Russell Crowe was in a good mood in our latest interview with him. Smiling often, and engaging in joking banter, the actor was effusive in praising his “Les Miserables” co-stars.
We first caught a performance of Cameron Mackintosh’s stage musical, “Les Miserables” in London, and were fervently caught up in its unique mix of themes—love, revolution, vengeance, retribution, spiritual transformation—within the dramatic and artistic context of sung-through musical theater.
It’s thrilling to see the chaotic world imagined by Victor Hugo’s hefty 1862 novel finally come to life on the big screen. With Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s music and lyrics framing its epic tale, the jump of “Les Miserables” from page to stage to screen is a Herculean endeavor that Tom Hooper faces with nervous alacrity—with good reason: Since it opened at the West End in 1985, “Les Miserables” has become musical theater’s biggest brand!
