"Patron?" In John's words, Lan Li keenly captured this key word, and under curiosity and doubt, he involuntarily blurted out the question.

A wry smile appeared on John's face, "Yes, it's not easy to find a foundation that is willing to invest in new projects now. Still, there are some art lovers who are willing to invest. John exhaled softly, "The only thing I hope is that they know how to respect art and not interfere with the creative process." ”

A professional is a professional, whether it is a layman or a senior enthusiast, they are never professionals, and any form of finger-pointing can bring a disaster. It's like a football game, where fanatical fans are always pointing fingers at the club, telling the club how to place their squad and how to bring in new signings, but it's all just on paper. The same goes for artistic creation.

After a moment of embarrassment, John raised his head and looked at Lan Li, "Andre Hamilton, have you heard of this name? ”

An unexpected but reasonable answer. John Cod is well-known in London's West End, and André knows that Lan Li is his disciple, but on the other hand, Lan Li's family background is little known, and Andre's friendship with Lan Li is even more secretive.

The smile on the corner of his mouth paused slightly for a moment, and then raised lightly, "You can talk to him and see if he chooses to sponsor this project for the sake of art or for making money." "If it's the former, then he should give you enough creative freedom, and if it's the latter, then it's not a wise investment to choose the rearranged 'Les Miserables'." ”

With two simple sentences, John suddenly became enlightened, put down the teacup, clapped his hands vigorously, and his expression became clear, "That's good, that's it!" John adjusted his sitting posture and said with great interest, "This 'Les Miserables', I want to make some adaptations." ”

Lan Li smiled and bowed her jaw, not surprised by such an answer.

"It's not going off track, though, it's getting back on track. John's words made Lan Li raise his eyebrows slightly and become more interested, "Now the version of the West End of London, for commercial reasons, they have reduced and deleted the original book, surrounding the whole story of Jean-Argent, and refracting the background of the times with personal fate. Admittedly, Cameron Mackintosh's adaptation was so successful and the classic singing was so good that the world now thinks 'Les Miserables' is a story about Jean Agen. ”

Lan Li nodded in agreement.

Immersed in his thoughts, John was encouraged to continue his talk—as he always was, as a teacher, sometimes more excited than his students, and that energy, that enthusiasm, never waned. "However, as we all know, the original book is a story about the times, a magnificent chapter, and I hope to bring the whole story to the stage in its entirety. ”

"Wow. Lan Li's exclamation came out involuntarily, and after thinking about it seriously, his eyes showed surprise and surprise, but then he gradually began to get excited.

As John said, Victor Hugo's original book is magnificent and massive, and it is a monumental work about an entire era. It is divided into five sections: the first part, "Fantine", the second part, "Cosette", the third part, "Marius", the fourth part, "The love of the children of rue Brume and the heroic blood of rue Saint-Denis", and the fifth part, "Jean-Argent".

In the whole story, Jean-Argen only connects the main thread of the whole story, starting with him and ending with him, but he is not the soul of the soul - because the soul is an era. Victor Hugo sketches the vast number of people in this era with deep and serious brushstrokes, showing the cruelty of the tide of the times and the inevitability of historical change.

Jean-Argent, Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Savoy, Anjola, Denardière, Epenny...... Each character has his own story and chapter, reflecting the fragments of the times, outlining the picture of the times behind the popular uprising in Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It's an epic, but it's a piece of history.

Victor Hugo wrote this book, inspired by two real events, and collected information for twenty years, and finally wrote it, and in just three years, Hugo was embroiled in a political and political vortex and began a life of exile, a delay of another 12 years, and finally when Les Misérables was published, sixty-one years had passed since the first moment of inspiration.

It can be said that, as the title of the book says, "Les Miserables", this is a masterpiece. In the same way, the character of Jean-Argen also carries all the weight of Hugo's current situation and destiny in France at that time.

Cameron Mackintosh's adaptation of the musical "Les Miserables" successfully distilled the story of Jean Valjean, focusing the entire story on this one character, reflecting the helplessness of the times and the pathos of fate. There is no doubt that Cameron's change was successful, weakening the attributes of the torrent of the times, but increasing the helplessness of the reincarnation of fate, and on the basis of literary artistry, it injected entertainment to adapt to the market, and finally achieved great success.

