Ah, the aftermath of the French Revolution. Terror, unrest, a general sense of fear — the perfect ingredients for an over-the-top musical extravaganza, no?

Yes, I’m being facetious, though perhaps only partly. It’s hard to imagine what Victor Hugo would have felt if he could have seen the curious phenomenon that is the sung-through 1980s musical based on his 1862 novel. Instead of disquisitions on the Paris sewer system and religious practice, we have not-always-memorable songs.