Sexy Valjean! At least! We see each other plain!

[prodigy]

metonymy  10:30 pm
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=78687

prodigy  10:41 pm
Oh man, did not see your IM!

metonymy  10:41 pm
It's okay!

prodigy  10:42 pm
actor Hugh Jackman will be headlining it, playing Jean Valjean.
actor Hugh Jackman will be headlining it, playing Jean Valjean.
actor Hugh Jackman will be headlining it, playing Jean Valjean.
actor Hugh Jackman will be headlining it, playing Jean Valjean.

metonymy  10:43 pm
I HAD TO SHARE

prodigy  10:43 pm
actor Hugh Jackman will be headlining it, playing Jean Valjean.

metonymy  10:43 pm
DID I BREAK YOU?
OH SHIT
D:

prodigy  10:43 pm
WHO AM I???
WHO AM IIIIIIIIII???????????
I'M SEXY JEAN VALJEANNNNNNNNNNNN

So. Yes. There was that. There was also rumor talk of Paul Bettany for Javert here, and it says a lot for me that my first reaction was not "wat" but was "wait, does he have the right vocal range?" and then "can he sing?" Not that it stopped them with Gerard Butler

In other news, for the David Gemmel Legend Award auction Scott Lynch is auctioning off a cameo in one of his books. It starts at $20, which tempts me in terms of cheeky excuses to introduce yourself to famous people. I prefer excuses that don't cost indeterminate amounts of money, and anyway, there's something inherently sad about having to pay to get the attention of someone whose writing you admire. Okay, I lie, my main reservation is wondering whether or not I would get to write my own physical description, or if I am just sending a photo here. I am concerned about the photo possibility. I am concerned that the keen eye of Scott Lynch, given the opportunity to describe me, may pen a tertiary character with adjectives which are not "handsome" and "roguish" but "twinky" and "creepy-looking" and "bitch-faced." I can't be the only one who thinks about these things.

Comments

[aurimae]

Wait, so the article didn't say that Colm Wilkinson would be starring in yet another Broadway revival of Les Mis and that Philip Quast would be joining as Javert? Oh, that's right, that's only in my head.

I guess this is better than hearing Johnny Depp will be leading in the The Thin Man remake (I'm still shuddering from that), and at least the role of Valjean will be played by a trained and experienced singer. I'm side eye-ing the choice of Bettany as Javert, but like you said, not a huge obstacle (in terms of singing).

[prodigy]

I'm glad you agree that Colm/Philip is the one true Valjean/Javert cast. 10th Anniversary has certainly biased me, but as talented of a singer as Alfie Boe is, he doesn't sound like a Valjean to me -- would make a good Archie from The Secret Garden, though. But I miss my old dreamcast! They've never performed together all in all, except in my head, but they sound fantastic there.

As long as they can sing and sing the right range, I don't so much care what they look like, and I guess it helps to have a person play Jean Valjean who at least appears like he could be burly and uncannily strong. I'm more worried about what they may or may not cut from the film version to keep it from being sung-through.

[aurimae]

My dream cast would more or less be a mash-up of the TAC cast and the OBC. At least with head canon, you don't have to worry about silly things like acoustics. *g*

(There's a musical based on The Secret Garden??? asjdlfjalsdf *wikis*)

In the end, I definitely agree. My base requirement being they don't butcher the songs ... with the voices. Even with casting mishaps and editing horrors, some terrific productions of the songs would make me pretty happy. To prevent it from being an opera (and ignore the fine standard Jesus Christ Superstar has given us), I'm guessing they'll de-song/cut the chorus/social commentary songs and keep the biggies e.g. "Do You Hear The People Sing" and "One Day More." iirc, that's basically what happened with Sweeney Todd: they cut out the ballad.

[prodigy]

Watch it, you're going to cause me to list out my dream cast any minute, including things like my feeling like Anthony Warlow is more classically Enjolras but Ramin Karimloo lent more personality to the role, and being picky about Grantaires. :D I used to own a lot of the cast recordings, by hook or by filesharing-crook; it is my favorite musical sentimentally speaking, and one of the very first I got passionately into, so I can discuss it for ages. Serious ages. Enough ages for Morgoth to rise and fall and the Elves to join and quit Middle-Earth.

There is! It's excellent, better than the source material in my opinion, and also the most brilliant thing Mandy Patinkin has ever done. And Mandy Patinkin's done a lot of things.

The problem is, so many of the choral songs are iconic: at least things like At the End of the Day (though I wouldn't mind if they cut, say, Turning), and the overture and overture chord certainly is (dun DUNNNNN!!!!!!!!!). They've got to leave in DYHTPS, One Day More, Master of the House, On My Own (and A Little Fall of Rain, one hopes?), I Dreamed A Dream, Bring Him Home... but if they cut a lot of 'non-integral' songs they're going to cut a lot of Valjean and Javert's songs, which seems counterproductive. And with so many plot points, I almost feel like trying to change songs to dialogue would in fact make the sequences even longer.

[relia]

I guess they could swap out "Drink With Me" for a scene with Enjolras and Grantaire doing it on the barricades? I would accept that swap (but nothing less).

[themis]

I can't be the only one who thinks about these things.

You're not. I am sure that if I were to send in a photo, instead of "chic," "elegant gamine," or any positive variation on, like, "feline" the result would be something like "round-faced little bitch, pallid as a drowned sailor."

Which is too bad, because if IIRC I am very much Jean's type.

[prodigy]

You're a scrawny, dark, nondescript young man with an abundance of charm and a surfeit of bad ideas? I had no clue!

[themis]

Well, I am a short, bitchy, and well-read young woman. Same difference?

[prodigy]

And here I was thinking I'd gone all this time unknowing with a friend who bore a striking resemblance to Locke Lamora. If it's any consolation, I may not be pallid as a drowned sailor but I am pretty sure I have the "sunken eyes of a drunk thrice my age" and "a pouting mouth much too plump to go to sea or prison."