“Suddenly” Another Song?
- At February 8, 2012
- By Brian
- In Arts Admin
6
As if the slew of half baked updates for the much-anticipated Les Miserables film this week weren’t enough, another rumor was confirmed this afternoon by Playbill.com, when it was announced the original composing team Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil were writing additional music for the film. But I mean really, should they really be thinking about touching anything after Pirate Queen…
Yesterday Hugh Jackman, who’ll be stumbling three hours through the role of Jean Valjean in the film, tweeted:
If there’s one thing any person in theatre knows, it’s that you don’t mess with someone’s Les Mis. The sort of person who puts Les Mis on the pedestal it may (or may not) deserve is certainly the one who won’t want anything even nipped or tucked, not to mention NEW. Why do we think the same boring, uninventive staging was used for the 2006 Broadway revival and the “reimagined” [not] National Tour that hit the road last year?
Allegedly, the Alain and Claude didn’t know Hugh had tweeted after hearing the song for the first time, so the firestorm that occurred soon thereafter was much surprised. Immediately after muploading his picture with CMS, the tweet garnered widespread attention (1.1 million followers) and spread across the web drawing more criticism than praise.
No other information has been released about the new song “Suddenly,” which immediately triggers gag-inducing thoughts of a tune with the same name from Xanadu. Further rumors have it slated to appear early in the show before the revolution begins, likely around “Master of the House” and Valjean’s rescuing of Cosette.
On the heels of casting rumors, turned announcements, of Amanda Seyfried and Taylor Swift (which was soon retracted), public relations for the film have been sloppy as of late. In a smart move, Cameron Mackintosh, producer of both the stage and screen productions, pushed forward the all-but-confirmed casting of Helena Bonham-Carter as Mdme. Thenardier to smooth things over with fans and give them somewhere else to redirect focus. Ever since the moment Mrs. Lovett/Bellatrix Lestrange’s name was in the running for the role, Les Missers rejoiced. The pairing alongside Sacha Baron Cohen, whom Carter worked with in the Sweeney Todd film, didn’t hurt either.
Whether fans will accept the new song is anyone’s guess. This is a crowd quick to judge — remember that time they pounced on the idea of a Jonas Brother as Marius for a brief stint in the London production, only to allow him to extend,and then invite him back for their sacred 25th Anniversary Concert? Personally, I’m against it, and not because it’s a show I hold near and dear to my heart. Why then? Because it’ll just create another musical motif they’ll have to weave through the score, resulting in an added a reprise Cosette will have to sing in Act II (erm…end of the film).
Do we really need another 10 minutes of Les Mis? Well, yes, if it’s even half as entertaining as this:
Miranda
I’m wondering if this new song is an attempt to get an Oscar for best original song (you can only get an Oscar for a song written specifically for the film, which is why “I Move On” was written for Chicago, etc.)
Brian
Exactly what I’m thinking. The RENT film did pretty much the same thing, but then didn’t include it in the actual movie.
Miranda
I heard that the Rent song (“Love Heals”) actually didn’t end up counting for the Oscar nomination because it was a song Jonathan Larson wrote for a friend or something like that, which was why they didn’t include it. They were going to put it in during the credits but used an instrumental instead.
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