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Les Miserables storms the barricades with an arena spectacular · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The music of the people who will not be slaves again.
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  Speaker 1: It's the famous refrain from a musical that defined the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: late twentieth century, just as the novel and its spirit
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  Speaker 1: of revolution had defined an age before.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Blame is a Rap.
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  Speaker 1: The masterpiece and the musical theater phenomenon is back on
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  Speaker 1: our cultural radar with an arena spectacular coming to Australia
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  Speaker 1: and starring some of the superstar talent who took Australia
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  Speaker 1: by storm four decades ago. Today, The Australian's Arts and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Culture editor Tim Douglas, who happens to be a lame
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  Speaker 1: Is super fan, on why this musical endures. Tim Douglas
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: is the editor of the Australian Review section and Tim,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You've got a secret past as a Lamezerab super fan.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure there's a past so much as I
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  Speaker 3: just said, continuing interminable present, but yeah, no, I love it.
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  Speaker 3: When I was eight years old, I looked in the
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  Speaker 3: bottom of my sad a sack and there were tickets
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  Speaker 3: to see Lamies in nineteen eighty nine at the Theater Royal,
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  Speaker 3: and I went along with my mum and dad and
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  Speaker 3: it was just a really kind of life changing moment
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  Speaker 3: for me.
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  Speaker 4: I loved every middle of it, and we.
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  Speaker 3: Had the soundtrack blasting around the house through much of
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  Speaker 3: the late eighties and early nineties, and I yes, still
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  Speaker 3: love it to this day.
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  Speaker 1: It's based on a novel, of course, by the Frenchman
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  Speaker 1: Victor Ugo, who also wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 1: And I went back this morning and read a summary
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  Speaker 1: of the plot of the novel, which I haven't read
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  Speaker 1: but I know you have. It's an incredibly complex, sort
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  Speaker 1: of sweeping story. I had thought it was about the
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  Speaker 1: French Revolution. That was my memory from childhood of having
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  Speaker 1: watched the musical, but it's really not, is it. No.
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  Speaker 3: It's based loosely on the June Rebellion of eighteen thirty two.
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  Speaker 3: Victor Hugo was there in the Tuileery's gardens, apparently chin stroking,
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  Speaker 3: thinking of a play to right when he heard gunshots
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  Speaker 3: fight around the corner, and he kind of raced around
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  Speaker 3: and saw these students waving flags, kind of dying this bloody,
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  Speaker 3: glorious death against the government then King Louis Philippe.
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  Speaker 4: Which they saw to be oppressive.
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  Speaker 3: He of course wrote this novel while he was living
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  Speaker 3: in exile on Guernsey in the English Channel. He was
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  Speaker 3: exiled there for twenty five years after publicly calling Napoleon
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  Speaker 3: a trader and sending a letter to Queen Victoria, which
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  Speaker 3: was seen to be treasonous itself. So he started his
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  Speaker 3: life as a loyalist and a royalist. His father was
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  Speaker 3: a loyal member of Napoleon's army, and as he got
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  Speaker 3: older in life he became a Republican. And that really
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  Speaker 3: is the kind of rich vein that runs through the
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  Speaker 3: middle of Lemisrabbler, which was standing up to the government.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, not the French Revolution, but a smaller one,
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  Speaker 3: kind of posting the Boleonic Wars in the mid nineteenth century.
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  Speaker 2: And it's a morality tale, really, isn't it about one
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  Speaker 2: man's redemption.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a redemptive tale centered on Jean Valjean, who
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  Speaker 3: sentenced the night end years hard labor for stealing a
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  Speaker 3: life of bread defeat his family. He's supposed to report
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  Speaker 3: to the police Sergeant Javert for parole. He skips parole,
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  Speaker 3: decides to go on this story of redemption where he
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  Speaker 3: becomes a good man and ends up becoming a mayor
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  Speaker 3: of a town, adopts a child, all part of this
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  Speaker 3: kind of Christian theme that runs through the tail itself.
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  Speaker 2: Seems to save a lot of people's lives along the way.
