"Modern" Les Miserables?
"Modern" Les Miserables?
#1"Modern" Les Miserables?
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:18pm
Just seeing some video from Dallas theater center's production of Les Mis... it appears to be set in either modern day/the future. I know this happens a lot with Shakespeare, where directors decide to put the show in an alternate setting, but I've never seen it with a musical before. Interesting cocept, especially with a show as popular as Les Mis, but not entirely sure how I feel about it. Did anyone get to see it? THoughts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZLptihsc8
bwayboy22
Broadway Star Joined: 5/9/12
#2"MODERN" LES MISERABLES?
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:28pmWhen I first heard your description of this I thought "oh god", but after watching the clip and hearing the director's thoughts I have to say I'm really intrigued.
#2Not for me
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:29pm
My thoughts?
I don't like it. Not with this piece. I understand that Ms. Tommy is using the production she's directing to drive the idea of universal themes in the show, but from that clip it doesn't seem to work. I don't think it works because, though the show does have universal themes that translate beyond France in the 1800s, a major part of the story is the struggles of the people in France during the 19th century.
You can take those themes to different times and settings, but sometimes, it just comes across as weird.
#3Not for me
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:33pmThat's kinda what I'm feeling. I get the appeal, but in application, it just looked uncomfortable, and a little to sci-fi for my tastes. Then again, I've only seen the snippets from the video. Unless I get to see the full show, I don't want to judge too harshly. Either way, I feel like it's an interesting idea.
#4Not for me
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:39pmEvery production of les miserables is kind of the same and I'm happy to see something new. It looks majestic.
#5Not for me
Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:58pm
WARNING: POLITICAL RANT FOLLOWS:
Where are the barricades, or equivalent? The march across the Edmund Pettus bridge? Tienamen Square (sorry about the spelling?) Egypt? The 1968 Democratic convention?
I could see doing a version that takes place in an alternate US history, where Mittens won the 2012 Presidential election and governors and state legislatures are jumping on the bandwagon to deny Obamacare's expanded Medicaid coverage to the poor people in their state; where corporations resist an increase in the minimum wage even though the proposed increase is below what many economists deem to be a living wage; where retailers and restaurants pay so little that they inform their workers about how to apply for the food stamps that the feds and states are chopping; where the Supreme Court shoots down federal attempts to protect unions ... did I say alternate US history? Scratch that: How about in a dystopian present where the haves try to convince the have-nots that they're only trying to keep them from being dependent on government, and where lawmakers who are pledged to uphold the Constitution instead spend their time trying to ruin everything that a non-extremist President tries to do to help ordinary Americans?
If that's what this production is doing, I think it would work. However, I can't imagine such a production in Texas because Texas is not known for, shall we say, thinking like Victor Hugo.
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
#7"Modern" Les Miserables?
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:16amA lot of times, modernizing a period piece comes across as overly precious, but I would LOVE to see this version of it. I really like what the director has to say (even if she refers to the French Revolution... hm).
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#8Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:19am
IceCreamBenjamin, I warned you it was a political rant. 
My point was that the backdrop for Les Mis is the horrible condition of the French poor, where the promise of the French Revolution ended in a return to monarchy and failed Republics. Jean Valjean, a man who makes lemonade out of lemons, fits in any era and location, as does the fanatic Javert, although he'd probably have to be an undercover FBI agent in a modern version of the show. The rest of the characters are equally timeless. The key to moving Les Mis to another era, in my opinion, is that you'd have to find one where the barricades could arise.
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
A Director
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/18/07
#9Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:25am
A Director
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/18/07
#10Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:25am#11Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:28am
I think they might be creating an Era. I thought it was supposed to be in the future during a new French Revolution.
#12Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:34amI saw one production photo where you very clearly see a red banner that says "OCCUPY" on it. So I believe it is supposed to be set in more present day, though maybe not any specific location since the Occupy movement ended up sort of world wide. Makes me think of the setting for the UK JCS arena tour.
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#13Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:57am
I'm not getting any sense that the storyline has been brought into another era, where the same themes apply. Unlike a revival of Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington which was reset to the current era - the Senate was transformed to the modern corporate board room, with the politics transcending eras, and the conflict was relocated to the middle East.
