This was me as well. Though the lyric changes bothered me more than the different singing (though the later irked as well.) Really, American production, you seriously need Javert to sing about putting Valjean "safe behind bars"? Ugh.

This cracks me up since the whole thing was translated, but I understand since it still bugs me that they translated the English in Harry Potter.

The only song I distinctly prefer in the French version is "Mon prince est en chemin" ("Castle in a Cloud") just because the lyrics are so much better and are integrated later on in songs with the older Cosette. Plus, the whole thing calls back to "Someday My Prince Will Come." Gavroche's song "La faute à Voltaire" is pretty witty too.

Otherwise, I think they did a pretty good job and they made some excellent structural choices such as fleshing out Javert's role and moving the "Air de la misère" originally sung by Fantine to be Eponine's "On My Own" (although this means Fantine disappears pretty quickly).

Replace "And a bad haircut?" with "And someone steals bread?" and you have me

If there is bread, they're not as poor as I was thinking.

From Huffington post article, which talks about Oscar chances for various films including Les Miz: [link]

Which is too bad for "Zero Dark Thirty." We can review that one, and I have no trouble in saying it is, by far, the best movie I've seen in 2012. Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" follow-up is superior in almost every way to that Best Picture winner, and it makes Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke legitimate movie stars. (Jason Clarke's Oscar campaign starts here, by the way. He's like Jeremy Renner, if Jeremy Renner was interesting.)

The dig at Renner cracked me up, and I am talking from a pro-Renner camp. And I forgot Jennifer Ehle was in the film as well! Can't wait.

Technically there isn't any bread when the show begins, since it was stolen 20 years earlier.

But read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo

There's a new biography out now, The Black Count which indicates that Dumas was writing about his father in some ways when he wrote Monte Cristo, and also The Man in the Iron Mask.

Pretty fascinating stuff - the only black general in the French army, a legendary warrior who was waylaid and disappeared to a castle cell where he was poisoned.

If there is bread, they're not as poor as I was thinking.

I don't know. At the time, bread cost half a day's wages and pretty much caused the French Revolution.

There's a new biography out now, The Black Count which indicates that Dumas was writing about his father in some ways when he wrote Monte Cristo, and also The Man in the Iron Mask.

I highly recommend this book. I had to return it before finishing, but look forward to getting it back shortly.

If there is bread, they're not as poor as I was thinking.

I don't know. At the time, bread cost half a day's wages and pretty much caused the French Revolution.

a) How much did cake cost?
b) Then it seems even less likely they'd have it, no?

a) Marie Antoinette's head
b) That's why he had to steal it!

I want to say there are three English versions of the Les Miz novel. Full, abridged and super-abridged. We read the middle one in high school English. I remember it being long, but not unreadable. Of course, I had already fallen in love with the sound track at that point, which probably helped.

I remember having a homework assignment where we had to create a Venn Diagram and map the different characters based on the categories we created.

I can't remember what I chose for mine, but I remember one of my friends basing his on the D&D alignment system and us having an argument about Javert. My friend insisted he was Lawful Evil, while I maintained (and still do) he was Lawful Neutral.

As a theatre person, I still feel a little embarrassed about that, as in certain circles liking stuff like Les Mis brands you a not a "real" theatre person. In fact, liking musicals at all is a little suspect.

BAH! It was becoming a real theatre person that made me love musicals again. I've seen too many really great ones to not be able to appreciate the medium. I'm very excited to see Les Miz, myself.