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  Speaker 4: He saves lots of lives, There's lots of characters.
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  Speaker 3: They kind of end up colliding in dramatic circumstances at
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  Speaker 3: the barricades and when the students take on the government
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  Speaker 3: and all these stories come together and Valjean's story comes
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  Speaker 3: full circle.
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  Speaker 2: It's very complex, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: I Mean, there are sort of virtuous poor people who
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  Speaker 1: are terribly oppressed I'm thinking of from But then there
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  Speaker 1: are people like Valjean who are much more complex. They're
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  Speaker 1: not cardboard cutouts of good peasants who are rebelling against
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  Speaker 1: the evil authority?
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  Speaker 4: Are they? No, they're not.
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  Speaker 3: And and in fact, Valjean's kind of based really on
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  Speaker 3: who Go's own idea of himself.
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  Speaker 4: His mother was Catholic.
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  Speaker 3: He kind of saw himself for most of his life
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  Speaker 3: as Catholic and believing that idea of original sin and
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  Speaker 3: the need to repent, And so that story is kind
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  Speaker 3: of really his in its own way. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 3: an interesting tidbit too. Of course, family is very important
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  Speaker 3: to hug His dad was in the army during that
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  Speaker 3: time I mentioned earlier with Napoleon's army, but he was
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  Speaker 3: born on twenty sixth of February eighteen oh two. He
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  Speaker 3: obviously did the maths or had a frank conversation with
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  Speaker 3: his father and realized that he was probably conceived on
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  Speaker 3: twenty fourth of June eighteen oh one. Now those numbers
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  Speaker 3: don't mean much until you think two four six one.
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  Speaker 2: Now for six so one, your time is up and
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  Speaker 2: your paroles begone.
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  Speaker 4: You know what?
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  Speaker 3: That, of course is the president and number of Jean
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  Speaker 3: Valjean in his Tale of Course, one of the most
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  Speaker 3: climactic moments in the musical, and those numbers are sang
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  Speaker 3: out in Jean Valjean reveals himself to be who he
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  Speaker 3: is to Javert.
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  Speaker 1: This is Russell Crowe as Javert, the villain, and Hugh
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  Speaker 1: Jackman as Valjean, the hero in the twenty twelve movie
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  Speaker 1: adaptation of Lame Miserab Yes, two far six oh one.
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  Speaker 4: Him is Jean Valjean, name Chavert.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting that as an eight year old this was
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  Speaker 1: hugely appealing to you. I mean, this is a really
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  Speaker 1: adult story, isn't it It is?
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  Speaker 3: I was thinking about this earlier, and it was a
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  Speaker 3: really kind of it is a revolutionary time. We're talking
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  Speaker 3: about nineteen eighty nine. This is, you know, eight months
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  Speaker 3: before the Berlin War came down, two years after Reagan
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  Speaker 3: delivered that speech to Gorbletrov about tearing down the walls.
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  Speaker 3: The iron curtains still up at this point. But there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of kind of revolutionary fervor. You know, it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: an interesting time for Australia. We floated the dollar earlier
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: that decade. Of course, we were more international looking than
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: we ever had. The monorails popping up everywhere. You know,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: when monorails are popping up, that you know the world's
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  Speaker 3: changing for the better. So that year the Sydney Festival
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  Speaker 3: approached Cameron McIntosh, who had launched it in nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 3: five in London.
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  Speaker 4: It went gangbusters.
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  Speaker 3: The Sydney Festival said we're put on this free concert
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  Speaker 3: in the Domain. One hundred and thirty five thousand people
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  Speaker 3: turned up, and I was one of them. Marina Pryor
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  Speaker 3: was in the cast, Anthony Wallow Normal Row, of course,
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  Speaker 3: how do I forget Normally Row playing Jean Valjean, and
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  Speaker 3: Debora Byrne was playing Fontine. These are the great rock
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  Speaker 3: stars of the seventies and eighties in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: And of course Australia fell in love with Anthony Wallower
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  Speaker 1: and Marina Pryor in The Phantom of the Opera, didn't they.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, So that was the kind of their launching
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  Speaker 3: pad onto what we know now as the household names
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  Speaker 3: of musical theater.
