Trivia / Les Misérables

Specific Trivia Pages

Anime

• Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette

Live-Action

• Les Misérables (1935)
• Les Misérables (1998)
• Les Misérables (2012)
• Les Misérables (2000)
• Les Misérables (2018)

The novel

• Adaptation Sequence: Novel —> musical —> 2012 film based on the musical.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The book was extremely popular among Confederate soldiers during The American Civil War, who identified with Enjolras' rebels and called themselves "Lee's Miserables."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hugo changed several characters' names over the course of writing the novel. Jean Valjean was originally named "Jean Tréjean" (literally, “John Veryjohn”), Fantine was named "Marguerite Louet," Cosette was named "Anna," Marius was named "Thomas Telbon," Gavroche was first named "Grimebodin" and later "Chavroche," Éponine was named "Palmyre," and Azelma was named "Malvina."
  • Courfeyrac was originally the leader of the revolutionaries, with Enjolras as one of his lieutenants, rather than vice-versa.
• Working Title: The novel's early draft from 1848 was titled Les Miséres ("Miseries").
  • Hugo considered “Misérables” to be untranslatable, as it has connotations of both pity and condemnation, as well as the state of being forgotten or overlooked by society. The closest English translation would perhaps be a combination of “the wretched” and “the outsiders.”

The musical adaptation

• Accent Depundent: The show, with its English-language libretto written by the British lyricist Herbert Kretzmer (although the original libretto by Alain Boublil was in French), Thénardier sings ''Master of the house, doling out the charm/Ready with a handshake and an open palm." In a British accent this is a decent half-rhyme, but in a rhotic accent it becomes a Painful Rhyme.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism: Eponine is seen as sympathetic by a modern audience, and some performances of the musical can file off a couple of her more unlikeable qualities (bullying Cosette as a child for instance). Depending on the actress, her hiding Marius's letter to Cosette can either be a scheming bit of Relationship Sabotage or a heat-of-the-moment act of despair.
• All-Star Cast:
  • The entire point of the 10th Anniversary Concert, which didn't have a principal cast member who wasn't a Broadway and/or West End luminary and/or have a major role in the show at some point including Colm Wilkinson, Philip Quast, Michael Ball, Lea Salonga, Ruthie Henshall, Michael Maguire, and Judy Kuhn.
  • The 25th Anniversary Concert followed suit; even Nick Jonas, more famous as a pop singer, had at one point played Gavroche on Broadway.
  • And again for the 35th Anniversary Concert.
• Colbert Bump:
  • "I Dreamed a Dream" received major publicity after Susan Boyle's famous performance on Britain's Got Talent.
  • "On My Own" and "I Dreamed a Dream" have both been featured on Glee.
• Filmed Stage Production: There have been a few anniversary concert stagings over the years of its historic run pulling in original cast members and popular replacement actors, either reprising their roles or playing new ones:
  • Les Miserables: The Dream Cast in Concert aired in 1995 for the 10th anniversary, with Colm Wilkinson returning as Valjean, Judy Kuhn returning as Cosette, and Lea Salonga playing Eponine.
  • Les Miserables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary aired in 2010, with Alfie Boe as Valjean, Lea Salonga now playing Fantine, Samantha Barks playing Eponine (who would go on to reprise the role in the 2012 film adaptation), and Nick Jonas (one of the many Broadway Gavroche replacements) playing Marius.
  • Les Miserables: The Staged Concert filmed the final concert of the 2019 concert staging (which ran from August 10-December 2, 2019 to accommodate the restoration of the Sondheim Theatre). It starred original Marius Michael Ball as Javert and Carrie Hope Fletcher as Fantine. Alfie Boe returned as Valjean.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • French citizens submitted a serious petition to have "Do You Hear The People Sing?", the martial revolutionary song (quoted) that you are most likely to remember from the musical, nominated as a second National Anthem of France, alongside La Marseillaise.
    • It should be noted that the french lyrics are nowhere near as belligerent as the english version. "À La Volonté du Peuple" emphasizes fellowship and ideals rather than the fight against an oppressive government.
  • "Do You Hear The People Sing?" has also been used in connection with the Occupy Movement and other protest movements.
• Referenced by...: Canadian figure skater Roman Sadovsky performed to Les Misérables soundtrack for his long program during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 competitive seasons. A few years later, he would later revamp it with slightly different music cuts and minor changes to the choreography. He also skated to "Bring Him Home" as an exhibition number.
• Romance on the Set: Actors Jason Forbach and Joseph Spieldenner met while playing Feuilly and Grantaire on the 25th anniversary US tour. Forbach soon took over as Enjolras, and the two played the famously Ho Yay-tastic pair until the tour ended in 2013, and got engaged at the end of that year.
• Star-Making Role: This show made Michael Ball and Frances Ruffelle Household Names, and turned Rebecca Caine into a darling of the theatre world. And while it wasn't his only massive role, his turn as Valjean etched Colm Wilkinson into the marble of the zeitgeist for generations.
• Tough Act to Follow: How do you ensure that this trope never applies to you? By writing a musical so good, so famous, and so beloved that its mere existence allows you to write whatever else you damn well please. This is that musical. (In Schonberg and Boublil's case, "whatever else you damn well please" was Miss Saigon, a critical and popular smash hit still known and beloved by most musical theatre fans. Go figure.)
• What Could Have Been: Patti LuPone, who originated the role of Fantine in the West End production, turned down the offer to reprise the role on Broadway. For years, she said her reason for doing so was because the London production was the "perfect" experience, and no other venue or company could live up to the thrill of her initial run (and indeed, she disliked the New York production once she finally saw it). Eventually, however, she also revealed she wasn't offered enough money by Cameron Mackintosh to make the prospect enticing.

