Broadway vs. On Tour

[anm11]

I'm a complete theater newbie so try not to make fun of me, lol. I'm going to see Les Miserables on tour in California. However, I thought it was the same cast and the same production as the Broadway version. But I know it was recently announced that Les Mis was coming back out on Broadway next year, so now I'm thinking this isn't the same production. Can someone kind of clarify how Broadway and on tour works?

[LizzieCurry]

There is no production of LM currently on Broadway.

Just because a show is out on tour doesn't necessarily mean there's a parallel Broadway production, and vice versa.

[mikey2573]

The current tour of LES MIZ is a new (and IMHO inferior) production of the musical that has different sets and staging than the original Broadway production. The original production made brilliant use of a revolving stage which has now been dispensed with in favor of projections based on Victor Hugo's illustrations. This means that some very iconic LES MIZ staging moments are lost to those who see this new production.

[dramamama611]

As pointed out above -- Tours do not only exist while a show is currently playing on Broadway.

Even when they do, they often hire a brand new cast to do the tour. There are certainly times when they entice some of the leading characters to do the tour, but the only time it MIGHT be the entire B'way cast, would be if the production on b'way closes. And of course, supporting and/or ensemble actors could also be asked or want to go.

They don't usually re-do the promotional materials, but use the same commercials, posters and souvenier programs are often FROM the original cast. (Or sometimes the ORIGINAL tour.)

If we haven't answered your question, please be specific on exactly what you are curious about.

Welcome to the world of theatre -- a great place to be. Welcome, too, to B'way World -- not always a great place to be!

[BrodyFosse123]

To make it basically clear -- whenever you see a tour of Broadway show playing in your city, that is NOT the Broadway production. Period.

Many uninformed people always assumed whenever they see WICKED or JERSEY BOYS coming to their city, they think the Broadway production closed and is touring the country. It is not. The touring production is a separate production featuring a totally different cast. In other words, WICKED did not close on Broadway for a few months to travel the country. A separate production was created just to tour the country. This DIRECT FROM BROADWAY tagline confuses a crap load of people.

As mentioned above, many touring productions of Broadway shows are modified for the tour for obvious reasons (traveling and mounting issues) but the core of the show is still there -- same music, choreography, costumes, etc.

In the case of the current tour of LES MISERABLES. This production is based on a restaging and heavily scaled down production created for the 25th anniversary of the musical. It is NOT a recreation of the original (and legendary) production that opened on Broadway in 1987. You'll be seeing a production of LES MISERABLES, though.

I hope this somewhat helped this long-going confusion.

[SondheimFan5]

biggest pet peeve = referring to a tour as a "broadway show." There may be similar elements (or even the same direction/choreo/design), but there is only one place to see a BROADWAY show, and that is on BROADWAY in NYC. Also, tours usually are not as elaborate as Broadway shows in terms of sets/costumes. Even a lot of non-union tours advertise it as "the broadway production" which it is not.

However...this current Les Miz tour is quite good (or at least it was 6 months ago), so you will enjoy it ( more than the movie).