Why the Music in Les Misérables (2012) is Worse than you Thought

Do you hear the people sing?
Me neither

Sources and Links:

"Beyond the Barricade: Adapting Les Misérables for the Cinema" by Ian Shapiro
I only found this source after going through my music library after going to grad school, well after I'd made this video. Had I had access to it while making this video I naturally would have cited it because it's such an amazing source on the production for this film.
Sorry to Ian Shapiro, and I wish finding academic sources while outside of academia was easier and not behind a paywall
"Beyond the Barricade: Adapting Les Misérables for the Cinema" by Ian Shapiro

Mackintosh's comment on the rights to Les Mis

Fantastic document listing the leitmotifs in Les Mis

Great post about Les Mis being symmetrical

Russel Crowe on Shazam!

New York Vocal Coaching, an absolutely AMAZING YouTube channel that you should sub to if you're at all interested in Vocal Tech

Russel Crowe discussing his audition process

The French version of "Do You Hear The People Sing?"

The cast warming up before the 85th Oscars

Erik Olsson's post about Bernadette Peters and Sunday in the Park with George

Hugh Jackman discussing his weight loss

Anne Hathaway's interview about her singing experience on set

Kevin Lynch's FANTASTIC video about "Bring Him Home" - I cannot recommend his channel enough, he's AMAZING

Crowe and Jackman singing live

Jackman singing live

For posterity, just in case you don't believe me when I say that musicals are all about speaking - singing - dancing

if I forgot anything please do not hesitate to let me know
I want to be sure that everyone gets properly credited!

[marymccann]

Sweet God, the story behind what happened to the actors is legitimately horrifying. They're lucky no one got badly hurt.

[ODoyleRulz]

In reference to water I once had a voice teacher who said, “If you wanna sing right, you gotta pee white.”

[ShayLaLaLooHoo]

Hearing the actors _actually_ singing makes me wish they got a director who respects musicals. We could've had so much!

[witchflowers]

Russell Crowe singing as an eighties post punk boy is not something i knew i needed in my life.

[Noizee]

The clips of the director saying "no one asked him to do it" to hugh jackman saying "he asked me to look unrecognizable" are hilariously next to each other

[punman]

If singing for 8 hours a day can ruin your voice box, then playing a stringed instrument for the same amount every day will absolutely shred your wrists. The bass and cello players must have been on fire

[kninenights]

Having the band going so many hours without breaks is terrifying. Ive only ever played lighter instruments (my specialties are flute and violin) and going for a few hours in band practice without breaks kills my muscles. *EIGHT HOURS* is insane I feel so bad for them especially those with heavier instruments. Their whole bodies would be in serious pain for literal days.

[isuckateverything.]

As a vocalist and a clarinet player, the fact that anything in this ever happened is horrifying

[KatieBudd]

I’m not even a vocalist, but hearing about Hugh Jackman not drinking water for 36 hours before shooting actually put me into shock! How did anyone on set let that happen? I can’t even imagine how that must have felt trying to sing with his throat being that dry!

[NicoDavisPurington]

I love the fact that the pianist is in a cage. Naughty pianists go to piano jail

[TobiasTurkelton]

Thank you for including that brief clip of Jackman and Crowe singing live together! I appreciate the redemption and proof they're so much better than what ended up in the film.

[LaineyKismet]

I understand the show is LITERALLY called Les Miserables, but that's doesn't mean EVERYONE INVOLVED HAD TO BE ACTUALLY MISERABLE 😣 So much respect to everyones sacrifice to make this movie, seriously hats off

Also I never knew the tearing of the paper was supposed to go with the orchestra beats but that hits SO MUCH HARDER when it does! My god that was exhilarating to see for the first time in this video

[obiwankenobi]

I think Tom Hooper just wanted to make everyone miserables.

[Jay-vjhx]

In a graham norton interview Hugh Jackman admitted that when he played Gaston on broadway he literally peed his pants live on stage so he could hit his final note. Hearing he dehydrated himself for valjean is insane. This man once valued both hydration and vocal performance so much that he PISSED HIS PANTS IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE.

[bi-product]

Hugh Jackman’s “All I did was STEAL SOME BREAD” has lived rent free in my head since I saw this in cinemas.

[C.k.]

I remember watching half of the Les Mis movie on Netflix and I thought it was pretty good. A few months later I watched Les Mis at a huge theatre near me and I was blown away, I loved it and it was actually great. Then I finished the Les MIs movie and I felt disappointed because the musical was just so so good I couldn’t watch the movie and pretend it was decent. Like the musical was so good to me at the end I started clapping so hard my mom thought i was clapping for one of the hot actors. When that kid died I teared up, when the kid died in the movie I just felt nothing. The musical is 1000x better than the movie and now I understand why people trashed on the movie so much.

[steve-ne]

can we also talk about the fact that for some reason Jackman is doing like 4 different accents in this movie?

[estebanquinones]

I just realized that Anne Hathaway mage herself cry and sing each take for 8-10 hours my God the fact that she can still talk is insane to me

[mycattypedthis]

the fact that this train wreck was Redmayne’s first vocal performance and years later he was cast as Emcee in Cabaret and slayed it so hard he won Olivier in Best Actor in Musical for it is mind blowing to me

[Queen_Cnidarian]

The fact no one received permanent vocal damage because of this is a mother fucking miracle.