Other adaptations

• Adaptation Overdosed: Over 60 movies, a musical, at least 5 different stage plays, about a dozen audiobooks, three comic books (one of them with the Duck family!), some anime, a spectacle son et lumière and two computer games (a point-and-click-adventure of the same name and the extremely weird beat-'em-up Arm Joe).
• Adaptation Sequence: The '52 movie calls itself a remake of the '35 movie. Then they made a radio play out of the '52 movie.
• Disowned Adaptation: Victor Hugo's heirs went to court against François Ceresa's sequels. They lost.
• Fanon:
  • Especially with first names of characters that never get one in the novel.
    • One fanfic writer started calling Enjolras "Marcelin" and this has become the most often used first name for him.
    • Another common first name for Enjolras is Julien, while Grantaire is often given a name starting with "R" because of his nickname.
    • Javert is often said to simply not having been given a first name. A popular joke also is that his first name is "Inspector". In the late '90s-early 2000s musical fandom, another staple of comedy fic was that his first name was Snookums.
    • Another common joke is that everyone is called Jean.
  • Characters misremembering Valjean's name will always think he's called "Jacques Valjacques".
  • The novel mentions that Javert's mother is a fortune-teller; in fanon, she (and thus also Javert) is Roma.
    • Actually, it says Javert had une inexprimable haine pour cette race de bohèmes dont il était ("an inexplicable hatred for that race of bohèmes of which he was one"). Bohèmes could be "bohemians", as in tramps/vagabonds, but really bohemiens would be better for that purpose; bohèmes almost certainly means "gypsies."
    • Susan Kay's novel Phantom (which as the title would suggest is a The Phantom of the Opera spin-off giving the character a back story as well as a first-person narrative of events) includes a minor character named Javert, who runs a freak show carnival Erik temporarily joins as a youth.
  • It's difficult to find a Les Amis-centric modern AU fic where Jehan Prouvaire isn't genderqueer.
• Predecessor Casting Gag: Judy Kuhn played Cosette in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables, and later played Cosette's mother Fantine in a 2006 revival.
• Spin-Off: There is a book called Cosette written by Laura Kalpakian.
• Stillborn Franchise: One very early Japanese adaptation had to be abandoned after only two of the planned four parts were made.

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