Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Luc |
Educate Me.I just got the 10th Anniversary Cast Recording. I know absolutely nothing about this musical AT ALL. Not a thing. But I felt pretty left out, because I think I'm the only person on here that knows nothing about this show.I read the synopsis and I got really confused... if someone could give me a detailed synopsis that a 14 year-old boy with a limited vocabulary can understand, it would be greatly appreciated. I know that many of you know this musical very, very well so I'm hoping that someone can help me here. Thanks in advance. 
EDIT: Quick question. In the cast list for the 10th Anniversary CD, it has the normal cast list, and after that it has the same list of characters with like fifteen actors listed... I'm so confused right now. |
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| pish123c |
I'm with you on this one.
I have the 10th anniversary recording as well-and know very little about the show. *saves this page to favorites* |
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| Quique |
*Yells*
Yoo-hoo, oh...Orestes!!!!! A couple of new pupils here for you!!!! lol. 
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| Audrey II |
Wow, I am the exact same. Have that recording, still don't understand the show. | ||||
| Brackynn |
How detailed do you want? It just so happens that I recently wrote up a Les Mis synopsis for a friend who was confused about the show ... except it's about four pages long in a Microsoft Word document  But she said it helped her, so ... *shrug*
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| Orestes Fasting |
sdlj;jf Do I really have that much of a reputation?
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| Quique |
Hehe!
Yes! XD You just explain things so much more eloquently than any of us. Bright girl.
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| Gargamel |
No Orestes! You have the reputation of knowing by heart the color of the necklace of the third lady in the background in "Look down", or to be able to say how many chairs are at the Thenardier's!
For relatively complete view of the show, you should try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_%28musical%29 I think it is quite enough to know everything that has to be known about the show. Hope this will help you guys! |
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| Orestes Fasting |
I don't know anything by heart, I just collect, er, resources.
And I don't think any of the beggars wear necklaces, but I have the sneaking suspicion that the sack one of the beggar women is carrying around is actually full of the cast's dirty socks. |
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| Eponine93 |
I'm not sure about the cast list, since I don't own the TAC cast recording (I had almost all of the actors on other recordings, so I bought all of Ruthie and Lea's songs off Itunes) but the Tenth Anniversary Concert was this big concert in London in 1995 that featured a "dream-cast" of the best actors to portray the main roles and many other actors who also played the leads serving as the ensemble. For example, Colm Wilkinson as Valjean was joined with 17 other Valjeans from the worldwide productions.
Luc, if you really want a simple synopsis, I can send you the Forbidden Broadway audio for the spoof More Miserables, which features a very... erm, interesting synopsis. Check out your local library. They probably have a VHS of the concert (it was released on VHS not long after). While the concert isn't fully staged, there are a few parts that are staged as well as captions explaining the plot and they should give you a more thorough idea of the story than just listening to the recording. I'm fairly certain your local library (if not, then definitely your county library) will have the video. I'd write a summary but it will just confuse you more... |
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| Eponine93 |
Some good Youtube links... Most of the TAC is on Youtube, but I'm sure you can find the links yourself. These are a bit tricky to find if you don't know what you're looking for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq6_NWyvwD4 - One Day More, which is possibly the best Act 1 finale of all time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssAkTctbaaA - Lea Salonga owns "I Dreamed A Dream" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-3sONzR-c0 - Do YOU hear the people sing? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MR3x3RN8YM - A Little Fall of Rain (Warning: Celia Keenan Bolger, may be distressing to Eppie-boppers) http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=starlightkitty33&p=r - This user has quite a few boots... |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Okay, here's the deal on Les Mis: it's sung through. No expository dialogue was cut in the making of this cast recording. With the 10th anniversary recording especially, you can get a sense of how the plot is unfolding just by listening to the CD, even if a few smaller scenes have been cut. So the best way to get to know the plot of Les Mis is to just listen to the recording a few times, and if you don't get something, listen again. If you still don't get it--and there are a few things the CD won't clue you in on--read the Wikipedia summary that Gargamel linked to. I think it should tie up most of the loose ends. If you've still got questions, that's what we're here for. 
