[np_storybar title=”Les Misérables Trailer: Watch” link=”#1″]
Les Misérables is a sprawling three-hour musical epic based on a sprawling 1,100-page novel about 19th-century France. There’s a revolution, but it’s not the French Revolution. It’s a smaller uprising by a group of idealistic student Republicans — and no, that doesn’t mean Tea Partiers. These Republicans are fighting to bring down the monarchy, and to create a more equal society. (It doesn’t go well for them.)
Les Mis is full of melodramatic love scenes, overwrought orchestrations and very catchy melodies (once you hear the people sing, you’ll never get them out of your head). But all of that is set against a real historical backdrop. We’ve put together a brief timeline of some important dates both in and out of the musical to help you keep track of it all.
Feb. 26, 1802 Victor Hugo, author of the novel that started this whole thing, is born.
1815 The year the story — in both the novel and the musical — begins. In fiction, our protagonist Jean Valjean is getting out of prison and the singing begins (“Look down, look down,” etc.). In history, Napoleon fought the Battle of Waterloo, where he was forced to surrender (even if you’re not up on your French history, surely you’ve at least heard the Abba song). Waterloo plays a role in Hugo’s novel (he calls Napoleon “the great tree-feller of Europe”), but not in the musical because there’s no time for politics and military history what with all the power ballads.
1821 In history, Napoleon Bonaparte dies. In the musical, at the end of the day, you’re another day older. Hugo’s novel discusses Napoleon and the effect his legacy had on France, but again, the musical doesn’t have time for such frippery as history. People are singing! Do you hear them?
1823 In history, the French army invades Spain to fight revolutionary liberals. In the musical, Fantine sings I Dreamed a Dream and resorts to prostitution, dies of consumption (as is the punishment of all good-hearted fictional prostitutes), and Jean Valjean finds her and promises to care for her daughter, Cosette, who is busy singing the most irritating song in the entire show, Castle on a Cloud.
June 4, 1832 In the musical, everyone in Paris sings about the next day’s revolution. “One more dawn … one more day … one day more!”
June 5-7, 1832 Frustrations with food shortages and a nasty cholera outbreak come to a head with the Paris Uprising of 1832 (also known as the June Rebellion). A small anti-monarchist uprising by a group of Parisian Republicans, mostly made up of students. In Les Mis, the rebels are led by the handsome, red-vested Enjolras. In both history and fiction, this uprising was a failure and almost all the cute revolutionary students on the barricades got killed. Is that a spoiler? The title is Les Misérables, after all.
1862 Hugo’s novel Les Misérables is first published.
1980 Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s musical score for Les Misérables is first recorded and released in French as a concept album. In September of this year, the first French-language stage production of Les Mis runs for 100 performances in Paris. Boublil has said that his inspiration for turning Hugo’s epic novel into a musical came from watching a musical production of Oliver! The character of The Artful Dodger reminded him of the street urchin Gavroche.
Oct. 8, 1985 The English language premiere of Les Misérables opens in London’s West End.
March 12, 1987 Les Misérables opens on Broadway, runs for 16 years, closes, and opens again in 2006 for some reason.
Dec. 25, 2012 The cinematic adaptation of the musical opens in theatres across the country. Oscar voters are already humming along …