After 25 years of record-breaking success, the creators of stage musical Les Miserables certainly have no reason to feel miserable. (via BBC)
This weekend, to celebrate its 25th birthday, a special anniversary concert is being held at London’s O2 Arena. The one-off production will see members of the original 1985 cast perform plus some very special guests including teen idol Nick Jonas of The Jonas Brothers.
The world’s longest running musical has astoundingly been produced in 42 countries, a far cry from early reviews, when the stage production was nicknamed “The Glums.” Originally based on Victor Hugo’s inspirational novel, the musical tells the tale of one man’s fight for survival amidst a whirlpool social and political injustices in 19th Century Paris. The original French version of the show – by lyricist Alain Boublil and composer Claude-Michel Schonberg – ran for 107 consecutive performances in 1980 at the Palais des Sports in Paris.
It’s also true that Les Miserables has been translated into 21 different languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Castillian, Mauritian Creole and Mexican Spanish.
The final jaw dropping figures speak for themselves: After more than 45,000 professional performances, Les Miserables succeeded in thrilling more than 57 million individual audience members throughout its 25 year legacy – that’s almost the population of Italy.
Bravo Les Miserables, NewsFeed salutes you.