Still, Cameron's version of "Les Miserables" is a full three hours long. Therefore, when Tom Hopper adapted, he had to reduce the length of the story, and at the same time had to adapt to the characteristics of the movie, adding some shot scheduling and character close-ups, and under the control of the limited duration, a large amount of content was further deleted, resulting in a further reduction of the story skeleton, losing the grandeur of the original work, and also losing the profundity of the stage version.

Now, John said that he wanted to restore the majestic momentum of the original work...... What a boldness!

"Five parts?" Lan Li asked.

John caught the glint in Lan Li's eyes, excited and expectant, which made John feel very happy, and nodded in affirmation, "Five parts, adapted into five chapters." The script has been written, the rights to the Mackintosh version have been obtained, and we will recreate and supplement the original music clips, and complete all the singing part writing. The end of the whole play is six hours long. ”

Six hours? It's a marathon! Even in London's West End and Broadway, it's a feat!

"Of course, that includes breaks. John added with a smile, "Six hours is really too long, and we still need to discuss the specific implementation." There are several options, one is the day performance, which is divided into two parts, three hours each, after the afternoon viewing, with a dinner and the evening, and the other is divided into the first day and the second day, which are also two parts. ”

"It's a serious challenge for the audience, and even more so for the actors. Just by contemplating it in his mind, Lan Li was already amazed.

If it's a two-day performance, the pressure on the actors is relatively light, after all, there are twenty-four hours of adjustment time, but for the audience, it's a serious test, sitting in the theater for three hours on two consecutive days?

If it is a day-to-day performance, it means that the actors' spirits must be highly tense, and a long performance of six hours in a whole day is a test of mental and physical strength, not to mention whether such a performance is staged every day or every other day, and how long the whole tour will last, it is like a long march.

John didn't hide his smugness and leaned back slightly, "It's a challenge that it's worth trying." John adjusted his sitting posture and continued, "Our idea is to present the whole era as it is: religion, society, culture, economy, war, human nature, philosophy, justice, and, of course, most importantly, revolution!

"Of course, the core soul is still Jean-Argent. Although the whole era is the protagonist, the role of the supporting role will be greatly increased, and the overall proportion will be slightly averaged, and Jean-Agen is no longer the most important thing like Mackintosh's version, but he still carries the weight of the whole story, and the thinking about fate, philosophy, and faith will still be completed by Jean-Agen. John said the excitement and couldn't help but start dancing.

Lan Li could feel John's excitement, because even he, as a listener, listened to it, and then drew it in his mind, the magnificent blueprint had already made his blood boil. "Start with Jean-Argent and end with Jean-Argent. It's like the original Victor Hugo. ”

"Yes!" John nodded heavily, "there are many, many things to consider in order to complete this drama. First of all, actors, excellent actors, every role is extremely important, even the smallest supporting role, may have a separate singing section, absolutely not sloppy; secondly, physical strength, strong physical strength, six hours of performance, no matter what form it is presented, this is an absolutely serious challenge for the actors, we may need to prepare four sets of casts, in case we need it, but here's the problem......"

Speaking of this, John paused with a wry smile, did not continue, picked up the teacup, and took a sip, the embarrassed and helpless expression was enough to explain something.

Fund. In the current West End or Broadway, the market is generally sluggish, and the production budget has been greatly reduced, and it is now not even two-thirds of its peak, or even less. Generally speaking, a play has three casts, with the first and second sets alternating to ensure the status of the actors, and the third set of substitutes to prevent the actors from being unable to play due to illness or accidents. However, the more actors you have, the higher the cost.

Four casts? That's almost impossible in today's market environment.

In addition to the remuneration of the actors, the expenses during the rehearsal phase are also a major issue. The six-hour repertoire requires a lot of rehearsals, and each lineup is rehearsed with real guns, which consumes manpower, material resources, and energy, which is by no means an easy task, not to mention that the rehearsal time is bound to be long.

Difficulties!