The London cast. And, honestly, I think it's my one true recording because it was the first one I ever heard. I was 17, and I don't think I realized there might even be more than one cast recording. I listened to it incessantly before I found out there was a Broadway cast recording. When I listened to that one, I had already burned the London cast into my brain, and nothing else has ever sounded right to me.

and the first shot of Jackman made me yell "Wolverine!"

Like he did?

(In my head, the last bit of this song is sung to the tune of "Who Am I?" because I assume the only reason it wasn't really done that way was copyright.)

Like he did?

Hah. Not quite so melodious.

Also, I had never heard him sing before (having not seen Les Miz yet), and he's pretty good. (But Colm Wilkinson is still an impossible act to follow.)

The only bits of Les Miz that I've heard are passing phrases from commercials or stories about the show. I've never heard any of the songs all the way through. I guess I'll fix that some day.

My boss, who claims to have hated the Broadway show, went to see the movie and hated that too. Um, did you go to see it just so that you had first-person evidence that you hated that as well?

Which brings me to the concept that I've heard about here and there (maybe mostly here) about musicial theatre buffs not considering Les Miz to be good, or a worthy musical, or a real musical, or whatnot, and I'm curious as to the what and why and wherefore. Especially since I feel like it's a golden standard.

Is it too serious and pretty? Is it not weird or experimental enough? /spent a weekend with anarchists who think it's perfectly natural to sit in a bar for a band called Snacks serving inedible snacks and playing dissonant and unharmonious music and enjoying the humor of the horror of the situation (they hated the music, but appreciated the experience. I am a heathen, because bwuh?). //can of worms

Sound like Dadaists.

From my perspective, it isn't musical theatre buffs considering les mis to be sub par, it is theatre people thinking musical theatre/popular theatre is lesser than srs bizness theatre, evidenced by liking Les Mis.

Okay, but why does Les Miz seem to be the example? Why not by liking Phantom, or Spamalot, or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?

I usually see either Phantom or Cats used as the example of over-the-top eighties musicals.

I think Phantom would have the same reaction, because I think the reaction is to the earnestness of the love, and not really doing "new" things other than spectacle. Spam a lot ( and Jiseph) don't take themselves so seriously