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Thanks almost entirely to his mistress, Victor Hugo escaped France with his life and an early manuscript of Les Miserables. While living in exile and on an island close to the coast but under British control, he finishes the book 10 years later. It’s an immediate international smash hit, with an appeal so broad that even soldiers on BOTH sides of the US civil war love it.
From there it’s a roller coaster…hugely popular between 1860 and 1900 it falls out of favor as France turns conservative between 1900 and 1940. Its popularity re-energizes starting with the second world war, and then by 1980 it becomes one of the first big musicals in France, then takes over the London stage, and finally explodes on Broadway to become what many would call the most successful musical of all time.
So what has made this story so powerful? Is it the love story, the redemption of the main character, or the call to a revolution? Is it the intricate plot or the famous digressions, on topics from raw sewage to criminal slang, that run on for hundreds of pages? We’ll consider all of these possibilities in this episode of THM.
Report on Homelessness in Orange County; interviews with unhoused people
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This episode covers 5 real historical figures that helped inspire the novel, and a whirlwind plot summary of the original Victor Hugo novel.
Errata: For some reason I kept referring to the character Marius as "Marcus" -- please just skip that.
Here's a link to the image of the Bishop's plaque, identifying that character in the novel is based on the actual Bishop of Deign.
Introduction
Against the odds, an early draft of Les Miserables made it out of Paris, with it’s author – Victor Hugo – in hiding for 9 days and with a price on his head. The hero who saved the book is his mistress, who was also his copyist. She smuggled a trunk with the manuscript to Brussels and then the island of Jersey, where she maintained a residence a stone’s throw from where Hugo was living with his wife and family.
When the book is finally published almost a decade later, Les Miserables instantly becomes the most commercially successful novel to that point in history. Embedded within it are at least 3 different numerological references, what gamers today would call easter eggs. These numbers are so obscure even the most crazed Les Mis fans would miss their significance. What were they, and what did they mean?
And Les Mis is a work of fiction, but it very much is a commentary on its time. That time is one where who’s in charge of France shifts dramatically, and violently, about every 10 years. Hugo writes the book in exile and has to recall the city of Paris from memory. As he’s doing that, were his characters based on actual historical figures? Was there an actual Cosette, or Fantine, or even Jean Valjean?
And, as always, what was this book about what was it’s message that has resonated with the audience?
We’ll figure this out and walk through the plot of this 1,500 page masterpiece, which takes as many twists, turns, and side trips as a barricaded French alley. Let’s do it! In this episode of Theater History and Mysteries.
Footnotes available in Episode 7
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It's 1860, and Victor Hugo, having taken to the barricades against the hated Louis Napoleon, has escaped Paris with a price on his head. And his mistress, not his wife, has successfully smuggled both he and his unfinished manuscripts out of France. But now he's in exile, living in an island off the French coast but under British control. How is he going to get his masterwork published? And as the text comes to be finished, it will be rightly remembered as a definitive statement on the French Revolution. But where in the book is the Revolution? The text is 1,500 pages long, and one of the five volumes is entirely dedicated to a revolt that happened over two days in 1832. But in that skirmish, the revolutionaries lost, and all historians agree that the fight had almost no military or political significance. In fact, the most significant outcome of the battle is the painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix was banned from being shown in public because it might inspire people to revolt. H m, that's interesting. A piece of art is taken down from display to its possible political consequences. But back to our question. Surely that skirmish is not what Hugo's central theme is. Where is the revolution? In the most famous novel about the French Revolution? We will go down those winding, narrow Parisian back alleys trying to find it in this episode of Theater History and Mysteries.
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It’s 1848 and there is yet another violent transfer of power going on in France. One of its greatest citizens – both a member of the legislative body and the Legion of Honor, has been in hiding for 9 days with a price on his head. If he’s found by the wrong people he will surely be killed. He is an author and he does have a pile of manuscripts he’s working on, but first he’s got to get out of France. How did he do it? Was he the hero who saved the manuscript that would become the most famous French novel, or was it someone else? How was the manuscript saved?
