Les Misérables: stage vs screen

Tom Hooper's 2012 film keeps the musical almost entirely sung-through, with Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert, and Anne Hathaway as Fantine. Most of the score survives, but the film adds a new song, trims or drops several numbers, and reshuffles the running order. Here is what changes between the Broadway show and the movie.

Stage

Broadway musical (1987)

Screen

Les Misérables (2012), directed by Tom Hooper

1. A brand-new song: "Suddenly"

Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Herbert Kretzmer wrote "Suddenly" for the film. Valjean sings it in the carriage after taking young Cosette from the Thénardiers, as he realizes his life now has a purpose beyond running. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Marius and Cosette reprise it later in the film.

2. "Dog Eats Dog" and "I Saw Him Once" are gone

Thénardier's sewer number, "Dog Eats Dog," where he loots bodies after the barricade falls, is cut, so his theft of Marius's ring is never sung about. Cosette's short opening to "In My Life," "I Saw Him Once," is also dropped. Many other numbers, including "Little People" and "The Attack on Rue Plumet," are heavily shortened.

3. "I Dreamed a Dream" comes after Fantine's fall

On stage, Fantine sings "I Dreamed a Dream" right after she is fired from the factory, before "Lovely Ladies." The film moves it after she has sold her hair and teeth and been forced into prostitution, so she sings it at her lowest point. The runaway cart rescue is also moved earlier, before Fantine's decline instead of after her arrest.

4. "Stars" moves earlier

In the Broadway show, Javert sings "Stars" in Paris after the robbery scene. The film places it right after Valjean escapes with Cosette into the convent, before the story jumps ahead nine years. Javert sings it pacing the edge of a high building, which sets up the way he dies later.

5. "Do You Hear the People Sing?" starts the uprising

On stage, the students sing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" in the ABC Café, before "In My Life." The film saves it for General Lamarque's funeral procession after "One Day More," where it becomes the moment the crowd turns into a revolt and the barricades go up.

6. The cast sang live on set

Instead of miming to prerecorded tracks, the actors sang live during filming while listening to a piano through earpieces, and the orchestra was added afterward. Hooper shot many solos in tight close-up, so songs like "I Dreamed a Dream" play as raw, single-take performances. Anne Hathaway won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her Fantine.

7. Éponine's death and the finale change

On stage, Éponine is wounded in the fighting and dies in Marius's arms. In the film she steps in front of a bullet meant for Marius. In the finale, the Bishop of Digne, played by Colm Wilkinson (the original Valjean in London and on Broadway), joins Fantine to welcome Valjean, taking the part Éponine sings in the stage version.

8. New images the stage cannot show

The film opens with convicts hauling a huge ship into dry dock during "Look Down," and a full-size replica of the elephant monument at the Place de la Bastille, where Gavroche shelters in Victor Hugo's novel, appears in the Paris scenes. After the final battle, Javert pins his own medal on Gavroche's body, a small added moment that foreshadows his crisis of conscience.

Les Misérables movie vs musical: FAQs