The Broadway production ended its 16-year run on May 18, 2003, and remains the third longest-running show in Broadway history. This national tour is the only production of Les Miz currently in the United States. It will see bookings through summer 2005.
Broadway's final "Jean Valjean," Randal Keith, leads the company, with Robert Hunt as Inspector Javert, Tonya Dixon as Fantine, Melissa Lyons as Eponine, Adam Jacobs and Leslie Henstock as the lovers Marius and Cosette, John-Andrew Clark as the student revolutionary, Enjolras, and David Benoit and Broadway's original Madame Thénardier, Jennifer Butt as the Thénardiers. Nadine Jacobson and Gabriella Malek alternate as Young Cosette and Young Eponine, and Sean Gilbert and Alex Rutherford alternate as Gavroche.
R. Andrew Bryan is musical director. Musical supervisor continues to be Dale Rieling.
Visit www.LesMis.com.
The $4.2 million touring production "replicates the Broadway production in its entirety," according to production notes. "This touring company...is a carbon copy of the original production still running in London and is the same production that has been seen in Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. It comes to town with the trademark 34-foot turntable, two barricades that weigh over 12,000 pounds, over 1,000 costumes, five fog machines, 422 lighting instruments, 18 orchestra members, and 36 cast members." The show is based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, an epic saga "that sweeps through three turbulent decades of 19th century French history." The show is also the story of one man, the fugitive Jean Valjean, who is pitted against the self-righteous Inspector Javert, in a lifelong struggle to evade capture. Romance, social injustice, crime, punishment, a thwarted revolution and forgiveness are all part of the mix.
Written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, Les Miz was adapted from the French by Herbert Kretzmer, and has additional material by James Fenton. It was first brought to life at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Barbican Theatre in London by co-directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird. The designers are John Napier (sets), Andreane Neofitou (costumes) and David Hersey (lighting). Producer Cameron Mackintosh brought it to international attention.
