Les Misérables

a historical musical

This musical has been performed in more then fifty world cities to date, starting with the Paris premiere in the Palais des Sports in the year 1980 (directed by Robert Hossein), followed by the premiere in London at the Barbican Arts Centre in 1985, which meant a breakthrough for this work (directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird), and on to Broadway in 1987 where it was nominated for twelve Tony Awards for the best musical, music, libretto etc. It has also been performed in Tokyo, Budapest, Reykjavik, Oslo, Melbourne, Vancouver, Vienna, Madrid, Stockholm, Prague (1992), Singapore, Tallinn and Belgrade.

Its fame and popularity with the widest range of audiences owes much to, in the best meaning of the word, the famous British producer Cameron Mackintosh, who discovered its rich musicality, emotions and literary quality and who had it adapted for the English stage both in terms of language and music. This story of a runaway galley slave, Jean Valjean, based on Hugo's famous novel of the same name (1862), found an absolutely fitting elaboration in this stage production in which the story of the main hero intertwines with those of his tireless pursuer, the police commissioner Javert, the small orphan Cosette who finds a home and later also the love of a student, Marius, a perversely comical couple of innkeepers, the Thénardiers, who survive under all regimes … This all takes place against the background of turbulent times when the barricades of revolution, in which many of the heroes also take part, appear in Paris in 1830. Mass scenes alternate with intimate ones, love with hatred and violence with a hope for a better world.