She basically rethought the costumes, from what I can see. Holding up a placard of "OCCUPY" does not necessarily transpose the storyline to a different and modern setting, unless specific issues of poverty and oppression are retold. She seems to be more concerned with how the roles are sung?
Updated On: 7/6/14 at 12:57 AM
Eurotrash
Featured Actor Joined: 8/28/13
#14Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 2:33amWould Cam Mac or RSC have given permission for this do you think?
Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you... he's got his memories. He doesn't love you, he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you?
#15Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 3:41am
It seemed to me that she wasn't really trying to apply the themes to a specific era, but just trying to show that they could happen anywhere by setting it in an abstract nonspecific time.
As I think about it, there really aren't that many spoken or lyrical references specifically to the time and era the show is set, except maybe the lines about Lamarque being dead. The rest could really be applied to any time or situation, especially an abstract made up one, despite the fact they were written about that historical event in particular.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#16Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 4:05amEuro, they're not altering the text. As far as I know it's within the rights granted in a standard contract to stage the show with whatever scenery or costumes the creative team decides upon.
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#17Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 4:55am
Wasn't the student uprising in Les Miserables, known as the June Rebellion, time-specific in French history, as it occurred in the early 19th century?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Rebellion
Perhaps if this production retold the story of the 1968 rebellion/protests which spread widely, maybe there could be a more inspired parallel to what happened in Les Miserables, circa 1832 ( based on the novel by Victor Hugo, the ABC included older citizens and not just the students).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France
The themes of poverty and oppression ( including the suppression of political freedoms) are timeless and have occurred in many eras and many parts of the world. But is it simply enough to put the characters in modern apparel to relate to the relevance of these themes, without somehow altering parts of the lyrics of the musical score (such as the reference to Lamarque or even the penal servitude for stealing a loaf of bread)?
Updated On: 7/6/14 at 04:55 AM
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#18Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 6:48amApples and oranges, but fyi, Claude Lelouche's successful 1995 movie of the novel, with Jean-Paul Belmondo, was set during World War II.
#19Not for me
Posted: 7/6/14 at 7:21am
The recent motion picture, "Coriolanus," directed by Ralph Fiennes, and starring him, Gerard Butler, and Vanessa Redgrave, took place in a modern, fictitious country, that I took to be the former Yugoslavia. However, it is far more common to use modern costumes for Shakespeare.
"Les Mis" wouldn't be hard to do as a modern story in an unnamed country despite the sentence for stealing "bread." The fortuitous coincidence of the term "bread" being used as slang for money could result in a similar sentence under a three strikes law. "Mouthful" could become "handful" unless that would violate the contract. "Lamarque" could stay, although he'd probably be dying of cancer instead of what actually killed him.
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
#20"Modern" Les Miserables?
Posted: 7/6/14 at 8:59amAgreed. I feel like if they had tried to change the specific event/era instead of just moving it to a modern sort of setting, it might have worked better.
#21"Modern" Les Mis
Posted: 7/6/14 at 10:18amI actually saw the production, and I confess I was wary of it, but after a couple minutes where I thought it felt odd, I was really swept away. It doesn't so much "change" the show as draw attention to certain aspects of it. I found myself catching lyrics I never paid attention to, or considering certain relationships in new ways. Maybe it's just that I've seen it so many times and it's always virtually the same production, but seeing it here allowed me to shake off what I knew about the show and actually look at it with new eyes. In the end, I found it incredibly powerful, beautifully sung, and completely, totally fresh.
#22Modernizing
Posted: 7/6/14 at 10:47am
I think this looks like a breath of fresh air - how wonderful to see a production at a regional theater that just doesn't rest on recreating (inferiorly) the bones of the original.
Revolution is of course timeless, and I don't think the point of the director is to remove it from its 19th century roots, but to expand the vision to say this isn't JUST about a historical time period in France. It's about now too.
Very adventurous choice for Dallas Theater Center. Good for them.
StephanCasey
Stand-by Joined: 6/22/14
#23Modernizing
Posted: 7/6/14 at 2:43pmIt looks like a brilliant idea to me. I'd love to see the show
#24Modernizing
Posted: 7/6/14 at 7:44pm
http://absurdisttheatre.tumblr.com/post/90975508099/my-thoughts-on-dallas-theater-centers-les-mis-part-1
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/columnists/nancy-churnin/20140705-let-go-of-les-miz-expectations-and-enjoy-the-ride.ece
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
