The musical is based on the novel of the same title written by Victor Hugo in 1862.
The show's iconic logo of Cosette is based on this original illustration from the novel.
Before Les Mis was a Broadway or London sensation, it was a musical concept album sung completely in French. Legendary CATS producer Cameron Mackintosh revamped it for English-speaking audiences.
Contrary to popular opinion, the musical is NOT set during the French Revolution of 1789. The action begins in 1815, and follows events over the next two decades including the Paris Uprising of 1832.
Javert's suicide scene was not in the original incarnations of Les Mis.It was incorporated for the show's first run on Broadway.
Les Misérables has been translated into 22 different languages.
Productions have played in 44 countries and over 347 cities. That covers about 10 million square miles which is 3 times the greater French Empire, Roman Empire and Ottoman Empire combined!
Les Misérables has won over 125 major theatre awards including an Olivier, 8 Tonys, a Grammy, and 5 Helpmann Awards.
There have been over 47 cast recordings of Les Misérables including albums, singles and the symphonic. Both the original Broadway cast album and the symphonic recordings won Grammy Awards.
The Les Misérables Schools’ Edition was launched in the USA on 10th May 2001 at Holy Trinity High School, Hicksville, New York and in the UK on 14th October 2002 at Stanwell School, Cardiff. Since then there have been over 4,000 schools’ productions in the UK, US and Australia making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools.
Les Misérables has been seen by more than 70 million people worldwide. The show has been playing in at least one venue in the world for the past 30 years.
There have been more than 48,000 performances of the show which in run time is equal to 6000 days or 16.4 years of consecutive shows.
Les Misérables was made into a feature film in 2012 starring some pretty big names such as Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Amanda Seyfried as Cosette.
In 2009, Susan Boyle sang Les Mis song I Dreamed a Dream on TV show Britain's Got Talent. It became one of the most watched videos on YouTube.
One of the show's iconic songs, "One Day More" was used in Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign.
This is by far Troupe 0922's most intense show when it comes to lighting and effects using 22 intelligent lights, (our current record is 6), 2 low lying fog machines, 2 regular fog machines and 2 new smoke geysers. Our head electrician and lighting designer is pretty sure Christmas has come again.
