The Glums

When the musical stage version of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables had its English-language premiere in 1985, its original French title was retained. This was carrying on a tradition of  English-language translations and adaptations of the novel, including Hollywood film versions from 1935 and 1952. The title of Hugo's novel translates roughly as "The Wretched" or "The Poor Ones" or even "The Victims" but in general, the English-speaking world always referred to the property by its original French title. Though after the musical adaptation, the property would often be referred to as the abbreviated "Les Miz."

The original novel is split into five volumes in 365 chapters and over 1,900 pages in the original French. Countless film and television adaptations have appeared over the years, most of which significantly abridge the story in order to work it into a two or three hour playing time, often jettisoning entire characters and subplots. A 1934 French film, clocking in at over 280 minutes, and a 2000 French television version which was originally broadcast in four 100-minute installments, are two of the most complete filmic adaptations of the work.

What would become its best-known adaptation, the musical stage version, had its genesis in the late 1970s. According to Edward Behr's The Complete Book of Les Misérables, Alain Boublil, who would ultimately create the original French lyrics/libretto of the musical Les Miz, initially thought of adapting the property after seeing a London revival of Oliver!, the musical adaptation of the Dickens classic Oliver Twist. The two novels, written within twenty-five years of each other, have many similarities, with the character of the Artful Dodger instantly suggesting Hugo's Gavorche to Boublil. (Coincidentally, it was Cameron Mackintosh's 1977 production of Oliver!, one of the fledgling producer's first commercial successes, which sparked Boublil's interest in a musical Les Misérables.)

Boublil, who had been a publisher and producer of music beginning in the late 1960s, had previously teamed with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and a handful of other writers, on a "rock opera" based on the French Revolution. La Revolution Francaise was a success in France as a double-LP concept album in 1973, and had subsequently received a successful staging in Paris. Boublil would later say, "It was a very naive work, but a good draft for Les Miserables."

La Revolution Francaise was the result of Boublil's enthusiastic reaction to the Broadway staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, and following the precedent set by that musical, he and partner Schönberg chose to premiere their rock opera works as concept records, allowing them to focus on the writing and the music prior to dealing with a full staging.

The initial creation of Les Misérables as a musical piece took approximately two years, and involved the additional lyric work of poet Jean-Marc Natel and the contributions of orchestrator John Cameron. The record was recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley and was released in 1980. The first staging occurred later that year in Paris at the Palais des Sports, helmed by Robert Hossein.

The 1980 Palais de Sports production

Interest in taking the piece beyond its initial life in Paris did not come immediately. However, in 1983, producer Cameron Macintosh became interested in the material after hearing the album. At the time, Mackintosh was well on his way to becoming one of the theatre's most successful producers, largely due to his collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Cats, a project which had begun as a risky venture and gone on to become a global phenomenon. For Cats, Mackintosh and Lloyd Webber had engaged Trevor Nunn, then the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to helm the production. Nunn was again approached by Mackintosh to direct the eventual premiere of the English-language Les Misérables. Mackintosh had already engaged Boublil and Schönberg to work on the adaptation.

The original company of Nicholas Nickleby

With Nunn's involvement, the project became a joint production of Mackintosh and the RSC. Nunn also requested the services of co-director John Caird who had been Nunn's co-director on their 1980 eight-hour stage adaptation of the Dickens novel, Nicholas Nickleby. The production had been a notable success for the RSC and was revived for several seasons, filmed for television, and presented in New York and Los Angeles.

Caird, Nunn, Mackintosh

Nunn believed that Les Misérables would need substantial revision from the original French production, and would need to include much more of the original novel's plot. Seeing the task of bringing the Hugo novel to the stage as similar to the Nicholas Nickleby project, Nunn believed Caird should again be involved. Mackintosh had also hired English poet and critic James Fenton to work on the English libretto. Fenton worked on the project for eighteen months but was ultimately let go, with it being felt that he was not able to work fast enough. With five months left prior to going into production for the premiere at the RSC's Barbican theatre, journalist and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer was engaged to create an entirely new libretto (though Fenton would retain an "Additional material by" credit).

