Breaking News: LES MISERABLES Announces New Leads for Second Year on Broadway; Plus Tony Nominee Ramin Karimloo Extends!

Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new production of Boublil & Schönberg's Les Miserables will welcome several new cast members for its second year on Broadway beginning Tuesday, March 3 at The Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street).

Joining the cast are Tony and Oliver Award nominee Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins) as Thenardier, Erika Henningsen as Fantine, Rachel Izen as Madame Thenardier, Brennyn Lark as Eponine, Chris McCarrell as Marius and Wallace Smith as Enjolras. Tony Award nominee Ramin Karimloo will perform as Jean Valjean through the end of the summer; Will Swenson, as Javert, and Samantha Hill, as Cosette, will continue in their roles as well. Current cast members Caissie Levy (Fantine), Andy Mientus (Marius), Cliff Saunders (Thenardier), Kyle Scatliffe (Enjolras) and Keala Settle (Madame Thenardier) will play their final performance Sunday, March 1.

Gavin Lee (Thenardier). Broadway: Bert in Mary Poppins (Tony and Olivier nominations, Drama Desk Award). Other theater credits: Holiday Inn (world premiere, Goodspeed). Carnegie Hall: Show Boat. London's West End: Mary Poppins, Contact, Oklahoma!, Crazy For You, Me & My Girl, Peggy Sue Got Married, Over My Shoulder. TV: Woodford in "White Collar" (Season 6), "The Good Wife," "Law & Order: SVU."

Erika Henningsen (Fantine) is making her Broadway debut in Les Miserables. New York: Show Boat (Kim), "Live from Lincoln Center" with the NY Philharmonic. Regional: Diner (Beth) world premiere at the Signature Theater. Graduate of the University of Michigan, BFA Musical Theater.

Rachel Izen (Madame Thenardier). Broadway: Mary Poppins. London: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Lautrec, Annie, Beauty & the Beast, Singin' in the Rain, Bitter Sweet, Mack and Mabel, Blondel, Follies, The Beggars Opera, Guys & Dolls, Chicago, A Chorus Line. Regional: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Witches of Eastwick, The Pajama Game, The Winslow Boy, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy. Film/TV: "Evita," "The Knick."

Brennyn Lark (Eponine) is making her Broadway debut in Les Miserables. She is a recent graduate of AMDA, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

Chris McCarrell (Marius) made his Broadway debut with this production of Les Miserables as a member of the Ensemble. Television: "Peter Pan Live!" (NBC). Regional theatre: Bubble Boy (Bubble Boy), Summer of '42 (Hermie), Next to Normal (Gabe), Sweeney Todd (Anthony), Pippin (Lewis).

Wallace Smith (Enjolras) Broadway: Rocky (Apollo's Manager), Godspell (Judas), American Idiot (Favorite Son), The Lion King (Adult Simba), Hair (Hud), Ragtime. Off-Broadway: MTC's Choir Boy. Regional: Old Globe's Jeff Buckley musical The Last Goodbye, Whoopi Goldberg's White Noise. TV: "Crime," "Elementary," "Person of Interest," "Blue Bloods" and more.

This newly-reimagined production of Les Miserables opened on Broadway March 23, 2014 to critical acclaim. The Associated Press raved, "A glorious Les Miserables! This terrific new production is beautifully sung and acted." NY 1 said, "LES MISERABLES is born again. This is as close to perfection as we'll ever get in the theater." And The Huffington Post proclaimed, "This is a Les Miserables for the 21st century! It stirs the audience and rocks the rafters."

International productions of the new Les Miserables have met with equal success and acclaim in the U.K., France, Spain, Japan and Korea and Australia. This new version of Les Miserables, which premiered in the U.K. in 2009, inspired filmmakers to make the immensely successful Oscar/Golden Globe/BAFTA-winning movie.

Based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Miserables is an epic and uplifting story about the survival of the human spirit. The magnificent score includes the classic songs "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Stars," "Bring Him Home," "Do You Hear the People Sing?," "One Day More," "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables," "Master Of The House" and many more.

Cameron Mackintosh's production of Les Miserables is written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, original adaption by Trevor Nunn and John Caird and additional material by James Fenton. The original Les Miserables orchestrations are by John Cameron with new orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke, Stephen Metcalfe and Stephen Brooker.

The new production is directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell, with set and image design by Matt Kinley inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, costumes by Andreane Neofitou and Christine Rowland, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter and projections realized by Fifty-Nine Productions. Musical staging is by Michael Ashcroft and Geoffrey Garratt. Musical supervision is by Stephen Brooker and musical direction by James Lowe.

The original production of Les Miserables can now only be seen in London where it's currently in its 30th record-breaking year. Les Miserables originally premiered at the Barbican Theatre in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company in October 1985. It transferred to the Palace Theatre in December of that year and then moved to its current home at the Queen's Theatre in April 2004. In October 2006 Les Miserables took over the title of World's Longest Running Musical followed by two other Cameron Mackintosh productions, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.

The original New York production of Les Miserables premiered first at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987, later moving to the Imperial on October 17, 1990, where it played until May 18, 2003, for a total Broadway run of 6680 performances. Les Miserables is the 5th longest-running Broadway production of all time.

Seen by nearly 70 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 23 languages, Les Miserables is undisputedly one of the world's most popular musicals ever written, with new productions continually opening around the globe. The worldwide gross for Les Miserables is $2.5 billion. There have been 47 cast recordings of Les Miserables, including the multi-platinum London cast recording, the Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast and complete symphonic albums and live recording of the New 25th Anniversary Production and the motion picture soundtrack which sold close to 2 million copies and topped the Billboard and iTunes charts. The DVD's of the 10th Anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall and the 25th Anniversary at The O2 have sold millions of copies worldwide.

There are over 3,000 productions of the Les Miserables School's Edition scheduled or being performed by over 150,000 school children in the UK, US and Australia, making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools.

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the legendary musical Les Miserables made theatrical history with an international first: three different productions in London at the same time. The Original Production at the Queen's Theatre, the acclaimed New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican (where the show originally premiered) and a celebratory concert at The O2 Arena. The O2 Concert was presented in over 500 cinemas throughout the United States on November 17, 2010 and is now available on Blu-ray DVD through Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The 2012 Universal film version of Les Miserables co-produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Working Title Films, and directed by Tom Hooper, is one of the most successful musical films ever, grossing more than $450 million. The film received the Golden Globe Award as Best Picture (Musical/Comedy) and received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won three Academy Awards. The film's soundtrack debuted at #1 on Billboard's Album chart and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

The sumptuous definitive new book, Les Miserables - From Stage to Screen from Applause Books tells the story so far of the World's Longest Running Musical in words, pictures and rare facsimile memorabilia and is written by Benedict Nightingale and Martyn Palmer, with a foreword by Cameron Mackintosh.

Tickets to Les Miserables are available at www.telecharge.com or by phone at (212) 239-6200 or (800) 447-7400. Ticket prices range from $37 - $147.