Les Miserables Celebrates 20th Anniversary in London on October 8
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 08, 2005
On Saturday 8th October LES MISÉRABLES celebrated its 20th Birthday. At the end of the evening performance 35 brilliant school children joined the current cast for a specially devised finale. All the children taking part have previously appeared in the hugely successful LES MISÉRABLES School's Edition and were hand picked after a series of auditions. There are currently over 1,000 productions of the LES MISÉRABLES School's Edition scheduled or being performed by over 100,000 school children in the US and UK, making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools.
This musical that makes history, does so again, as it is embraced by the youth of the world, and continues to inspire generation after generation. Here are just a few of the recent remarks received from the groups who have performed the show and their audiences.
The Cameron Mackintosh/Royal Shakespeare Company production of LES MISÉRABLES continues to break records and change the world.
- LES MISÉRABLES was recently voted the nation's most popular musical in a poll by BBC Radio 2 listeners by a landslide majority of over 400,000 votes.
- LES MISÉRABLES has been seen by over 53 million people worldwide in 38 countries and in 21 languages.
- LES MISÉRABLES has had 31 cast recordings including the multi-platinum London cast recording and the Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast and complete symphonic albums.
- LES MISÉRABLES 10th ANNIVERSARY Royal Albert Hall Gala Concert video has sold well over one million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling musical videos ever in the UK.
- LES MISÉRABLES made history last year with a gala performance at Windsor Castle in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and French President Jacques Chirac, celebrating 100 years of the Entente Cordiale.
- LES MISÉRABLES became the first full-scale Western musical to play in China in the English language when it opened for a limited run at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in June 2002, where it sold out to a rapturous reception.
- LES MISÉRABLES will become the first ever major western musical to be produced in Mandarin when it takes to the stage in Shanghai in Spring 2007, as a co production between Cameron Mackintosh and the Shanghai Grand Theatre. This will be the first of four productions planned for Cameron Mackintosh's new joint venture company in China.
Next year LES MISÉRABLES will be on track to become the longest-running musical ever in the West End with special celebrations already being planned.
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