Les Miserables

Cameron Mackintosh's production of the now legendary musical Les Miserables has indisputeably become the world's most popular musical, having been seen by over 50 million people worldwide.

"This irresistable musical has never seemed more moving" The Daily Mail (October 2001)

From its celebrated opening London in October 1985, this stunning adaptation of Victor Hugo's epic masterpiece by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil (with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer), immediately captured the imagination and enthusiasm of the theatre-going public. Les Miserables has already been performed in 34 countries, 212 cities and sung in 20 different languages. It closed at the Palace Theatre on 27 March 2004, moving to the Queen's Theatre from 3 April 2004.

"This great musical is a masterpiece of storytelling" The Sunday Times (June 2000)

Sweeping its audience through an epic tale of passion and destruction against the backdrop of a nation in revolutionary turmoil, this stunning adaptation continues to thrill audiences night after night.

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade. Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight. That will give you the right to be free!
(Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer)

Victor Hugo: "People reduced to the extremity of need are also driven to the utmost limits of their resources, and woe to any defenceless person who comes in their way. Work and wages, food and warmth, courage and goodwill - all is lost to them. The daylight dwindles into shadow and darkness enters their hearts; and within this darkness man seizes upon the weakness of woman and child and forces them into ignominy. No horror is then excluded. Desperation is bounded only by the flimsiest of walls, all giving access to vice and crime... they appear utterly depraved, corrupt, vile and odious; but it is rare for those who have sunk so low not to be degraded in the process, and there comes a point, moreover, where the unfortunate and infamous are grouped together, merged in a single fateful world. They are "Les Miserables" - the outcasts, the underdogs."

Having won awards all over the world, including eight Broadway Tony awards, Les Miserables has earned itself a unique place in musical history. Around the globe, night after night, thousands of people are swept away by the power, the passion and the triumph of human spirit that is Les Miserables.

"The move of Les Miserables is as remarkable as NASA's Mars landing. Rest assured its quality remains intact. The principal cast is further proof of the depth of our theatre's talent. This gripping story displays a belief in the existence of goodness that is an antidote to modern cynicism. As usual the show affected me with a sense of wonder" The Times (April 2004)

"The production still feels amazingly fresh and full-blooded. It would require a cold heart indeed to remain in your seat during the rapturous standing ovation" The Daily Telegraph (April 2004)

Victor Hugo: "Will the future ever arrive?... Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold, lost as it is in the depths, small, isolated, a pin-point, brilliant but threatened on all sides by dark forces that surround it; nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the stars of the clouds" Victor Hugo, writer of the original novel Les Miserables.

Les Miserables in London opened 8 October 1985, closed 23 November 1985 at The Barbican Theatre before transferring 4 December 1985, closed 27 March 2004 at The Palace Theatre and then transferring again 3 April 2004 to the Queen's Theatre.