Liberty Hoffman, I am seeing the 25th anniversary tour. It's stopping about an hour from my house. http://www.lesmis.com/us-tour/ The parts aren't played by anyone very famous. (I mean, I am not seeing Alfie Boe or Lea Salogna. Sadly.) Some of the names are Ron Sharpe, Justin Scott Brown, Andrew Varela, Jenny Latimer, Betsy Morgan, Chasten Harmon, and a bunch of others.

I am so excited!

^ That's the version i saw.

Oh goodness, just as I was about to start thinking I was the only one who wan't a fan of Nick Jonas as Marius The way I see it is just about the same as the 25th version of Valjean (slightly)... Colm Wilkinson has been Valjean so many times, and I saw the 10th anniversary first, that he just is Valjean to me. 25th Valjean (Alfie Boe??) is does a good job, but it's not really something to compare to the 10th. Same for Nick Jonas as Marius.

Nellie of Narnia, I forgot to reply to your post earlier cuz i missed it at the bottom of the page, but I found the songs Javert's Suicide and What have I done? (10th anniversary) on youtube cuz the melodies and lyrics are pretty close in case you're interested

Arwenel, yeah I was just wondering what kind of format they do in the live performances and musicals cuz the recorded versions I've seen are of all of the characters just standing there... too bad that tour isn't coming to where I live

Since I feel like I'm posting a lot of links already, I discovered some videos on youtube of Les Mis/LotR crossover videos, they're kinda entertaining.... I posted a couple, but the Gollum/Master of the House one is my favorite
Red&Black
Master of the House (note: this is the version that's rated 'PG-13' there is a PG version, but I personally don't think it's as good without Mme. Thénardier)

Some times I still stutter up on saying "miserables" with that kinda french sound to it... I just stick to saying 'Les Mis' it's easier

I just saw the Liam Neeson version of Les Mis last week... or was it earlier this week... either or. I thought it was a good film. I didn't quite like all of the movie, and some of the themes were obviously very adult and, in my opinion, almost awkward.

Anyways, I haven't read the book yet (pretty sure I need to read it sometime in the future for school) but if it's anything like the movie, I expect it'd be pretty good

Movie adaption- 3.5/5 stars.

My first and only encounter with Les Miserables so far has been the 1978 TV version with Richard Jordan as John Valjean and Anthony Perkins as Javert. I really liked it when I first saw it and have the shortened DVD version. (The original broadcast was supposed to be 2.5 hours but the DVD is only 2. And I did notice at least part of a scene missing that I am positive was in the original version that I first saw so the missing half our is probably accurate.)

The performances are excellent as are the actual locations used in France. Also has an excellent musical score and cinematography. And I was surprised that a number of reviewers on IMDB who have seen other versions seem to really like this one over some of the more recent ones.

Obviously a book of that size can't be completely covered in 2.5 hours and some important things and characters were cut or only briefly seen. It would take a huge miniseries to do it comprehensively.

Some day I would like to see some other version(s) and actually read the book. But I would highly recommend this now older version from 1978.

Here are some links pertaining to the 1978 version:

IMDB title link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077936/

IMDB user reviews: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077936/usercomments

DVD review link which does a good job in explaining the strengths of this version: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/lesmiserables.php

I read the book a few months ago, and - well, I guess I liked it. It was hard and painful to read, it annoyed me greatly, but I loved some parts of it. Jean Valjean . . I cried and cried and cried over the last chapter. It broke my heart.
I love the music from the musical, so I knew the story before I read it. I guess I was disappointed by Eponine's under development in the book. Marius annoyed me. He was just dumb.
Javert was a really cool character.

Please note that this Special Feature will be closing on Tuesday, May 31. Great discussion, all!