from the musical but one can only include so many symbols in a staged work.

By: WonBall

WonBall — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 02:11:00 +0000

The musical is outstanding. It’s a different experience than the book, so much less ambiguous — as you would expect in a 3 hour, versus a thirty hour, work of art.

By: Linley Lee

Linley Lee — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:21:00 +0000

I always resisted seeing the musical because I loved the book so much. Everyone I talked to who said they love Les Misérables had only ever seen the musical and not read the book. But I will see this.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:48:00 +0000

The flipside of needing to get it right in a live show is that if you don’t, it’s usually not recorded for posterity. (If you blow it on opening night, you’ll get a bad review, but that’s it.) Also, in real musicals you don’t need to act in close-ups.

By: Phil Hull

Phil Hull — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Honestly, I’m not really a fan of hers because she seems a little pretentious about acting, but she does have some chops and it looks like they’re on full display in this film.

By: Phil Hull

Phil Hull — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Lea Salonga’s version from the 25th Anniversary Concert in London is pretty great, but still a powerhouse vocal that doesn’t really match the despair of the lyrics.

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:15:00 +0000

I think this is exactly the kind of thing she is good at – she’s always seemed more of a “stagy” actor anyway. And she’s a massive luvvie as well- she talks about “the craft” and “the job” in interviews.

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:13:00 +0000

actors in musicals and operas do this every day

Yes, they do, and more power to them. However, actors in filmed musicals do not (did you watch the video?). They typically record their songs alone in a booth months before the movie is actually filmed. This means that months before they meet their castmates or work their parts with the director they have already set in stone their characterisation during the song. That’s it, no changes, even if the director would like it done a different way or if the actor would like to experiment – can’t do it, they must lip sync to the pre-recorded material.

Doing it this way is groundbreaking for filmed musicals.

By: enterthestory

enterthestory — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Agreed. I have only eve heard one really good version of I Dreamed a Dream, and could never find it again (every version I can find sounds so fake). I suspect I may finally have me a definitive version.

By: enterthestory

enterthestory — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:43:00 +0000

They used the elephant? Superb! I take it you man the one Gavroche hides in, the one made for Napoleon?

By: John Eikenberry

John Eikenberry — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:43:00 +0000

I so hope that they eventually release it with the piano accompaniment instead of the orchestral version. Watching the preview, the scenes with the simple piano track were much more emotionally charged than the orchestral versions which felt over-produced.

By: Phil Hull

Phil Hull — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:23:00 +0000

That clip of Anne Hathaway singing “I Dreamed A Dream” just guts me every time. While there have been dozens of amazing versions of such a classic, I’ve never seen a performance where the actor portrays the absolute brokenness and hopelessness that Fantine is feeling. I agree that everyone else in the Supporting Actress category should start practicing their fake smiles now because Anne Hathaway has got that locked down.

By: regondi

regondi — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Of course they deserve respect, but the amount of work it takes to get a live performance spot on without the chance for repeated takes deserves just as much respect, in my opinion. In other words, I don’s see any reason to be any more awed by live recording in a film environment than in a live stage performance. I suppose “I don’t see what is so especially amazing…” is more precise.

By: Ken Warthen

Ken Warthen — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:14:00 +0000

Virtually all musicals filmed between 1928 and 1932 or so were recorded live on the set, so it isn’t exactly “something that’s never been done before”. Peter Bogdanovich tried it again with At Long Last Love in 1975 (to disastrous results) and while every other actor in the film of My Fair Lady is dubbed/pre-recorded, Rex Harrison was not. He couldn’t be, as he was not able to sync to his own pre-recorded performance; each take was different enough that director Cukor had to film Harrison actually performing live to an orchestral track.

But a film performance is a vastly different animal that a stage performance, so it will be interesting to see the result of this particular hybrid.

By: blue balaclava

blue balaclava — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:10:00 +0000

The difference is respect — respect, precisely, for the hard work it takes to inhabit a film musical performance without syncing, as well as the extra resources needed to get the right takes, space out actors’ work to preserve their voices (Only Crowe and Jackman, I think, have done the 8-shows-a-week bit)… it’s not shabby, and it’s a leadpipe cinch to be featured on the Oscar telecast.

By: regondi

regondi — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:07:00 +0000

I fail to see what is so amazing about this, actors in musicals and operas do this every day.

By: avraamov

avraamov — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:06:00 +0000

i worked on this for a few weeks – helped sculpt that shipwreck and bizarrely, a huge elephant. the main street set was built in pinewood’s new sound stage, and i have to say it looked fucking epic. at the time i thought i’d avoid this film like the plague, but there’s something about the way they’ve approached the acting and singing that i rather respect, despite my total dislike of musicals.

good lord. i might even watch this.