British Actor Earl Carpenter Joins Broadway's LES MISERABLES Tonight

British actor Earl Carpenter's start date in Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Claude-Michel Schönberg & Alain Boublil's Les Miserables in the role of Javert is tonight, August 15.

Carpenter will play a limited engagement in LES MIZ through Sunday, October 3 during Will Swenson's previously announced hiatus from the production.

Carpenter recently performed as Javert in the acclaimed sold-out Toronto production of LES MIZ at the Princess of Wales Theatre opposite Tony Award nominee Ramin Karimloo as Valjean. Carpenter began his West End career in Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre in 1996, as Courfeyrac. In 2008 he played the part of Javert at the Queens Theatre and then in the 25th Anniversary U.K tour. He was then the Bishop of Digne at London's O2 Arena concert in 2010.

In 2003 Carpenter joined the London cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's theatre as 'walking cover' to the Phantom. He took over the iconic role in February 2005 giving over 1000 performances. He had the honor of opening the 25th Anniversary Concert of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, as the Auctioneer and reprised the role of the Phantom in Cameron Mackintosh's new 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera 2012/13 UK tour.

Other West End, UK and European tours have included Peron in Evita, Commander Khashoggi in Queen's We Will Rock You, the world premiere of the Gypsy Kings musical Zorro, Joe Gillis in the original tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, Beast and Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre and UK tour, Archibald Craven in the Scottish premiere of The Secret Garden, Count Danilo in Carl Rosa Opera Company's The Merry Widow, Alan Ayckbourn's Between the Lines, King Richard in the UK touring production of Robin, Prince of Sherwood and Simeon in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and original company of Cameron Mackintosh's The Witches of Eastwick at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and subsequent Prince of Wales run as Darryl van Horne.

Earl has also worked with many organizations including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Chichester Festival Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company helping to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011. He is Conceptual Founder of the online media giant Reelkandi.tv, Creative Director for Ginger Boy Productions and in 2009 he devised the concert, Three Phantoms, which has since extensively toured the UK and Scandinavia.

For more information, visit www.earlcarpenter.com or follow him on, twitter.com/EarlCarpenter.

The cast of the new LES MIZ features Ramin Karimloo, 2014 Tony Award nominee as Best Actor in A Musical, as Jean Valjean; Will Swenson as Javert; Caissie Levy as Fantine; Nikki M. James as Eponine; Andy Mientus as Marius; Samantha Hill as Cosette; Cliff Saunders as Thenardier; Keala Settle as Madame Thenardier and Kyle Scatliffe as the revolutionary Enjolras.

This newly-reimagined production of LES MIZ opened on Broadway March 23 to critical acclaim. The Associated Press raved, "A glorious LES MIZ! This terrific new production is beautifully sung and acted." NY 1 said, "LES MIZ 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 MIZ 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 29th 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 where it is still playing to standing room only. 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.

There have been four U.S. national touring companies of Les Miserables that have played more than 200 cities. Broadway audiences welcomed Les Miserables back to New York on November 9,

2006 where the show played the Broadhurst Theatre until its final performance on January 6, 2008. Les Miserables is the 4th longest-running Broadway production of all time.

Seen by nearly 65 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 22 languages, Les Miserables is undisputedly one of the world's most popular musicals ever written, with new productions continually opening around the globe, with seven more currently scheduled. 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.

Photo by Michael Le Poer Trench.