In January we finally went to see Les Miserables (2012) in the movie theatre. Our whole family went. This was my kid's first time seeing it, but they'd heard the Broadway soundtrack years prior.
I was a Les Mis freak, having seen the show once while traveling and once on Broadway. I bought three of the audio CDs, London, New York, then the complete musical. Later I bought the VHS video of the anniversary show and the audio CD for that. I have the whole musical memorized, every single word. I used to blast it in the car while commuting to work and college and played it when my kids were young when I got sick of Raffi.
I enjoyed the movie and it seemed more gritty and real since the visuals were so realistic and more in-depth than the fairly simple stage production could have ever showed. However, I felt the movie was a bit more removed emotionally than the stage production. Seeing the live actors and hearing them sing on stage was more real and emotional to me, the sad scenes more gut wrenching and tear producing, and the group scenes were more powerful and bold. Therefore the movie was odd to me, a strange combination of superior visuals with richer sights yet a bit less emotional than the musical. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie, and rate it five stars. I wish there were more fantastic movies and stories like this for Americans young and old to see.
But I left the movie craving a chance to see the musical live again, and hoping that I could share that with my kids, hopefully soon. It's too bad that I didn't realize the show was in production again and was traveling and was right here in Houston in mid-November 2012. I need to get hooked into the theatre scene so I at least know what shows are coming next.
I have never read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and should. I just got the e-book but see it's over 1000 pages so that is daunting given the fact that I'm busy reading other books for homeschooling, and am gardening again and have a knitting project on the needles...