Les Misérables London 1985 Stage Musical Edit

Cuts:
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1. Parole officers following Valjean, and him getting rocks thrown at him, kicked out of an inn, and beaten in the street for no reason. This is extremely rushed, and we're better off without it than rushing through it.
2. "Little People" scene removed (Gavroche riding through the streets). It's pretty cringy, doesn't add anything, and it's so substantially different from the recordings that it couldn't be salvaged. Gavroche still gets to introduce himself during "Look Down", as well as pipe a couple lines from Little People when they capture Javert at the Barricade.
3. Battle scenes drastically shortened; Valjean's sewar crawl scene shortened. These 2 scenes both drag, and there's no dialogue or music, so a bunch of "screen noise" has just been deleted. There's no way you'll ever miss it.

Musical "Gifts":
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1. Sacha Baron Cohen gets to sing his intro to "Master of the House". I was going to cut it completely, but it's harmless enough. He's not even terrible here. When it switches to real music, he gets dubbed (that's when he's terrible).
2. Russell Crowe sings "Shoot me now or shoot me later..." after his capture. He's remarkably on key for a couple seconds, so it stays.
3. At the end of "Red and Black", we get to hear Aaron Tveit and some of the other students sing. They aren't too bad, but I did have to pitch correct at the last phrase, "They will come when we call!". While they're passable enough for a phrase, they aren't good enough to handle a powerful song like "Red and Black".
4. "On My Own". In an early version of the edit, I used the recording from London. But after seeing Samantha Barks in the 25th Anniversary concert absolutely slaying this song, I decided she would be better representing herself. After all, she's the only professional singer in the whole cast. She's better in concert than singing while crying in the rain, so it still gets the over-dub. But since it's her dubbing herself, it syncs really well.
5. Finally a chance to hear Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen sing at the wedding feast. I left it because narratively it's good enough, and there's no musical source to replace it with. We get to see Eddie Redmayne punch Sacha in the face, so it's worth it. I over-dub when the singing picks up on the way out to keep our ears from bleeding.

Big Changes:
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1. "Lovely Ladies" and "I Dreamed a Dream" are out of order. This was how it was shot. Since Anne Hathaway has hair at the beginning of Lovely Ladies, and no hair during I Dreamed a Dream, I couldn't correct the order like I intended. I have cut out much of the overly-dramatic crying during the hair-cutting, and I cut the tooth-pulling, as these seemed like gratuitous Oscar-bait. The tone of the music doesn't match the overly-dramatic desperation of the prostitutes. This song (where Anne Hathaway cuts her hair "for real") plus "I Dreamed a Dream" are what got this movie an Oscar. Once this is over, things get better. They get their golden statue, the over-actor dies shortly after, and the movie can proceed as normal.
2. "The Runaway Cart (Part 1 & Part 2)" - I have moved Part 1 to play after Fantine's Arrest. Now, we follow Fantine's story from the factory to prostitution, and then we see Javert's working relationship with Valjean turn into suspicion, the cart scene, then Javert's apology without interruption. They made up some lyrical nonsense for this scene, so the lips don't match the music very well. It had to be done, because we can't bear listen to Russell sing again. Hang tight and there's a huge payoff, though, because the way Hugh Jackman sings, he syncs up very well with the recordings. "Who Am I?" starts immediately after Russell's disaster, and it came together so well that it's a high point for the movie.
3. "Fantine's Death" - Anne Hathaway over-acting again. I covered this topic before. She's pretty rough to dub. We get through it, though, and the next song pays for all. "The Confrontation" was shot beautifully, and since they had to choreograph it, it syncs up very well.
4. "Stars" - The words at the end of the song are "This I swear by the stars." In the London recording, the words are "Keeping watch in the night". So what looks like the lips are out of sync is actually completely different words being synced up. It can never be 100% with different mouth movements, but I have synced them up so it's like watching a puppet-show (think ventriliquist) or maybe an Anime (the lips are moving in general, not in specific; the words could be anything).
5. "Drink With Me" runs during Gavroche's death. This scene was totally disjointed in the movie with Gavroche walking through bullets singing "Little People", and needed fixing. This speeds us through it and provides the necessary emotional tone.
6. Javert lamenting over the death of Gavroche is saved for a flashback during "Turning", right after Javert's suicide. This separates that extra emotion from the sewar crawl scene, and brings it back for a second punch. This also gives us time for another verse of "Turning" to play, and we get further narrative about the tragedy of the meaningless deaths of the students ("Where's that new world now the fighting's done?"), right before "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", where our hearts are finally ripped completely out of our chests and stomped mercilessly on the dusty barroom floor.