Les Misérables

Something of a follow-up to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s highly acclaimed non-musical dramatization of Charles Dickens’ Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Les Misérables was again directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, designed by John Napier, and lighted by David Hersey. (This time, however, it was produced by Cameron Mackintosh in partnership with the RSC.) Once more those responsible put together an epic saga dealing with the theme of social injustice and the plight of the downtrodden that had inspired the earlier massive 19th-century literary classic. Originally conceived in 1979 by the French team of composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricist Alain Boublil (with the collaboration of poet Jean-Marc Natel), the pop opera gives dramatic life to Victor Hugo’s sprawling 1,200 page novel of suffering and salvation during a tumultuous period in French history. The story takes the valiant hero Jean Valjean from 1815 (after he has been paroled following 19 years on a chain gang for stealing a loaf of bread) to the illfated 1832 student uprising in Paris, when Valjean saves the life of Marius (David Bryant), the beloved of his adopted daughter Cosette (Judy Kuhn). Throughout the saga, Valjean is relentlessly hounded by the fanatic police inspector Javert (Terrence Mann) for breaking his parole, a pursuit that ends only when Javert, after chasing his quarry through the sewers of Paris, drowns himself in the Seine because he has violated his obsessive code of justice by letting Valjean escape. With Herbert Kretzmer writing the English Iyrics (and James Fenton credited for “additional material”), Les Misérables was successfully launched in London in 1985 at the RSC’s Barbican Theatre, then brought to New York two years later by Mackintosh with the original lead, Colm Wilkinson, repeating his impressive performance as Valjean. (Wilkinson was subsequently replaced by Gary Morris, Timothy Shew, and William Solo.) Equally vital to the musical’s appeal were Nunn and Caird’s inventive, fluid staging and Napier’s atmospheric sets — including an immense barricade for the uprising — that moved on a mammoth turntable. Les Misérables was the first musical in Broadway history to open at a top ticket price of $50. Prior to this production, the most successful musical of French origin (which also crossed the Atlantic via London) had been Irma la Douce. Besides the original Broadway cast album, many other recordings of the show are available. Geffen OC.

"the world": the show's own period marketing line.

Music

Claude-Michel Schönberg

Lyrics

Herbert Kretzmer