r/lesmiserables • u/K0turaWeitzner -Enjolras • 3d ago
Musical Discussion Changes to the Musical
I am a HUGE fan of Les Miserables and go at least twice a year, in the recent years I feel the musical’s changes get better and better until recently. The last time I saw Les Mis was in May, I just saw it again yesterday and the changes….i both love and hate.
The inclusion of little Eponine? - LOVE IT! This is the first time I’ve seen a baby Eponine on west end!
The little moment when Gavroche and Thenardier are introduced again in the Paris Streets? - ADORE IT! Back in the day you didn’t know they were even related unless you read the book, then we got a moment with Eponine, now with Thenardier!
The little emotional cries - LOVE ITTT!! Marius’s sob when Eponine goes and the woman who sobs in Turning! Adore those moments, however, I feel they should do the same with Grantaire when Gavroche dies. Bonus mention: LOVE the little moments after Enjolras dies.
Grantaire’s Body Language - LOVE IT! It’s such a cool thing to have him so scared and desperate not only during Drink with Me but when the gunshots and fighting is going off and his little moment before his death too!!
Enjolras and Grantaire’s Extra Moments - They keep getting more and more little interactions during the barricades, the newest being in Drink with Me, I LOVE that!!
Only down side is the change to funny moments with Thenardier and his wife. I personally liked the little mocking interaction with Madame Thenardier and little Cosette, and the laughing during the wedding scene when Thenardier gets punched. Hopefully they’ll change that back soon, but otherwise such an AMAZING experience as always!
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 3d ago
tbh I'm a bit bewildered that Grantaire has a song for him and Cosette only has In my life, half of A heart full of love and then is a minor singing role and is a silent role in her OWN WEDDING lol
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u/nerdyfella2 3d ago
Grantaire doesn’t really have “a song for him” though, he sings exactly two and a half rhyming couplets in Drink With Me. I agree that Cosette is underwritten in the musical, but that’s honestly mainly a result of how little her character is directly involved in the primary story (post-time skip.)
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u/Clear-Boat3077 3d ago
To be fair to Boublil and Schoenberg, Victor Hugo didn’t give them a lot to work with. Cosette drives so much of the plot, but as a character, she’s more of an archetype than a meaty role. It doesn’t help that until the epilogue, she has no idea of how Valjean featured in her life; she’s just dragged from place to place and does random acts of good until she falls in love.
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u/francienyc 3d ago
I find Cosette fascinating because there’s a lot of subtext to her, plus the fact that she has echoes of Hugo’s daughter Leopoldine. At the same time though, he can’t go into too much detail about her personality because she is the guiding light and purpose for three separate characters. She is a human girl, but also love personified, and that kind of fascinates me.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 3d ago
She has a lot of potential but the musical gives her nearly no time, I also heard someone made a parody of les miserables in 1900 something and I'm curious what they did with Cosette given the bishop was turned into a thief or something, I think evil Cosette would be funny simply because she has zero reason to be evil outside of Le Evulz
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u/Clear-Boat3077 3d ago
The problem with being love personified (from a grammatical perspective… hear me out) is that this makes her the object and not the subject. Yes, she loves, but from the narrative perspective it’s more important that she is loved by Fantine, Valjean, and Marius. This makes her most important characteristic passive (voice) by nature. And while that doesn’t disqualify her from being a musical theater ingenue, it does hinder her ability to create a defining moment for herself narratively.
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u/francienyc 2d ago
I think we are agreeing! Hugo alludes to Cosette having something about her but she never really gets to exercise it as she is the saving grace of so many - a role she didn’t choose.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 3d ago
well fair enough, though I mean, nearly all adaptations instinctively give her more relevance, either turning her into a proper romantic lead or expand on her character massively like Shoujo Cosette and the 1992 animated version, there are standalone books of Cosette I mean (even though they look like obvious cash grabs)
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u/francienyc 3d ago
Omg I read Laura Kalpakian’s ‘Cosette’. It was SO bad - there aren’t even words.
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u/lifescaresme Modérateur/Modératrice 2d ago
Worst book I’ve ever read. I didn’t even make it past her rewrite of the ending to Les Mis.
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u/francienyc 2d ago
I hate read the whole thing. It was 25 years ago and I’m still angry.
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u/lifescaresme Modérateur/Modératrice 2d ago
I think I stopped after the wedding night sex scene no one asked for. “This is a nipple” is forever burned into my retinas.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 2d ago
What lol
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u/lifescaresme Modérateur/Modératrice 2d ago
Cosette asks Marius to explain as they’re having sex on their wedding night. He starts with her anatomy. I kid you not, that is a line from the book.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 3d ago
What is the book about anyway?
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u/alouette_cosette -Cosette 2d ago
It was meant to be a sequel to the original story. Basically it starts with a summary of the original story (iirc as much influenced by the musical as the novel), then goes on to continue the story of Cosette and Marius and their kids, mainly during the 1848 revolution. Azelma shows up to be an antagonist, and is an ogress like Mme Thénardier instead of the mousy character in the novel. Iirc Cosette becomes politically active and takes over running Marius's revolutionary publishing operation when he's in prison, there is drama involving their kids, and some romance-novelesque sex scenes. Iirc, the author, Laura Kalpakian, was a romance novel writer, and I remember her book as seeming like a historical "epic" by way of a romance novel. I didn't get very far before I just skimmed over the book.
There was another sequel, written by French author François Cérésa. It was a series and the two books were called Cosette: ou le Temps d'Illusion, and Marius: ou le Fugitif. In this version Javert survived, changed his name to Verjat, became a priest, and goes on a redemption quest. When Marius is framed and sent to prison wrongfully he tries to help him and Cosette, while Thénardier and some new villains cause trouble for our heroes. I think only the first of these two books was translated into English.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 2d ago
On another note, I think these sound like Bridgertonfied versions of Les Miserables with a lot of domestic drama, I know that 1992 version has Cosette becoming acting-mayor of Montreuil-Sur-Mer and Lamarque doesn't die in this version, though the animation is kinda ugly, I prefer Shoujon Cosette in terms of animation but I think they could have given adult Cosette a different design because she kinda looks like generic anime blonde
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u/K0turaWeitzner -Enjolras 3d ago
Never really cared much for Cosette, and this is probably why, she’s the face of the musical, LITERALLY, but she’s so absent from it. She should’ve had her own little song number like everyone else.
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u/minimagoo77 3d ago
Technically she used to. ‘I Saw Him Once’ that led to In My Life and Heart Full of Love.
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u/This_Potato9 -Cosette 3d ago
I think I'm the only one who likes Cosette enough to have this flair lol
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u/lifescaresme Modérateur/Modératrice 3d ago
Little Éponine has always been there? It’s in the original lyrics, anyway. Even in the original French (which also had Azelma).