Quick Question re: Les Miserables (the musical)

[HeyHomie]

Gavroche sings:

This is my school, my high society,
Here in the slums of Ste. Michel,
We live off crumbs of humble piety,
Tough on the teeth, but what the hell?

Is/was this Ste. Michel a real place? If so, approximately where in modern Paris would this place be/have been?

[choie]

That probably refers to the area near the Chapel Saint-Michel* in Paris’s Latin Quarter, a section in the 5th arrondissement that’s traditionally been a big hang-out area for students and artistic types. It’s now called Place Saint-Michel (St. Michael’s Square). Here’s the Boulevard Saint-Michel, which was constructed later but still exists today.

• Hence the kinda cringeworthy reference to “humble piety.” (Is that really something a street urchin would say?)

[Cat_Fight]

From Gridskipper

Much of Victor Hugo’s Paris was erased by Baron Haussmann, including the former rue Plumet, where Cosette and Jean Valjean lived, which was in the Faubourg St-Germain and … gave onto the rue de Babylone. Today the rue Plumet is a street in the 15th. And the “slums of St Michel” that Gavroche refers to are now only a mess of franchise restaurants, chain stores, students, and Vélibeurs. But it’s true that in Paris “in the rain the pavement shines like silver” and “all the lights are misty in the river.”

And I believe it’s pronounced ‘umble pie’y’ (for some reason Gavroche always goes Cockney).

[jayjay]

@choie

• Hence the kinda cringeworthy reference to “humble piety.” (Is that really something a street urchin would say?)

Heh…are you really calling this out in a genre where characters spontaneously break into a coordinated song and dance in the middle of the street?

[choie]

@jayjay

Heh…are you really calling this out in a genre where characters spontaneously break into a coordinated song and dance in the middle of the street?

Well, yeah! I mean, I can accept six impossible things before breakfast, which is necessary in order to appreciate musicals or operas or ballets. But for me that seventh problemmatic issue is dialogue that doesn’t make sense for a character’s level of education / upbringing / personality.

I have to draw the line somewhere. This far, no further! [del]And I will make them pay for what they have done![/del]

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@choie

Well, yeah! I mean, I can accept six impossible things before breakfast, which is necessary in order to appreciate musicals or operas or ballets. But for me that seventh problemmatic issue is dialogue that doesn’t make sense for a character’s level of education / upbringing / personality.

For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant doesn’t? Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the other guy’s shirt?

[MilTan]

Dammit, Waldo, you’ve permanently ruined my enjoyment of Les Mis forever more.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant doesn’t? Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the other guy’s shirt?

In some productions they get around this by having the brand be a black bar across his chest, either like the numbers bled together over the years or an actual rectangle-shaped brand. (I believe that’s what was done with the Broadway revival.)

When my friend played Valjean in Philadelphia last summer, we talked about this one night. He also felt it didn’t make much sense for the brand to read 24601 when all Javert would have had to do is look at Champmathieu’s chest to see that he had arrested the wrong man.

[friedo]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

For me, the problematic question in Les Miz is why Valjean tears open his shirt like Superman to vindicate the innocent guy. Talk about dialogue that doesn’t make sense: our hero reveals he’s got “24601” tattooed on his own chest to prove the defendant doesn’t? Wouldn’t he just tell 'em to open the other guy’s shirt?

In a deleted scene, Javert does that, and concludes that the man must simply have had a laser tattoo removal procedure.