I started learning the French language in 2nd grade. When I got to high school, every year we would watch a film version of Les Mis, made in France, and totally in French. It helped with our language skills, it introduced us to classic French literature, and it semi-introduced us to the French Revolution. Being the reader that I am, when I was 20 I read the unabridged version of the book. And while it seemed to take me forever, it was one of the bet things that I could have done as it made me appreciated the story on a deeper level.
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Which brings me to my problem with the musical. There are many powerful songs, written for powerful voices, but there is no depth to the story that they are telling. They've cut out so much of the story that it has gone from classic tome to novella. The overlapping connections of the characters, especially Javert and Jean Val Jean are lacking in background. Their feud fuels the entire story, but that is not as prominent in the stage show as it should be.
My husband said afterwards that if he didn't know the background of the story he would have been confused by the play of events on stage. And my mother-in-law was confused; she spent all of intermission asking us to explain characters and other things. I would bet that at least 60% of the people in the theater did not even realize that the barricade uprising was connected to the French Revolution.
I love my musicals, and I love French literature, so to see them come together so poorly is frustrating. I did see the film version of the musical when it came out and I walked away from that feeling disappointed as well, but was hoping that it was just Hollywood that let me down then. I had high hopes that since this was the live stage version it would be better, but sadly that was not the case.
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