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  Speaker 4: It was a real moment. It was a great moment
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  Speaker 4: for Australia.
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  Speaker 3: I remember that day at the Domain because it was
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  Speaker 3: the same day that Australia was playing the West Indies
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  Speaker 3: at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the first day of
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  Speaker 3: that Test, which we went on to win, one of
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  Speaker 3: the only Tests we won against the Windies.
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  Speaker 4: In their eighties.
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  Speaker 3: But again it was a great moment for Australia because
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  Speaker 3: we're really kind of we'd been thrashed for a decade
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  Speaker 3: and Alan Border led us to a seven wicket victory
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  Speaker 3: that week.
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  Speaker 1: This is amazing markers of a young Tim Douglas and
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  Speaker 1: learning more about you every moment. It's not dissimilar to
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  Speaker 1: the way Hamilton, which is about you know, the American Revolution,
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  Speaker 1: not something you would think is going to appeal to children.
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  Speaker 1: Is very appealing to children of that age from kind
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  Speaker 1: of eight years old up, isn't it. There's something about
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  Speaker 1: musical theater, about these kind of big ideas of revolution
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  Speaker 1: that is very appealing to kids.
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  Speaker 3: It is, And I think the eighties is a real
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  Speaker 3: time for that. I mean there's a character, of course,
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  Speaker 3: in lem Is called Gavroche. In the Bookie is actually
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  Speaker 3: the son of the vile hoteliers, the thenardiers. In the musical,
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  Speaker 3: he is he's just a kind of he might as
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  Speaker 3: well be an orphaned child. He hangs around the revolutionaries
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  Speaker 3: and ultimately dies in really dramatic circumstances. But there's a
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  Speaker 3: song that he sings that it's in the original recording.
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  Speaker 3: It was in the original musical, which was changed in
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  Speaker 3: eighty seven.
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  Speaker 4: Look A've we got s because it's just a book.
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  Speaker 3: There's a line in it where he says, you know,
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: never never kick a dog because he's just a pup.
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  Speaker 4: You better run for cover when the pup grows up.
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  Speaker 3: And I remember as a child kind of hearing those
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  Speaker 3: words and feeling really kind of energized and inspired by it.
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  Speaker 3: And I think it's, you know, it's something he might
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  Speaker 3: have stayed with me.
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  Speaker 4: What was it exactly about lame is?
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  Speaker 3: And what is it about that show that continues to
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  Speaker 3: see it thrive in multiple literations, The twenty twelve films
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  Speaker 3: Though and Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe and Hathaway, I.
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  Speaker 2: Dreamed, Dream and Time Gone.
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  Speaker 4: Hope and Life.
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  Speaker 3: Worth Living a Man Sea Fred of Course two, and
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  Speaker 3: the twenty eighteen TV series starring Dominic West.
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  Speaker 4: It just seems to live on in popular culture. I
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  Speaker 4: Dream would be fuck give It's.
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  Speaker 3: Interesting too because you know music was written by Claude
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  Speaker 3: Michelle Schomberg, and when it was premiered in London on
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  Speaker 3: the West End, it was actually kind of panned.
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  Speaker 4: Critics didn't love it.
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  Speaker 3: The music was seen as derivative and samey and a
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  Speaker 3: little bit schmaltzy, so it didn't kind of open to
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  Speaker 3: rave reviews. Macintosh stuck with it and then the people
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  Speaker 3: kind of, you know, maybe apply so rose up and said, no,
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  Speaker 3: we love this.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up.
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  Speaker 1: Who's the real hero of this story and why we
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  Speaker 1: are the eighties back in such a big way.
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  Speaker 3: So it's been thirty five years since The Arena Spectacular
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  Speaker 3: appeared in the Domain at the open air free concert
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  Speaker 3: that was part of the Sydney Festival.
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  Speaker 4: It's been brought back to Sydney to the ICC.
