Les Miserables the movie is set to come out Christmas Day, and many people are very excited. But how do actors who have been in the Les Miserables musical feel about the upcoming film?
The general consensus is excited. Very excited. This movie, starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, is destined to be a huge hit in the theatrical community. Excitement for the film being heightened by the musical being brought to Broadway in Chicago and PR doing it as a summer show last summer. When speaking of the cast, Prairie Ridge junior Neil Pretkelis, who played a student this summer, said “they are all exceptionally talented; they all have prior experience in acting and singing.”
Some scenes, however may be difficult to transfer to film, such as One Day More which is a full cast number with big, boisterous, beautiful harmonies, “with the singing coming from a speaker and not direct, singing the harmonies won’t be as beautiful,” said Pretkelis. “The voices are pure and unedited,” says PR freshman Kasey Theil, which is what makes it a beautiful live performance.
Other scenes will be significantly better on film such as the barricade scene. In the musical this scene is limited by angles and the set. With a larger budget and the freedom to move the film will be able to capture the feel of this scene better than the musical and, according to Pretkelis, “it will add to the effect of realism.” And Theil thinks that “you’ll be able to read the emotions [of the characters] better,” since you won’t be so far away.
Les Miserables has become a very popular show over the past few years due to its “really powerful storyline,” according to Theil, and the fact that it “has so many characters and represents so much,” according to Pretkelis.
This is not the first musical that PR students have been involved in that was quickly turned into a movie. Jane Eyre was just done at PR two years ago and it came out as a movie last year. According to Theil, the movie adaptations of musicals are generally “pretty accurate” and “follow the same story line.”
Les Miserables the musical is beloved by all who appreciate theater because it connects with us; it relates to emotions we have all felt, it tells a deep story of love and hope and redemption, but as Pretkelis says “not just love and hope, but also good and evil–not a human evil, [but] the evil inside us all.”