I had a theater professor at Temple University who taught
our class that when words are not enough to be said, they must be sung. I’m
pretty sure it was him…either that or a text book. He was talking about emotion
so EXTREME that it HAS to be sung. Musicals have, of course, made a huge
comeback on the silver screen over the past 10-15 years (oddly enough,
alongside the Superhero genre), and yet only Chicago and Moulin Rouge! were
indisputably popular and successful. Dreamgirls
was pretty close. As wonderful as most of these films are for musical
theater lovers, the audience en masse has (understandable) reservations about
people busting into song in the middle of a scene. However, with the recent
success of television shows Glee and Smash, the musical genre has become more
accepted.
While of course there is nothing like live theater, the
masses do not have the same access to the highest of its quality. I have had
the privilege of being raised around New York City and Broadway. Yes, there are
professional tours around the world that are just as good as the Great White
Way, but their tickets cost the same amount of money. Yes, Broadway has rush
tickets, but not everyone lives close to the city and can get those. Point
being (and I say this as an actor that has been raised in it), theater can be a
very exclusive world. In
Shakespeare’s day, good theater was accessible to people of all financial means.
Now, it is almost inaccessible. Top quality film, however, is accessible to the masses. When my family and I walked out of Les Misérables, my mother said “It was
good, but I guess I’m just spoiled by having seen it on Broadway.” And you know
what? She’s right.
This being said, the film was able to explore Victor Hugo’s
incredible story in the way it was originally transcribed: up close, gritty,
raw, and heavily emotional. Les Misérables
is an ensemble piece about common people with everyday misfortunes. Theater
can provide intimacy, but Les Mis
cannot, at least not at a professional level. It is a mega musical, and the
only ones who will get the blood sweat and tears of Jean Valjean, Fantine, and
Javert are the ones who are paying hundreds of dollars to sit in the front row,
and presumably cannot identify with the destitute characters before them. Film
can bring that intimacy via camera work, as well as bring that same intimacy to
rich and poor across the world as a mass-produced medium.
Bottom line, the piece works in both film and theater in
each its own way.
While hearing Fantine lament over Cosette in a live theater
is an extraordinary experience, to see tears streaming from her eyes, bruises
and scars on her face as she belts out “I Dreamed a Dream” on the big screen
leaves one weeping. Anne Hathaway was riveting in the part. Director Tom Hooper
made the choice to do almost every big solo as a close up and a long take.
Hugo’s original novel is actually formatted in much the same way as the solos
were depicted in the film. The book is in six parts, each one titled with the
name of a different character. It seems as if Hooper was paying homage to the
original work.
While Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Colm Wilkinson, Sacha Bara
Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were all wonderful (sorry Russell Crowe, you
sounded like you had a sock in your throat), the younger cast was incredible
and made the film a gem for me.
The performances delivered by the younger cast (Amanda
Seyfried, Aaron Tveit, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks and Daniel Huttlestone)
were all incredible. While many of
their singing voices will never match Broadway or West End performances, the
way they are played for the screen is perfect. Perhaps I identify more with
their stories because I am the age of their characters. I identify more with
their emotions: the absolute love and torment for another person, not having
that love returned, playing as a child, and longing to make the world a better
place through any means possible.
Young progressive thinkers usually fuel revolutions. The
rebellions and protests in the past few years across the world; across the
middle East, the Occupy movement, the gay rights movement, hell, even the
hipsters, all of these are built upon the foundations of revolutions of the
past. Though of course there were intimate moments at the battle piece of the
film, this is the part that is definitely the most theatrical. I could feel the fire in the hearts of Marius
and Enjolras as they fought side by side. From “Red and Black” to the final
battle, every camera angle, every booming tenor voice brought nothing short of
the most epic and grandiose emotions to every audience member. THAT is the
theatricality of the original musical that I have been raised upon, know, and
love. That same epic robustness is brought to life again for the finale, as the
streets of Paris blend with the ambiguous world of the stage and heaven.
The entire second part of the musical (from the moment
Cosette grows up), is why I work in
theater, film, and television. It is a perfect example to give for those who
doubt the professions of actors, writers, directors, and all those who work in
this industry. The entertainment field is only lucrative for the select few.
But artists do not work for lucrative means. We live, work, and die for the
love of the story. Most stories fiction in nature are media for which the art
makers and audience members can comprehend
and fathom the real world.
A mother struggling in the ghettos of North Philadelphia or
Harlem might identify with Fantine. A Vietnam veteran might identify with
Marius and Enjolras. A lovesick teenager who just got dumped on prom night
might identify with Eponine. The parents of the children at Sandy Hook, or any
parent for that matter, might identify with the harrowing story of Gavroche.
Contrary to popular belief, actors and other artists do not shroud themselves
in a fictional place to escape the real world. We engross ourselves in it to bring that real world to light and learn life’s lessons. The
greatest lesson that Les Misérables teaches
us is to step in the shoes of another. That is what actors do. They step into
the role to identify and to learn empathy. That is what this world is about:
understanding and connecting with fellow human beings.
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