The story did get out and did get published and is considered the quintessential story of the French revolution. But the central event on the barricades isn’t about the big French revolution in 1789 or even later events in the mid-1800s where Hugo himself was ON the barricades. In fact, the 2 days on the barricades that consume almost a fifth of the whole book had almost no military significance at all. Why did Hugo center on this event for inspiration instead of the much more significant revolution of the 1790s or the much more consequential events that Hugo himself was a part of? Where is the revolution in this, the most famous fictional account of the French revolution?
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Errata For some reason I keep calling Andrew Lloyd-Webber Andrew Lloyd-Wright, which is weird because I know nothing about architecture. Anyway, the author of Phantom of the Author is Andrew Lloyd-Webber, not Andrew Lloyd-Wright. Together, however, I feel they would make a spectacular opera house.
Intro: On Oct 13, 2016 the Phantom of the Opera is scheduled to open in the Mogador Theater. The narrative is, of course, set in the majestic, surreal, very gothic Palais Garnier, and the opera house is also key to the plot.
The show has been running in London for 20 years, never been performed in Paris. It's getting a little prickly; the musical is based on a book by French writer Gaston LaRoux and there’s some kerfuffle afoot. Andrew Lloyd Webber isn’t exactly forthcoming crediting the LaRoux estate. Since LaRous was French, that complicates matters. But it has all been worked out…to the satisfaction of the estate, the lawyers, the production company, and the theater. But not, perhaps, to the satisfaction of the Phantom. A disaster would strike, and the production would never open. To this day, this classic French story, in an iconic French location, that is the archetypical example of French Gothic storytelling, has not been performed in France.
This episode will explore the musical production, starting with the Lloyd-Webber version of events leading up to it, looking into the various charges and counter-chargers, and trying to find out if the musical succeeds because of the book, if the book only survives because of the musical, or if there's some other formula out there.
And finally, what happened that prevented the musical from being performed in France?
(References in Episode 4)
NYT: On the credits issue: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/11/theater/old-novel-returns-to-haunt-a-current-musical.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tapWhat the fire looked like:
https://www.tumblr.com/operafantomet/184591545852/do-you-what-ever-happend-after-the-fire-in-the
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It’s the fall of 1923, and Lon Chaney Sr. has just starred in a smash hit based on Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. There is going to be a follow-up show, and it is going to be a hit. But who’s idea was it? And why will that matter to the critical reception of a musical that won’t come out for another 80 years?
Flash forward two years, and now It’s the summer of 1925. Universal Pictures has invested a pile of money in a new movie, but there’s a war council that’s been called because the production is going so poorly that it’s on the edge of collapse, and had so much been invested in the show it might simply have been dropped.
I’m sure you’ve guessed the title by now. But if this movie isn’t made, the Phantom story will languish, and it’s very likely the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical mega-hit will never come to be.
What happened? Why was the show in such dire straights, and what was done to save it?
How many endings were considered, scripted, and shot? And after the brush with disaster, what finally made the movie work?
And….where ARE THE GHOSTS? If one Hollywood production should have some really juicy ghost stories surrounding the set and the performers, it’s this one. If there’s a good ghost story out there, by god, I’m going to find it.
We’ll try to find them in this episode, part 2 of a 3-part series on the Phantom. Season 1, ep 4 we looked at the book. Today the movie, and next time the musical. But the themes here will make a difference to understanding what may be the most profitable musical of all time.
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This is EPISODE 4. The next episode, EPISODE 5, will drop on December 16.
It’s 1786, and a male ballet dancer (“Dahn- sir”) and ballerina both dance at the Paris opera house, and the man falls in love with the woman. But so does a solider, and in the love triangle the dahn-sir is killed. With his dying breath he asks that he be buried in the opera house to be near his love in death if not in life, and his bones are later used as props in theater productions.Could this story be the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera?
