Can you hear the people sing? ‘Les Miserables’ video flood begins

With the Hugh Jackman-Russell Crowe “Les Miserables” about to head to theaters, the viral videos of celebrities belting out the showstoppers (particularly the Valjean-Javert confrontation song) have started to surface. There’s Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris from a “How I Met Your Mother” promo appearance (when the show was first starting), Jason Segel and Paul Rudd (above) with Peter Travers from their “I Love You, Man” tour (notice, if you will, the subtle ways Segel developed his instrument in the interim), the recent Anne Hathaway “SNL” spoof (more late-night parodies can’t be far behind) and then of course this new one from Jackman and Crowe riffing in a New York stage show.

In addition to showing how badly Segel apparently wanted to be in Les Miz, the videos underscore the whole singalong-contagion thing the movie has going for it. (If you work in an office, you have probably experienced this already.) It’s why the film is poised to become a huge hit. Hollywood talks a lot about pre-awareness, but there’s no kind of awareness like hummable awareness.

Check out one of the Segel entries above, and annoy your co-workers in kind.

ALSO:

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Tom Hooper reveals his song-and-dance on ‘Les Miserables’

At ‘Les Miserables’ debut, a director who likes love and loathes lip-synching

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