Yeah, I’m certain I saw a previous calendar which had them both on Dec. 14, but now I’ve looked again and Les Mis seems to be xmas day. Huh.
They moved the release date recently to Christmas. I think they might have been worried about the Hobbit as well.
Too late to edit, but Wiki has the release as originally for Dec 8, moved to Dec 14, then on Sept 18 of this year moved again to Dec 25, with the stated reason that they wanted to avoid competing with the Hobbit.
Can’t say that I blame them.
Sadly, I’m with Morgyn. I won’t be seeing it until it’s out on BluRay anyway, due to me not wanting to get stoned by the audience.
I tried Rent as a live performance, and had to leave about 2/3 of the way through, because I was hyperventilating due to trying not to cry so loudly. I can’t imagine that my wussy ass will have better luck with freaking Les Mis.
It’s going to be soooo damn pretty tho.
You know how some theaters have “Kid Friendly Showings” where they leave the lights on a bit brighter and turn down the volume and nobody minds if the rugrats run around the seats and talk and cry and breastfeed during the show?
I think there should be “Blubbering Ninny” showings of Les Mis, with complimentary Kleenex in the cupholders and each seat with headphones so the sobbing doesn’t drown out the soundtrack.
I’ll save you a seat.
I think I’m with Tanbarkie on film vs. theater roles. I’ve a huge Les Mis fan and have been for 20 years (so yeah, I’,l be in the blubbering section), but I found myself connecting with Fantine in a much more real–and thus far more devastatingly painful–way watching the trailer. The devastation on her face when her hair is cut is raw and palpable. Hathaway herself described her performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” as this woman looking up from the bottom of a pit, and realizing she is never going to out of it. Yeeeeeeesh…yes, devastating. 
We will see our beloved characters from literally extremely close up, far closer than we could be even had we scored front row center seats, and thus subtlety and nuance will play a role it could not before.
That said, I do hope Crowe does not opt for the actor-can’t-sing-so-he-half-speaks-all-his-lines approach. It would take me completely out of it.
Incidentally, NPH can channel Terrance Mann’s Javert hilariously as seen in this clip–he chews every word. It does show, I think, too how a theater actor may seem just a wee bit over the top if shown a bit more close up (even if this clip is them being deliberately tongue-in-cheek).
Jean Valjean, Eponine, and Enjolras have always been my favorite characters and I’m looking forward to “meeting” them again. Aaron Tveit is Enjolras, but I don’t recognize him or any of his previous roles. I’ve always found Cosette bland, though her soprano is delightful to hear. Amanda Seyfield impressed me with her skillset–this is NOT a role someone who can kinda-sing could fake their way through. Interesting cast choices–Sasha Baron Cohen as Thernadier? Well, he’s also the lemur king , so I guess that makes sense. But, huh.
Incidentally, did you all see this flash mob performance of the entire Polish cast of Les Mis performing One Day More in a shopping mall? If I had been there I would have either started singing along, burst into tears, or both. LOVE watching that. 
I’m more concerned with Helena Bonham-Carter as Madame Thenardier. If her singing in Sweeney Todd was a track recorded in the studio (and therefore benefiting from certain technological “tweaks”), I absolutely shudder to think about what she must sound like live.
Yeah, but Mme. Thenardier doesn’t have to sing well. Most actors play her cartoony and screechy on purpose.
Wow. I’m so jealous.