Les Miserables returning to Broadway in Mar 2014
A new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Tony Award-winning musical Les Miserables will come to Broadway in Mar 2014 at a Shubert theater to be announced.
This newly re-imagined Les Miserables is playing across the country and around the world and inspired filmmakers to make the movie which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and has won 3 Golden Globes including Best Picture, as well as 4 BAFTA's.
The new production launched a U.S. national tour in Nov 2010, having already played in 64 cities throughout North America, grossing more than $130 million. International productions of the new Les Miserables have played in the U.K, France, Spain and Korea. New productions are scheduled to open in the coming months in Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil.
Cameron Mackintosh said,
"To my constant surprise, my productions continue to be enjoyed as much as ever by audiences all around the world and I'm thrilled to have the unique chance of redoing them all over as if they were brand new shows. I'm even more delighted that they are proving just as big hits at the box office in their new form as the originals, having recently reinvented 'Oliver!,' 'Phantom' and 'Miss Saigon' to similar acclaim to the new Les Miserables."Philip J. Smith, Chairman of The Shubert Organization, said,It's marvelous that modern audiences are embracing them as contemporary musicals rather than revivals. I am delighted that Broadway audiences will now join the millions of Americans who have already flocked to see this glorious new staging and spectacular re-imagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo."
"We're thrilled Cameron is bringing LES MIZ back to Broadway, where it's been a huge success, not once, but twice. Both times in Shubert theaters. In 1985, Bernie Jacobs, Bob Wankel and I went to London to attend the world premiere. We knew that night Cameron had created something great. We were right."Based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Miserables. is an epic and uplifting story about the survival of the human spirit. The score includes the classic songs "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Stars," "Bring Him Home," "Do You Hear the People Sing?," "One Day More," "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables," "Master Of The House" and many more.
Cameron Mackintosh's production of Les Miserables. is written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, original adaption by Trevor Nunn and John Caird and additional material by James Fenton.
The new production is directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell, designed by Matt Kinley inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo with costumes by Andreane Neofitou and additional costumes by Christine Rowlands, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter and projections by Fifty-Nine Productions. The original Les Miserables. orchestrations are by John Cameron with new orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke and additional orchestrations by Stephen Metcalfe and Stephen Brooker.
Now in its 28th year in London, Les Miserables. originally premiered at the Barbican Theatre in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985. It transferred to the Palace Theatre in December of that year and then moved to its current home at the Queen's Theatre in April 2004 where it is still playing to standing room only. In October 2006 Les Miserables. took over the title of World's Longest Running Musical followed by two other Cameron Mackintosh productions, Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'Cats.'
The Broadway production of Les Miserables originally opened at the Broadway Theatre on 12 Mar 1987 and transferred to the Imperial Theatre on 17 Oct 1990 running for 6,680 performances. The musical returned to Broadway on 9 Nov 2006 where the show played the Broadhurst Theatre until its final performance on 6 Jan 2008. To date, Les Miserables. is the 4th longest-running Broadway production of all time.
The Universal film version of Les Miserables. co-produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Working Title Films, and directed by Tom Hooper, has grossed $150 million domestically and nearly $400 million worldwide since its 2012 Christmas Day release. The film received the Golden Globe Award as Best Picture (Musical/Comedy) and received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
Originally published on