Les Miserables In Concert

[lnh_boy]

Does anyone have any info on whether the Les Miserables in Concert from the 90s is coming to Blu? BBC Video just released a new DVD, but I don't want to shell out $34.99 list for it.

[Deciazulado]

Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary Blu-ray
Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Review

[-jonny-]

Sam Barks did not win that Nancy competition. She came third.

But she's great

[in2video2]

I just want to know when Les Miserables will be tranferred to the BIG screen as a movie musical. That would be HUGE, wouldn't it...

[-jonny-]

Originally Posted by -jonny-

Sam Barks did not win that Nancy competition. She came third.

But she's great

Anyone fancy correcting the review?

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Les-M.../19531/#Review

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by in2video2

I just want to know when Les Miserables will be tranferred to the BIG screen as a movie musical. That would be HUGE, wouldn't it...

Totally agree. I can't wait for Miss Saigon, I hope they are still moving forward with it, I saw it announced about 6 months ago in Daily Variety.

[Warbler]

I do have to say that I disappointed that the 10th Anniversary concert is not on blu ray yet. What the bleep are they waiting for?

[lobo81865]

Same here. I didn't like the 25th concert nearly as well. Partly due to the Jonas kid as Marius. Michael Ball, or a reasonable facsimile, he is not.

[JamesKurtovich]

Originally Posted by Warbler

I do have to say that I disappointed that the 10th Anniversary concert is not on blu ray yet. What the bleep are they waiting for?

this

+1

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by in2video2

I just want to know when Les Miserables will be tranferred to the BIG screen as a movie musical. That would be HUGE, wouldn't it...

It would...TOO huge for the stage unions.
That was the reason that most musicals didn't make it to the screen between '83 and '03--Except for "A Chorus Line", which was ready to close anyway, and "Producers", which Lane & Broderick had already left anyway.

There was a Mis movie floated in the mid-90's , but somehow, that didn't happen--
And all we got was the Liam Neeson non-musical version, and the 10th-Anniversary video....Which didn't exactly stage the musical either.

(Hint: Have you ever wondered why we only get making-of specials for most current musicals, or only see the cast in the rehearsal room recording the cast album?)

[Falaskan]

I want to see West Side Story redone, its about time. Btw, has anyone seen the Glen Close version of South Pacific? I have and while I haven't seen the original, I have read that the original is much less realistic and over dramatic, and it looks to be, just by looking at the cover.

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by Falaskan

I want to see West Side Story redone, its about time.

Are you kidding? What could possibly be improved?

[Warbler]

Originally Posted by in2video2

I just want to know when Les Miserables will be tranferred to the BIG screen as a movie musical. That would be HUGE, wouldn't it...

I don't know . . . Hollywood has a long history of screwing up stage musicals.

Originally Posted by EricJ

It would...TOO huge for the stage unions.

not sure what you mean here.

Originally Posted by EricJ

That was the reason that most musicals didn't make it to the screen between '83 and '03--Except for "A Chorus Line", which was ready to close anyway, and "Producers", which Lane & Broderick had already left anyway.

I always thought it was because the market for musicals had just dried up.

Originally Posted by EricJ

(Hint: Have you ever wondered why we only get making-of specials for most current musicals, or only see the cast in the rehearsal room recording the cast album?)

sorry, I don't get the hint either.

Originally Posted by Falaskan

I want to see West Side Story redone, its about time.

why? why fix what isn't broken?

Originally Posted by Falaskan

Btw, has anyone seen the Glen Close version of South Pacific? I have and while I haven't seen the original, I have read that the original is much less realistic and over dramatic, and it looks to be, just by looking at the cover.

I have seen both, but I haven't seen the Glen Close version in years, so I can't compare them accurately. But I can say I think the original is very good, and I do say so.

[Blue2]

I have the 10th anniversary concert on DVD, waiting for the Blu-ray upgrade. I also have the 25th anniversary Blu-ray, and I agree, it lacks the magic. In two months time I am going to see the live version of the 25th anniversary show. I am really disappointed that the musical hasn't hit the big screen. Hopefully soon. I would also like to see Miss Saigon on the big screen, as I love the stage show.

