Picture: Michael Le Poer Trench
Theatregoers have just a few months left to see the world’s only original production of Cameron Mackintosh’s record-breaking Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre before the London venue closes for four months of refurbishing work.
After taking its final bow at the Queen’s Theatre on 13 July 2019, the original 1985 production will continue in performance on Shaftesbury Avenue with a four-month season at the Gielgud Theatre from the end of July. Details are to be announced at a later date.
When the restored Queen’s Theatre reopens in December, a new production of the much-loved show will begin an indefinite run. A new company is currently being assembled and bookings will open in February.
Work on the Queen’s Theatre will include the restoration of architect W.G. Sprague’s original boxes and loges, which were destroyed, along with the entire front of house, by a bomb in 1940. The refurbishment will also include the addition of new lavatories to the front of house.
Still playing to 95% capacity and nightly standing ovations, the original production of Les Misérables has just enjoyed a record-breaking Christmas run at the Queen’s.
Commenting on the show’s enduring popularity, Mackintosh said: “I am continually amazed that Les Mis in its fourth decade continues to break new ground and new records. The show’s astonishing success is tribute to the story’s power to move and inspire which is at the heart of both the original novel and the musical. Tomorrow will always come forLes Mis!”
Currently in the middle of a UK and Ireland tour, the acclaimed new production of Les Misérables has already taken a record-breaking £30 million in advance ticket sales with most dates sold out until January 2020. With just a few seats remaining in Milton Keynes, Bradford, Newcastle and Liverpool, tickets for the Southampton run will go on sale in February. Further UK and European dates will be announced shortly.
The new staging which features scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo arrived in the UK following hit runs in South America, Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Spain, France, Manila, Singapore, Dubai and on Broadway.
Now in its 34th year in the West End, Les Misérables 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 Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, original adaption by Trevor Nunn and John Caird and additional material by James Fenton.
Les Misérables originally opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on 8 October 1985. It transferred to the Palace Theatre on 4 December 1985 where it ran for 19 years before moving to its current home at the Queen’s Theatre on 3 April 2004.
In North America, the current tour of the new production, which is playing major cities across the US and Canada until 2021, continues to play to 95% attendance and has grossed over $250million at the box office to date.
Angela Thomas
Tickets for Les Misérables are available HERE.
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