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  Speaker 3: Not open air anymore and not free either, I might add,
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  Speaker 3: But really interestingly, it's just this incredible cart So we've
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  Speaker 3: got Marina Pryor coming back. She's now playing Madame Thenardier,
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  Speaker 3: the violin keeper we spoke about earlier. She of course
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  Speaker 3: was Cosette in the original eighty seven production in Sydney.
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  Speaker 3: She's the only person now to have played both those roles. Wow,
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  Speaker 3: both ends of that musical spectrum. Michael Ball is coming back.
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  Speaker 3: He was the original Marius in the original London production,
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  Speaker 3: so he's now playing sharing the role of Javert with
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  Speaker 3: another singer. And Matt Lucas of Little Britain Fame is
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Thenardier in his production.
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  Speaker 4: He's played that on the West End too.
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  Speaker 1: Thenardier is a bit of a shady grifter who rips
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  Speaker 1: off the heroes of Lamey's rab. Matt Lucas took to
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  Speaker 1: Instagram to point out his take is a little different.
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  Speaker 3: So Lamey's Arab is about a character called Thenardier, and
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  Speaker 3: it's about his story, and then there's this sort of
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  Speaker 3: other characters. Jean Valjean Jabert Mariusie vind Gazette and they
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  Speaker 3: knows various people that sort of flit in and out
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  Speaker 3: of the piece, But it's very much a Thenardier focused show.
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  Speaker 4: That's what people can can expect. You know.
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  Speaker 3: It's some really big names that are coming back to
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  Speaker 3: do it. But I think having Marina and Michael baul
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  Speaker 3: is really sweeten in a way.
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  Speaker 4: Let's me find you that.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not part of the Sydney Festival this time around,
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  Speaker 1: but how does it fit into the landscape of what
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  Speaker 1: else we're seeing on stage in Australia at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's so interesting because Kat's premiered in eighty
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  Speaker 3: five in Australia. Macintosh is big and then Angreel Lloyd
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Webber the big kind of push for musical theater. We
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: hadn't seen anything of that kind of stature before then
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Lamy's comes. Of course, Lamy's is still the longest running
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: West endhow it's still running now in London. It's shot
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: on Broadway in two thousand and three. It's had three
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: theatrical runs in Australia. There's a second arena show. But
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: it really kind of just laid the foundation for what
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: we're seeing now we've got new impresarios like Michael Castle
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  Speaker 3: popping up, who is you know, in addition to people
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: like John Frost, etc. Who are still putting on great works,
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  Speaker 3: Michael's kind of taking at next level. And you know
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: we've got Beetle Juice coming up around the corner, back
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: to the futures on its way.
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  Speaker 2: You know, pretty commers to run the train.
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  Speaker 3: Went sport for choice like that thirty years ago. And
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  Speaker 3: so so the ongoing success of Lamis has really laid
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: the groundwork for you know, families such as ours who
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: enjoy the arts, but also for performers and musicians and
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: you know, the creative arts more generally.
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  Speaker 1: It's got a real eighties theme to it, though, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if it's just that you
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  Speaker 1: and I had our heyday in the eighties, but that
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  Speaker 1: decade resonates so strongly still in what's popular in music today.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Michael Jackson is huge again for good oil Cats is back.
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  Speaker 1: As you say, we can't get away from the eighties,
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  Speaker 1: can we?
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  Speaker 4: We can't.
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  Speaker 3: It's a good point. I hadn't really thought about that,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: but yes, you're right. Every book I pick up or
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: every time I walk in the front door. My kids
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: are playing Motley Krue or some song I didn't even
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: know from the eighties because I wasn't particularly exposed to
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. So yeah, that's a great point,
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: and yeah, maybe we're tapping back into that nostalgia.
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  Speaker 4: I certainly.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Douglas is The Australian's editor of Review, which is
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: available in print wherever you pick up the paper and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: all the time at the Australian dot com dot au
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Slash Review.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us this week on the front.
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  Speaker 1: Our team is Tiffany Dimack, who edited this episode, Jasper Leak,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: who produced it, Kristen Amiot, our regular producer, Lee at Sammagloo,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs and me Claire Harvey.