Or in 1873 the original opera house burned down just as the majestic new Palais Garnier is being finished, leaving a ballerina dead and her fiancé disfigured.
Could this story be the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera?
Ironically, the Phantom of the Opera isn’t a phantom at all – it’s a real guy and not a ghost. So it might not be that surprising that number of non-ghostly mysteries surround the Phantom of the Opera. SO MANY QUESTIONS.
What, and who, inspired the characters?Was there a real chandelier accident, and if so, what happened?The story has obviously gained traction, but when the book was published, was it a flop or a hit? How did Carl Lemmele, the CEO of Universal Pictures, find out about the book?What makes the narrative so enduring, that it’s inspired a book, a movie, and musical?What makes the musical so popular – maybe even more popular than any entertainment production, including any movie – and is it the same thing that makes the book work? Does the narrative of the book make the musical work, or did the musical resuscitate a poorly written book?Was Andrew Lloyd Webber a fan of the book or did he consider it a classic penny dreadful?How does the story end?As interpretations fly, an intrepid “independent scholar” finds a previously undiscovered ORIGINAL manuscript that shows what the author was thinking at the time the book was printed. What did that manuscript reveal?And where are the ghosts?In this episode we'll discuss the author, the original books, and separate out what real and imagined incidents inspired the original book.
REFERENCES
Babilas, D. (2013). Paris Opera as an Edifice and a Literary Haunted House. In Dark Cartogrophies – Exploring Gothic Spaces (pp. 67-87). Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.Biancorosso, G. (2018). The phantom of the opera and the performance of cinema. The Opera Quarterly, 34(2), 153–167. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/8/article/716827
Blake, M. F. (1995). A thousand faces: Lon Chaney’s unique artistry in motion pictures. New York: Vestal Press.
Chandler, D. (2009). “What do we mean by opera, anyway? ”: Lloyd webber’s phantom of the opera and “high-pop” theatre. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 21(2), 152–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-1598.2009.01186.x
Cui, A.-X., Motamed Yeganeh, N., Sviatchenko, O., Leavitt, T., McKee, T., Guthier, C., Hermiston, N., & Boyd, L. (2022). The phantoms of the opera—Stress offstage and stress onstage. Psychology of Music, 50(3), 797–813. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356211013504
Curiosity Damsel. (2017, July 24). The opera ghost really existed.. Curiosity Damsel. https://curiositydamsel.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/the-opera-ghost-really-existed/
Frey, A. (2016, July 22). The
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In the early 1970s and a writer for plays, movies, and television is holed up in Palm Springs at one of the most unusual restaurants in operation. There was a sole proprietor, the menu has one dish, and there is no advertising or tourists because there are only 4 tables. The topic of conversation is whether to turn a stage play into a musical, and the server, cook, owner, and sole employee is also a psychic.
The cook is consulted about the project and predicts: “It will be extremely successful,” she says, “In fact, it will overwhelm your life.”Two years later, in 1972 the production would open as a musical.
The playwright was Dale Wasserman, the project was converting The Man From La Mancha into a musical, and it would go on to play over 2,000 shows
There was something mystical afoot: “Facts cannot explain the success of the Man from La Mancha. Something more was at work…”
Part 1 looked at the significance of the book Don Quixote. Part 2 looked at the life of Miguel de Cervantes. This episode, part 3, looks at how the book was converted into a musical that went on to be one of the most successful musical theater productions ever. And the crazy coincidences that were necessary to bring it about...
(References listed in episode 1)Support the show
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This is the story of how one of the greatest books ever written, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, became one of the most successful musicals in broadway history, which of course was The Man from La Mancha by Dale Wasserman.
