MTI Makes LES MISERABLES Available for Licensing for First Time in Full-Length Version

For the first time ever, the full-length version of LES MISÉRABLES is available to license, for a limited time, for performances starting in June 2013 announced theatrical licensor Music Theatre International today.

Due to the unprecedented success of the first-class productions in the West End, on Broadway, on tour and in over 40 countries around the world, the opportunity to license and produce Les Misérables has not previously been available generally to professional and amateur groups.

Based on Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Misérables holds the record for the longest-running musical in the world and continues to thrill and captivate audiences around the world. Epic, grand and uplifting, Les Misérables is a treasured tale about the survival of the human spirit. The score features classic songs that are now staples of any musical theatre audition including, "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.

From the wrongfully accused hero Jean Valjean and his loving daughter Cosette, to the misunderstood heroine Eponine and the relentless Inspector Javert - Hugo’s characters have proved themselves timeless and contemporary in every country and society in which the musical plays. Les Misérables is truly an emotional and uplifting story.

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Boublil and Schönberg's Les Misérables is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer based on the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, with additional material by James Fenton.

The idea for Les Misérables began when author Alain Boubil saw a London production of Oliver. The Artful Dodger brought to his mind a singing Gavroche, the young revolutionary from Hugo’s classic novel. After years of work and months of rehearsal, Les Misérables opened at the Barbican Theatre on October 8th, 1985 and was a success from the beginning. Despite mixed reviews, the public was drawn to the powerful emotion in the production, and by the morning of the second night of previews, the box office had already sold a record-breaking 5,000 seats.

“The opening night of Les Misérables at the Barbican Theatre on October 8th, 1985 was one of those extraordinary occasions when against all the odds a theatrical alchemy took place that made everyone forget the years of work and months of rehearsal – racing against the clock – that went into adapting Hugo’s sweeping masterpiece for the musical stage,” noted Cameron Mackintosh. “After only a week of previews the show simply soared, and both the audience and the cast were elevated to a state of powerful emotion rarely seen in the theatre. Back in 1982, when I first heard the French concept album, a dream of what the show could be flashed through my mind – that dream was fulfilled beyond my expectations.”

Les Misérables has been performed so many times and in so many places that its statistics are always changing. The LES MISÉRABLES Official Website has some of the most up to date statistics about the production. Here are just a few.

• When Les Misérables celebrated its 21st London birthday on October 8th, 2006, it became the world’s longest running musical, surpassing the record previously held by Cats in London’s West End.

• In January 2010, the West End production broke another record by celebrating its historic 10,000th performance.

• Les Misérables has been translated into 21 different languages. (English, Japanese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, German, Polish, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, French, Czech, Castillian, Mauritian Creole, Flemish, Finnish, Argentinian, Portuguese, Estonian and Mexican Spanish).

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