It’s 40 years since the celebrated musical Les Misérables (affectionately known as Les Mis or Les Miz) opened in London, at the Barbican Centre.
It is composed by Claude Michel Schönberg, with lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Boublil and Schönberg, based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo.
As performers and audience look forward to tonight’s charity gala, here are 40 facts related to Les Misérables!
40 facts … 1-10
The shortest telegram in history was between Victor Hugo and his publisher about the novel Les Misérables. Hugo sent ‘?’, enquiring how the novel had been received, and received the reply ‘!’.
Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War called themselves Lee’s Miserables, reflecting poor conditions under Robert E Lee’s leadership, and the popularity of Hugo’s book with soldiers.
The last song of the musical uses a slowed down phrasing of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise.
In the 1998 film, the town in which Jean Valjean becomes mayor is called Vigau (from Victor Hugo).
Valjean’s prison number 24601 comes from the date Hugo thought he was conceived (24 Jun 1801).
The song “Bring Him Home” is based on the melody of the “Humming Chorus” in Pucchini’s opera Madame Butterfly.
The soliloquies for Valjean and Javert in the musical are perfect mirrors of each other in terms of melody, suggesting two sides of the same coin.
Blacklick Valley High School produced a ‘clean’ version of the musical (example line “don’t they know they’re taking loaves from those already dead”) that has to be seen to be believed.
The musical’s wardrobe consists of more than 2000 items including accessories and hats.
Unusual items of Percussion include pots and pans, a bin lid, and a zigzag triangle.
40 facts … 11-20
The English lyrics were by Herbert Kretzmer, the TV critic at the Daily Mail at the time.
Two successful Javerts on stage have been Roger Allam and Philip Quast, who later reunited as the gay couple at the heart of La Cage Aux Folles.
One of the most watched videos of all-time on YouTube is Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed A Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent (2009).
For nearly 20 years, the London production of Les Misérables ran at the Palace Theatre, serving as a useful directional landmark.
The musical has been performed in 21 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigan, Polish, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Brazilian Portuguese, Estonian, Czech, Mauritian Creole, Basque, Catalan and Korean.
Original Les Misérables musical co-director Trevor Nunn built the lyrics of “Memory” in Cats from TS Eliot’s series of Nocturnes, especially “Rhapsody on a Windy Night”.
The first film inspired by Les Misérables (the book) was Victor Hugo et les principaux personnages des misérables (1897) by the Lumière brothers.
The first TV miniseries based on the novel was made in Italy in 1964, called I miserabili.
The longest adaptation at over 22 hours is the animated Japanese series Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette (2007).
Neil Diamond recorded a version of “I Dreamed A Dream”, Fantine’s song from the musical, in 1987.
40 facts … 21-30
The original Valjean in the London production of Les Misérables, Colm Wilkinson, was also the first Phantom in Phantom of the Opera and originated the role of Che in the Evita concept album.
At the time of the musical’s 30th anniversary, lead producer Cameron Mackintosh told the Financial Times, “The 68 backers (including one large syndicate) who put up £600,000 for the original London production of Les Misérables in 1985 have made £47 million to date – 78 times their money – and are still earning.”
The new version of the musical of Les Misérables, which opened in 2020, was based on the UK touring staging and retired the staging of the original Royal Shakespeare Company production.
The novel is full of animal metaphors, including Cosette/lamb, Valjean/wolf, Enjoras/lion, Grantaire/toad, Thenardiers/dogs.
Javert is based on Eugène François Vidocq (1775-1957), a criminal who became a police officer.
The RSC was instrumental in convincing the public and critics that a British-made musical could be a serious contemporary art form, following their adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, making them perfect partners for Les Misérables.
The original French version of what became “Bring Him Home” is called “Comme un homme”, which translates “As a man”.
In 1998, John Owen Jones became the youngest Jean Valjean in the West End, aged 26.
In 2016, Cedar High School performed a “steampunk, gender-bending Les Misérables” with changes including women in the two main roles.
Also in 2016, a 20 year-old in the USA built a completely genderswapped recording from the karaoke tracks of Les Misérables, taking six years to complete it.
40 facts … 31-40
In a non-canonic Simpsons parody, Lisa was seen on the cover of Playbill in a musical called Lis Miserables.
In 1997, Shanine became the first Black performer to play the role of Eponine in the Broadway production of Les Misérables.
The first actor to play both Jean Valjean and Javert in the West End was Hans Peter Janssens, who returned as Javert in 2016.
“I Saw Him Once“, a solo for Cosette, is a song that was removed from the show after 1987. It only appears on the original London cast recording.
The song, “Suddenly” was added to the movie of the musical, but has not been used in any stage production.
Curiously, one country in which the musical of Les Misérables was not a huge hit was in France!
Les Misérables was once on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books, but the ban was lifted in 1959 after nearly a century.
The anthemic “One Day More” was chosen as a campaign song by US Presidents Clinton and Obama.
The musical of Les Misérables has more than 50 songs / sung scenes in a running time of 2 hours and 50 minutes.
Although most English-speaking countries refer to Les Misérables by its original title, it has also been referred to as The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims, and The Dispossessed.
Happy 40th birthday, Les Misérables!
This is great fun! Thank you, Louise! Bella (TILLY NO-BODY)