Theatre Thursdays: Les Miserables – THE MOVIE!!1

I have a confession to make, everyone: I love the musical Les Miserables more than I have loved any stage show ever, bar none.  It was the first musical that made me cry; I spent my final years of grade school and the beginning of high school independently studying the history of revolutionary and Napoleonic France because of my love of it; I have read the unabridged original novel by Victor Hugo (at a whopping 1463 pages) far more times than is normal or possibly healthy. I actually cried with joy onstage when I had the opportunity to perform in a student production.

So when I heard they were finally making a movie adaptation of this driving force in my life, I had ALL THE FEELINGS. Musical to movie adaptations are a mixed bag to be sure, usually only appealing to people who were fans of the musical to begin with, and often starring actors chosen for their fame rather than for their ability to sing. I’M LOOKING AT YOU, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA MOVIE. And when you get the original cast instead, they’ve usually aged a decade or so and a suspension of disbelief is required when you see them playing twenty-somethings. I’M LOOKING AT YOU, RENT MOVIE.

So here’s the cast list so far:

And can I say? I’m actually pretty confident about it.  The only person who makes me worried at this point is Russell Crowe, because I simply don’t know if he has the vocal chops (or the muttonchops, har har) to carry the really awesome and important role of Javert.  I know that Jackman will be amazing as Valjean, though; Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter will be tremendous as the skeevy Thenardiers.  And, when I looked up that cast list just now my little Mizzie heart just leapt in my chest with happiness, because the original cast’s Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, is playing the Bishop of Digne.

So this isn’t coming out for a while and the cast has only very recently become more than a thing of speculation. And I haven’t seen any set shots or trailers yet that give me a feel for how those things will or will not emulate the musical.  But I’m hoping that it’s all-star cast will both do justice to the score AND bring the pure wonderfulness of Les Miserables to a wider movie-going audience. My fingers are crossed, and the stars in their multitudes have been wished upon.

Here, have a ludicrously high-res and ludicrously AWESOME movie poster for the road.