In brief: Jean Valjean is a redeemed ex-convict being hunted by Inspector Javert, a rather black-and-white type who doesn't believe criminals can be redeemed. Other dramatis personae include Fantine, an unwed mother who loses her job over her illegitimate child and is eventually reduced to prostitution; Cosette, aforementioned illegitimate child, confided into the care of a pair of innkeepers who beat her and use her as a slave; the Th�nardiers, the innkeepers, both scoundrels; Marius, a young student who ends up falling in love with Cosette after she grows up; Eponine, the Th�nardiers' daughter, who has an unrequited crush on Marius; Gavroche, a street urchin; Enjolras, a revolutionary leader; and assorted whores, beggars, townsfolk, students, etc. Setting is in assorted towns of post-revolutionary France after it had fallen back into another faceless regime. (You don't need to know a whit of French history, I promise.) Starting with the song "Look Down," the end of Act I and the beginning of Act II take place in Paris after a ten-year time jump. Any summary you read is going to make the plot sound over-complicated and/or utterly dreary, so I recommend just listening to it. |
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| Eponine93 |
^ How do you do that so simply?
I've given up on explaining the story of Les Mis to people because it just confuses them. As they say in the Forbidden Broadway spoof, I used to read the libretto in bed while listening to the music until I finally figured the story out. That's what I love about getting a new cast recording... I always go up to my room and listen while reading the libretto in bed. It's so comfy. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
By only introducing the characters, not attempting to explain what actually happens to them.
And as for what happens to them, well, one commits suicide, two die of unspecified diseases, four survive, and a couple dozen more get shot. Fun times. We need a rhyme, like the one to remember the eventual fates of Henry VIII's wives. |
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| musical4eva |
Fantine doesn't die of an unspecified disease she dies of "consumption." | ||||
| Orestes Fasting |
The musical doesn't specify. I don't think Hugo does, either, beyond it being a malady of the chest with symptoms the reader would probably interpret as those of consumption. | ||||
| Luc |
Can anyone provide a link to the complete libretto, possibly? | ||||
| Orestes Fasting |
http://www.geocities.com/broadwaylibretto/lesmizact1.html | ||||
| The Pirate King |
The story really isn't so hard to understand at all. The book, I could understand. But the musical? I don't see the confusion. | ||||
| pish123c |
Well you have to admit-There are quite a few of characters one has to keep straight, all of the interactions between the characters, etc. Not to mention it takes place in a time period your average bear dosen't know much about. |
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| Eponine93 |
Actually, the time period has very little to do with it.
All you need to do is read the synopsis a few times and keep it handy while you're listening to the music. That's the best way to familiarize yourself with the musical at the basic level. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
I see it as the other way round, actually. In the book everything is explained in loving detail, often more detail than the audience cares about. The musical doesn't have as much time for exposition and it's easier for the audience to get lost. All the same, though, the plot may have a lot of twists and turns, but it's all out there in the open. The events, relationships, and motivations, though complicated, are presented more-or-less straightforwardly.
Hell, it takes place in a time period your average French history major doesn't know much about. And because the time period isn't well known, the show was written so that the audience doesn't need to know much about it. If you walk into the theater knowing it's not set during the original French Revolution, you're two steps ahead of the rest of the audience. Some of us do entertain ourselves by debating whether the cholera outbreak of 1832 was a bigger contributing factor to the June insurrections than Louis-Philippe's legal persecution of republican secret societies--but that's because we're weird. It doesn't have much bearing on anyone's enjoyment of the show. |
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| LesMisForever |
Don't you just love that girl?
I never manage to explain the plot in less that 15 minutes  . The problem as OF said, once you start with the details, you just lose the plot .
And because many of us have read the book, they just can't resist to point out that in the book is not like that. So, i add my voice to those who said, read the Wikepedia link, and listen to the CD while reading the Lyrics. Then do that again. Once you do that, you will have more specific questions, and then we will be more than happy to give you answers
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| EponineMNFF |
Fifteen minutes? You got me beat. Last time I tried to explain it, it took forty-five minutes... But maybe I included a bit too much detail (including my favorite lyrics from the show and favorite lines from the book... )
I agree that the musical is harder to follow if you don't already know the story. Since we all know the story inside and out, we don't have to spend the show trying to follow along, but for the average audience member (who never figures out that this isn't the French Revolution), most of the show is spent trying to follow the plot. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Yeah, I had to do a presentation on LM in French class yesterday, and fifteen minutes was about enough time for me to babble a bit about Jean Valjean's morality crises and Hugo's political commentary before I got heckled into singing 'Mon Histoire.'
[/off-topic] |
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| eponine5 |
Four survived One suicide Two left to rot The rest were shot I thought of this a while ago and I might have posted this before. What can I say? I was bored while waiting in the queue for Notre Dame Cathedral. |