The production which finally premiered at the Barbican on October 8th, 1985 was over three hours in length -- more than an hour longer than the original French production. Initial reviews were mostly negative with many critics accusing the musical of trivialising Hugo. In The Sunday Telegraph, Francis King wrote that "it stands in the same relation to the original as a singing telegram to an epic." Jack Tinker in The Daily Mail famously dubbed the production "The Glums."

In addition to the poor reviews in London, the production was mostly shut out of the year's Olivier Awards, losing the Best Musical prize to that year's Me and My Gal. The evening's only award went to Patti LuPone, who played Fantine, and the award was given both for her performance in Les Miz and her work in The Cradle Will Rock earlier in the season. The production's Thénardier and Jean Valjean, Alun Armstrong and Colm Wilkinson, both nominated for Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actor in a Musical, lost to Me and My Gal's Robert Lindsay.

Nevertheless, a few critics had found much to admire in the work, and word of mouth for the production was strong. The entire three-month engagement at the Barbican had sold-out and Mackintosh transferred the production to the Palace on the West End, where it is still playing today, over twenty-seven years later.

The American premiere of the musical, first seen in a try-out at Washington's Kennedy Center, opened on Broadway already a hit. Reviews were stronger on Broadway than they had been in London, with an especially positive notice from Frank Rich in the New York Times. The production would go on to win eight Tony Awards, and in a reversal of the Oliviers, "The Glums" beat out the Broadway transfer of Me and My Girl for Best Musical, Best Director (shared by Nunn and Caird), and Featured Actress (this time for one of the two London hold-overs, Frances Ruffelle as Eponine). Robert Lindsay did triumph again, however, winning the Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony over Wilkinson's reprised Valjean and Broadway's Javert, Terrence Mann. The Broadway production would run for sixteen years, and played an additional two years when it returned for a new Broadway engagement in 2006.

Seen in countries all over the world, translated into more than two dozen languages, and presented in two concert stagings on television for both the tenth and twenty-fifth anniversaries, the musical Les Miz has become one of the most well-known and globally recognized musicals of the late twentieth-century.

 

In 1988, it was announced that the property would be made into a motion picture, under the direction of Alan Parker (who would later go on to direct the film version of another British import "rock opera" -- Lloyd Webber's Evita). The project would be produced by TriStar Pictures. According to recent interviews with Mackintosh, the Parker production was ultimately scuttled because of Mackintosh's stipulation that the film could not open until 1992, with production not likely to begin before 1991, and by then Parker had moved on. Ultimately the movie rights reverted back to Mackintosh who held on to them until approximately the time of the show's twenty-fifth anniversary, at which time he announced that the movie would be made at Working Title and would be helped by recent Oscar-winner Tom Hooper.

Casting took place in 2011 and the film went into production in March 2012, opening on December 5th, 2012 in the UK, with a Christmas Day opening planned for the US.

Prior to beginning production, it was announced in December of 2011 that Hooper intended to take the unusual step of having his actors sing the score of the musical live on the set, in contrast to the majority of movie musicals which, since at least the late 1930s, have generally employed pre-recordings of the songs which are then matched up to a lip-synced on-set performance (or in some cases, vocals have been post-looped). In early interviews discussing this choice, Hooper mentioned the impact that live performance can have on an audience in a theatre and how he wished to recreate that feeling for the movie audience. In more recent publicity materials, discussion of the live singing has focused more on the acting freedom that this choice has allowed the actors.

Initial reviews have been mixed, with some critics voicing some of the same concerns about the material that early London critics mentioned, while others focused on their reaction to some of the filmic techniques. RottenTomatoes currently shows 50% Fresh from the Top Critics, though many major outlets are yet to review the movie, with its American debut still days away.

The film has been nominated for four Golden Globe awards, and rumors that Anne Hathaway is a serious Oscar-contender for her portrayal of Fantine are rampant.

While difficult to predict whether or not the movie will repeat the stage show's success, it seems likely to appeal to fans of the show, and make a splash in early weeks of its release.