comforter, philosopher, lifelong sh*t

[ironymaiden]

blame inspired by sinthrex playing 'em in the car:

i've been comparing four English-language recordings of Les Misérables this week. sinthrex has the London cast; apparently i spent my teens listening to the Broadway cast. (i had a couple cassettes that were homemade copies, never knew the exact source recording.)

the London version is mellower, with a sparse orchestration and a generally more lyrical interpretation of the music. it's the same Valjean on both albums, but some of the other performances and arrangements are really different, especially the end of Stars. the London Stars is introspective, the Broadway Stars is shaking a fist at heaven.

Les Mis was my first Broadway show. i had never seen a turntable, a lighting template, or anything that wasn't a unit set. mind blown. (in hindsight, that and the Nicholas Hynter Carousel were a huge influence on my theatre aesthetic.) mom's boss made me copies of the cast album before i went on the trip. i played those cassettes until they wore out. in a fit of adolescent snobbery, i replaced them with CDs of the Paris cast...which means that the discs rapidly fell into disuse as my French skills atrophied :/

the show is still impressive, and i'm surprised at how much of it i have memorized even though i haven't listened in a good ten years (except for working on a selection for SLGC). it didn't get played to death like Phantom of the Opera, where every band and chorus everywhere did numbers from it in every season for years on end. i'm almost tempted to check out The Pirate Queen. almost.

Comments

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I love Les Mis, and always considered it a guilty pleasure, like for some reason I wasn't supposed to. I'm not sure why, maybe because it has this huge rep attached to it. I've never heard the London cast, and didn't really think there could be two different versions, but of course there could be plenty of them. Silly me.

One of Les Mis chief values for me is that my snotty, torn t-shirt, adolescent spawn fell head over heels in love with it. We took him to see a production in Portland, and he swooned. The right message, music, and big show appeal all hit him at the right time like a cannonball. It was perfect. I love it more than a little just for that.

[ironymaiden]

i think it's a guilty pleasure because it definitely appeals to our inner adolescent, with getting caught stealing and the love triangle and being all idealistic about fairness.