Rent is the only modern musical that I can think of that has a movie version. Not only does it have a movie, there is a dvd of the final performance of the original cast during the final Broadway performance.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Blue2

Rent is the only modern musical that I can think of that has a movie version. Not only does it have a movie, there is a dvd of the final performance of the original cast during the final Broadway performance.

(Take it you mean the only modern musical with a concert and movie version--There's been a fair amount of recent 90's/00's-musical movies in the post-Chicago renaissance, including The Producers, Hairspray, Passing Strange, and Universal's constant promises to get "Wicked" into production any minute now.
There had been numerous attempts to get movies of "Cats" and "Into the Woods" going during the '82-'02 "blackout", but the direct-video stage versions pretty much led the industry for most of the decade.)

[Warbler]

Originally Posted by EricJ

(Take it you mean the only modern musical with a concert and movie version--There's been a fair amount of recent 90's/00's-musical movies in the post-Chicago renaissance, including The Producers, Hairspray, Passing Strange, and Universal's constant promises to get "Wicked" into production any minute now.
There had been numerous attempts to get movies of "Cats" and "Into the Woods" going during the '82-'02 "blackout", but the direct-video stage versions pretty much led the industry for most of the decade.)

you forgot about Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Warbler

you forgot about Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd.

(AND Dreamgirls, but didn't know where the OP was drawing the line at "modern" musicals.
Figured he meant 90's and not 80's. Darn, forgot "Nine", too, but never liked that one.)

I don't know . . . Hollywood has a long history of screwing up stage musicals.
not sure what you mean here.
I always thought it was because the market for musicals had just dried up.

It was a combination of the unions AND Hollywood screwing them up:

Generally, having the movie version of a show means that out-of-town tourists don't have to come into NYC to keep the show going--So if you see a movie version in production, the company doesn't expect it to run another year, they're readying the movie as "document" of it (like when Lane and Broderick were about to leave The Producers), and getting the retirement watch ready.
There was a particularly big blowup in the early 80's after Showtime tried airing a live broadcast of one Broadway show, and after that, unions made it tougher and tougher to get a current like Les Mis or Phantom going in the 90's, to the point that a "concert" video or "Making of the cast album" was the only version they'd allow.
(Although Andrew Lloyd Webber was able to create his own company for the direct-videos of "Cats" and "Joseph/Dreamcoat", and for a while, that sold so well and transcripted the musical, it made producers wonder why they were bothering spending all that money on movie locations.)

Of course, didn't help either that the stunt-casting studio-deal ideas for Big Movie Musicals got sillier after "Annie" and kept dying in development heck (John Travolta in "Cats"? An animated Cats? Dudley Moore in "La Cage"?), or that "Rent" was one of the only major Broadway musicals we had at all for most of the mid-90's...
And by that point, halfway through the 90's, an entire generation of kids had grown up never literally seeing a musical at all, and wondered why people would go to a movie where people sang out loud in public...That's, like, WEIRD!
By putting it in the context of "Dream sequences" (duh ), "Chicago" came out, reminded everybody, and won the Oscar--That was the end of the blackout, and all those stalled 90's projects like Phantom, Sweeney, Rent and Dreamgirls got jumpstarted again without the loopy stunt-cast ideas.

(Except for all those dopes who thought "Moulin Rouge" was one of the "classic musicals" for coming out first...Now, admit it, don't you feel kinda silly, in retrospect?)

[Petra_Kalbrain]

I have seen the stage musical of Les Miserables several time. I have not seen these anniversary concert performances. However, looking at the descriptions and casts of both, I can see where the 10th anniversary performance would be far superior. I can't wait for a BD as well!

[Warbler]

Originally Posted by EricJ

There was a particularly big blowup in the early 80's after Showtime tried airing a live broadcast of one Broadway show,

out of curiosity, which show was it?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Warbler

out of curiosity, which show was it?

Showtime had already aired concert video-airings of Sweeney Todd and The Pirates of Penzance in '82, but when they got the pay-per-view bug and tried airing a live from-the-theater broadcast of Gregory Hines in "Sophisticated Ladies", unions picketed.

(The entertainment industry was paranoid that PPV would "take over" movies and TV back then--Which later mutated into the studios' obsession with "streaming movies" today.)