The year is 1579, and a solider being held in an Algerian prison, and he’s about to make his 4th, and failed, attempt to escape. And this is only one of a multitude of life mishaps that makes it very unlikely the solider even survived. And it wasn’t until the age of 58 that the solider, then prisoner, then tax collector, would write the world’s first novel.What utterly impossible set of circumstances had to happen for this prisoner to even get out of prison, much less become one of the greatest writers of all time?
Flash forward 350 years to the mid-1960s where a playwright is looking to convert a stage play into a musical, he has an acquaintance who is a psychic, so the writer asks whether the musical will be a successful endeavor. The psychic predicts not only that it will, and will soon overwhelm the writer’s life.
Both predictions are entirely accurate.
This is a 3 part dive into Don Quixote. In part 1 we looked at the impact of the book and what made it so important. Take home points are that it is a really big deal, and it had a lot of important ideas wrapped around a really funny and accessible story.
In this part we’ll look at the star-crossed life of Cervantes, including the ominous predictions surrounding 1588, his deeply ironic relationship with the greatest playwright of his day, and try to answer the question of how someone with his life could possibly write comedy.
In part 3 we’ll ask how that narrative, 350 years later, get translated into one of the most successful musicals in broadway history?
What series of impossible and unlikely events had to happen for the world to inherit Don Quixote?
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Thank you to the fan from Los Angeles who writes: "Hi. I've been enjoying your Cervantes podcast but unless the show on Broadway that was made from the book by Cervantes turned it into a spy story, the proper title of the musical is "Man of La Mancha." Not the man and not from." All true, I can only identify this as errata.
This is the story of how one of the greatest books ever written, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, became one of the most successful musicals in broadway history, which of course was The Man from La Mancha by Dale Wasserman.
The year is 1579, and a solider being held in an Algerian prison is about to make his 4th escape attempt. It will fail, and there’s a very real chance that although he’s escaped severe punishment the first 3 times, this failure could be fatal. (McKendrick 82) His foiled attempt will not result in being put to death, but will leave him utterly without hope of escape.What utterly impossible set of circumstances had to happen for this prisoner to even get out of prison, much less become one of the greatest writers of all time?
The year is 1615, and a very conventional playwright is writing the second part of a very unconventional book. Really wanted to be a playwright, seemed almost ambivalent about being an author of books. In it he pens the phrase “My guess is that there is not a nation or language into which the book will not be translated.” This prediction will prove to be entirely true.
What about this book is so compelling that it makes its own equivocal author an accurate prophet, beyond his own wildest dreams?
The time frame is now the mid-1960s a playwright is looking to convert a stage play into a musical, and he’s having a meal at small restaurant where the cook is also the sole proprietor and the menu has one item. The cook is also a psychic, so the writer asks whether the musical will be a successful endeavor. The psychic predicts not only that it will, and will soon overwhelm the writer’s life.
Both predictions are entirely accurate.
Not only are these 3 events connected, but they are connected by a straight line and by the exact same narrative.
In this 3-episode series I pursue the history Don Quixote, and episode 1.1 starts with the book -- how did it get written, what's it about, and why has it become such a class? Episode 2 will explore the life of the author, MIguel de Cervantes, and episode 3 will get to how the author and the story got woven into a musical.
REFERENCES
Albrecht, J. W. (2005). Theater and politics in four film versions of the Quijote. Hispania, 88(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.2307/20063070Bayliss, R. (2006). What Don Quixote means (today). Comparative Literature Studies, 43(4), 382-397. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25659541
Gregor, K. (2016). Collaborative encounters? Two recent Spanish takes on the Shakespeare–Cervantes relationship. Palgrave Communications, 2(1), 16033. https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2016.33
Johnson, M. (2007, April 23). Why Don Quixote needs show tunes. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/apr/23/whydonquixoteneedsshowtun
McKendrick, M. (1980). Cervantes. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Miller, S. (2024). Inside man of La Mancha. In New Line Theatre. https://www.newlinetheatre.com/lamanchachapter.html
Mineo, L. (2016, April 25). A true giant. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/a-true
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