Cameron Mackintosh and the creative team of Broadway's smash, Les Misérables, are planning a surprise for the audience at the Jan. 25 performance of the musical at the Imperial Theatre.
A spokesman for the show confirmed "to mark the milestone of becoming the second longest-running show in Broadway history, there will be a special post-show, on-stage performance," but kept mum on details. On Jan. 25, Les Miz surpasses the performance count of A Chorus Line.
Playbill On-Line has learned that a special Chorus Line-themed post-curtain performance, said to be a melding of Les Miz's "One Day More" and A Chorus Line's "One," is now being rehearsed by the company. Past company members were invited to perform in it, and famous alumni of Les Miz will also be on hand to appear at the milestone show.
A private party will follow for the current company and all returning alumni.
On Jan. 17 Mackintosh took out a full-page ad in The New York Times that featured 12 Young Cosette characters strutting in the famous A Chorus Line triangle pattern (or "wedge"). The copy reads: "One Singular Sensation Salutes Another!" and "Still the One." *
You can just imagine the waif, Cosette, singing, "Everything was beautiful at the barricade."
Cameron Mackintosh's Broadway production of Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables will surpass the performance count of A Chorus Line Jan. 25 by playing its 6,138th show, making it the second-longest running musical in Broadway history.
Inspired by the 19th-century Victor Hugo novel about guilt, forgiveness and orphans emotional, literal and spiritual (to say nothing of that student uprising in Paris, where insurgents sing on a barricade), the musical is one of the great international successes of all time. It began in France, was retooled by British producer Mackintosh and an English creative team working with Schönberg and Boublil, and began is smash history in London prior to a Broadway bow.
A Chorus Line played 6,137 performances. Cats surpassed that number before closing Sept. 10, 2000, after 7,485 shows, and now Les Miz at the Imperial Theatre, is chasing that record.
The pop-operatic Les Miz — with ex-con Jean Valjean pitted against pious Inspector Javert — celebrates its 15th anniversary March 12, 2002. It opened at the Broadway Theatre and later moved to the current Imperial. The show has been seen by 8.5 million people in New York City. Worldwide, its audience counts about 45 million. The box office gross has been $1.8 billion.There have been 43 productions of Les Miz in 33 countries, in 20 different languages. It won the 1987 Tony Award for Best Musical and starred Colm Wilkinson, Frances Ruffelle, Randy Graff, Terrence Mann, Michael Maguire and Judy Kuhn.
The current cast of Les Miz includes Ivan Rutherford (Jean Valjean), Philip Hernandez (Javert), Jacquelyn Piro (Fantine), Nick Wyman (Thénardier), Betsy Joslyn (Madame Thénardier), Peter Lockyer (Marius), Diana Kaarina (Eponine), Sandra Turley (Cosette) and Christopher Mark Peterson (Enjolras).
Les Miz plays 8 PM Monday-Saturday, and 2 PM Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets range $20-$85. For information, call (212) 239 6200.
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There are currently eight productions around the world: London, New York, The U.S. National Tour, Budapest (Hungary), Tokyo (Japan, in repertory), Bonn (Germany), Sao Paolo (Brazil) and Chemnitz (Germany).
Noted alumni include Michael Ball (Marius), Gary Beach (Thénardier), Laurie Beechman (Fantine), Lacey Chabert (Young Cosette), Robert Cuccioli (Javert), Daisy Eagan (Young Cosette), Deborah Gibson (Eponine), Randy Graff (Fantine), Ruthie Henshall (Fantine), Catherine Hickland (Fantine), Judy Kuhn (Cosette), Patti LuPone (Fantine), Terrence Mann (Javert), Ricky Martin (Marius), Andrea McArdle (Eponine/Fantine), Melba Moore (Fantine), Gary Morris (Valjean), Hugh Panaro (Marius), Nathalie Paulding (Young Cosette), Frances Ruffelle (Eponine), Lea Salonga (Eponine), Marla Schaffel (Ensemble), Shanice (Eponine), Alice Ripley (Fantine), Rachel York (Fantine) and Colm Wilkinson (Valjean).
