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.

Aren't musicals pretty much like opera, but in English and with more talking?

Aren't musicals pretty much like opera, but in English and with more talking?

Some operas are in English. And -- although I might not be remembering correctly -- Les Miz is totally sung-through. (I don't know about the movie of it, but I think the stage production is.)

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.

I hadn't really realized this split in the theatrical world until it was satirized in Slings and Arrows.

t haughty sniff

Some operas are in English.

t /sniff

Aren't musicals pretty much like opera, but in English and with more talking?

I think the basic distinction is that in opera the music is the primary driving force, where as in musicals it's the lyrics.

Talking is where the opera/operetta distinction comes in.

I prefer my operas to be in Italian

And all the operas in French and German are crying together in a corner. But, you know, dramatically.

I hadn't really realized this split in the theatrical world until it was satirized in Slings and Arrows.

And brilliantly too. Wow, I need to rewatch that series.

Les Miz went through a phase of being awesome and cool and then went through a phase of being too popular to be cool. Now it's too old for anyone who cares about "cool" to worry about, and so aging geeks are free to make flappy hands and break into song in public without worrying too much about our cred.