I rented this and, as a lifelong fan of the musical who has grown up with productions and recordings, I tried to keep my expectations in check and my mind open. But, wow... I really found myself struggling to make it all the way through.
The sets and costumes and staging were, of course, spectacular as only film can deliver. And there were some fine performers and interesting acting choices. So, maybe the director decided that the singing should be third priority behind these things? Les Miserables can be done well as a straight-ahead non-musical movie. But the *musical theatre version* cannot be staged well without the music taking centre stage; without it, what's left is really just a thin melodrama. And the fact is that the singing in this production -- at least from some of the key leads -- is on balance quite shockingly bad.
You may have gone in already knowing this about Russell Crowe; I had wondered if the Onion piece lampooning him as "completely disappearing into the role of a man who cannot sing or act" was being over-harsh, but it isn't. I was disagreeably surprised, though, to find it also true of Hugh Jackman, who is supposed to come from a musical background and yet whose awful, almost comically nasal rendition of Valjean set my teeth on edge constantly. Other great, juicy arias of the musical are criminally underserved and under-sung by such otherwise fine talents as Helena Bonham Carter (and whoever that guy is who's failing to play Thenardier) and Amanda Seyfried (who actually has a good voice but seems to have been directed to swallow half the notes).
Granted, it's not all awful. Anne Hathaway swallows half the notes of Fantine's great arias too, for instance, but at least she does it in service of selling the character's death by consumption. Eponine is excellent, and of course, the best-known Valjean of all time appears in a cameo as the Bishop... and serves up a shining moment of the aural richness that the musical is usually known for.
But those few bright spots don't quite rescue what look to me to be fundamentally misguided direction and production decisions. Impressive spectacle though it is, it's not as impressive as it should be as a musical, and I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in the theatre, as I was tempted to do.
The sets and costumes and staging were, of course, spectacular as only film can deliver. And there were some fine performers and interesting acting choices. So, maybe the director decided that the singing should be third priority behind these things? Les Miserables can be done well as a straight-ahead non-musical movie. But the *musical theatre version* cannot be staged well without the music taking centre stage; without it, what's left is really just a thin melodrama. And the fact is that the singing in this production -- at least from some of the key leads -- is on balance quite shockingly bad.
You may have gone in already knowing this about Russell Crowe; I had wondered if the Onion piece lampooning him as "completely disappearing into the role of a man who cannot sing or act" was being over-harsh, but it isn't. I was disagreeably surprised, though, to find it also true of Hugh Jackman, who is supposed to come from a musical background and yet whose awful, almost comically nasal rendition of Valjean set my teeth on edge constantly. Other great, juicy arias of the musical are criminally underserved and under-sung by such otherwise fine talents as Helena Bonham Carter (and whoever that guy is who's failing to play Thenardier) and Amanda Seyfried (who actually has a good voice but seems to have been directed to swallow half the notes).
Granted, it's not all awful. Anne Hathaway swallows half the notes of Fantine's great arias too, for instance, but at least she does it in service of selling the character's death by consumption. Eponine is excellent, and of course, the best-known Valjean of all time appears in a cameo as the Bishop... and serves up a shining moment of the aural richness that the musical is usually known for.
But those few bright spots don't quite rescue what look to me to be fundamentally misguided direction and production decisions. Impressive spectacle though it is, it's not as impressive as it should be as a musical, and I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in the theatre, as I was tempted to do.