“As soon as the Artful Dodger came onstage, Gavroche came to mind,” French songwriter Alain Boublil has been quoted, recalling the time he saw Oliver! in London. “It was like a blow to the solar plexus. I started seeing all the characters of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables—Valjean, Javert, Gavroche, Cosette, Marius and Éponine—in my mind’s eye, laughing, crying and singing onstage.” From that ‘blow to the solar plexus’ would follow a series of improbable events that would ultimately lead to the creation of the world’s longest-running musical and the fifth longest-running Broadway production in history.
The Gestation of a Giant
It all starts with the 1862 publication of Les Misérables, a novel by French author Victor Hugo. Set in the heady days of imperial France just prior to revolution, the book was not without controversy, as it directly addressed themes of poverty, injustice, classism and monarchism. Hugo, himself, rather forcefully announced his purpose in Misérables’ preface: “So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth … so long as the three problems … of the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved, [and] so long as … social asphyxia shall be possible, [and] so long as ignorance and misery remain on Earth, books like this cannot be useless.”
Of course, all of those human societal ills remained in effect when Alain Boublil recalled Hugo’s novel as he sat through Oliver!, another tale of the misery of unjust poverty. But his initial plans were merely for an album—an LP with music inspired by Hugo’s novel. He pitched the idea to French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and friend and fellow writer Jean-Marc Natel. Two years later, a demo tape was prepared. In 1980, the album was recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, England, and it was released later that year, selling 260,000 copies. Not exactly gold-record status. Even so, the concept album led that September to a stage version directed by French film director Robert Hossein, produced at Paris’ Palais des Sports. That, too, made little initial impression, closing after but three months.
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Three years later, British theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh (who had then only just opened the mega-hit Cats on Broadway) was intrigued enough with the album-cum-musical Les Misérables to (somewhat reluctantly) produce an English-language version. In October 1985, the British theatrical version of Les Misérables opened in London. “A lurid Victorian melodrama produced with Victorian lavishness,” decried The Sunday Telegraph; “a witless and synthetic entertainment,” opined The Observer. Meanwhile, literary scholars blasted the artistic abyss they thought Les Misérables had plunged into from classic novel to musical theater stage.
But the public begged to differ. Despite “official” negative reaction, they seemed to embrace Les Miz. Ticket sales were brisk; the initial engagement sold out. Even the reviews gradually warmed to the show. It would become, despite its odd, troublesome and convoluted gestation, the longest-running musical in the West End, followed by The Phantom of the Opera. It made its Broadway debut in 1987, initially running there to May 2003, closing after more than 6,500 performances. In 2010, Les Miz played its 10,000th performance in London. It had been nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won eight of them—including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
Next Stop: Milwaukee
Les Misérables’ Milwaukee showing boasts modern staging and sharply reimagined scenery hearkening back to the paintings of Victor Hugo. The eye-catching scenic design (by Matt Kinley) incorporates Hugo’s artwork with advanced projection technology that gives the production something of a cinematic ambiance.
“I’m delighted that, after a four-year absence, this glorious production is once again touring the major cities across North America and is more spectacular than ever,” said Mackintosh, current producer of Les Misérables’ ongoing world tour. It is, indeed, Mackintosh’s top-notch production of Les Miz that makes its way to Milwaukee’s Marcus Center next week, fresh off of a two-and-a-half year Broadway engagement.
March 27-April 1 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org/show/les-miserables.
