52 performances are scheduled from November 20 to January 2, 2025 on the stage of the Théâtre Châtelet in Paris. What do you need to know about this work and the iconic novel that inspired it? As an appetizer, before this highly anticipated premiere, we have selected ten surprising pieces of information about Les Miserables, in all their forms.
1 Victor Hugo’s novel was born from adultery
In 1845, Victor Hugo was 43 years old. After the death of his daughter Léopoldine, he regained his taste for life in the arms of a young woman of 25, Léonie Biard. She is married to a painter who suspects her of being fickle. To confuse her, he had her followed and on July 5, 1845, at dawn, a police officer arrived in a bachelor pad located Passage Saint-Roch, in Paris. The two lovers are in bed, in flagrante delicto of adultery, something that was not trifled with at the time. The young woman is taken to Saint-Lazare prison and then to the convent. She did not leave until February 1846. Victor Hugo was fortunate to be able to invoke the immunity conferred on him by his status as a peer of France and locked himself up at home to avoid opprobrium. To occupy his time, he then began writing a large fresco which he first entitled Jean Tréjean Then The Miseries.
2 “Les Miserables” made his fortune
The first edition of the book, published on March 30, 1862, sold 100,000 copies, a colossal figure for the time. When the second part appeared, on May 15, there was a near riot in Paris in front of the publisher Pagnerre’s store. People want to know without delay the continuation of the misadventures of Jean Valjean, the former convict with a big heart, of the policeman Javert, his sworn enemy and of poor Cosette, mistreated by the Thénardiers, Gavroche’s parents. The biographer Jean-Marc Hovasse says that in certain workshops, the workers clubbed together to buy the novel and drew lots for the reading order. It will be one of the first books to benefit from a worldwide release in a dozen capitals.
What may seem paradoxical is that this 1,500-page pamphlet denouncing the misery of the people has considerably enriched its author. Hugo had signed with the Belgian publisher Albert Lacroix, who came to meet him in his place of exile, in Guernsey, a staggering contract worth 240,000 silver francs, the equivalent of 600,000 euros. He will use this windfall to restore his house and build his famous roof on the roof. lockout, an entirely glass room where he wrote standing. The novelist also awards a dowry to his daughter Adèle and invests the remainder in stock market shares. A shame!
3 Before the musical, there was an album
Alain Boublil says that it was while attending the show in London Oliver Twist, according to Dickens, that he had the idea of adapting Victor Hugo’s novel into a musical. With his accomplice, the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, he decided to write “something with the structure of an opera with music and lyrics from the 80s“. The adventure begins with the release of a double album in 1980. Among the performers, we find Rose Laurens (Fantine), Adamo (Combeferre), Michel Sardou (Enjolras) and Michel Delpech (Feuilly). will sell more than 300,000 copies.
4 Robert Hossein saved the project
The idea of putting on a musical on this difficult theme does not arouse the enthusiasm of the producers, far from it. The director of radio Europe N°1 then advised the two friends to contact Robert Hossein, a specialist in large-scale productions. When they arrive at the meeting, Robert Hossein tells them straight away that he can’t do anything for them but that he is curious to hear what they did with the Misérables. Schönberg sits down at the piano and sings. Two hours later, Robert Hossein exclaims: “Your opera, little guys, I’m going to put it on for you! “.
The show arrived at the Palais des Sports in Paris on September 17, 1980 with some of the artists who recorded the record. The two Michels, Sardou and Delpech, are replaced by other performers. The orchestra has 28 musicians as in the biggest shows on Broadway. This first production attracted nearly 500,000 spectators in four months but did not go on tour, Robert Hossein refusing to take the plane! For Les Miserables, everything stops.
5 The show rises from its ashes in London
The show has already left the poster in France when Cameron Mackintosh, British producer of the musical Cat’s listen to the record by chance. Convinced of the potential of the work, he contacted Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and told them : “You don’t realize what you wrote!” For two years, they traveled back and forth to London and completely reworked the show with him, practically starting from scratch.
“We lived a dreamthey say, by rubbing shoulders with the greatest geniuses of Anglo-Saxon musical comedy. On October 8, 1985, Les Miserables were presented in London in English then on Broadway, in New York, on March 12, 1987. A turntable, revolutionary for the time, made it possible to move from one side of the barricades to the other. Spectators are transported by the movements of the crowd and the songs taken up on stage by around forty actors.
6 “Les Misérables” blew up the standard
Alain Boublil says that the day after the premiere, the critics were fierce: “There is worse than a bad musical: a French musical”, “a collection of songs only good for Eurovision”. Cameron Mackintosh then tries to contact the theater to find out where the reservations are. In vain because the switchboard blew up. In one morning, nearly 5,000 tickets were sold.
Quoted by Vanity Fair on May 13, 2024, Claude-Michel Schönberg says that the show had the best press officer: Lady Di herself. The Princess, thrilled by this dramatic musical comedy in the form of an opera, made “rave statements” in the press. A rare thing, the longevity of Misérables will push some critics to reconsider their opinion. The journalist of Daily MailJack Tinker, even wrote an article entitled: My fault.
7 Some titles have become political anthems
The musical made a brief return to Paris in 1991 at the Théâtre Mogador but without achieving the same success as abroad. One of the songs of Misérables, I dreamed a dreamsung by the character of Fantine, even became an international hit, eclipsing its French version: I dreamed of another life. The day before Bill Clinton’s inauguration in the United States in 1993, Aretha Flanklin performed it during the presidential gala, beginning with these words evoking the words of Martin Luther King: I had a dream [J’avais un rêve].
Another title, Do yo hear the people sing ? becomes the anthem of insurgents around the world: we hear it in Turkey during the protest movement of 2013, in Ukraine on Maidan Square in kyiv in 2014 or even in 2019, during the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. The participants sing: Do you hear the people singing? Sing the songs of angry men? It is the music of a people who will never again be slaves. They thus express their refusal to see their territory come under the total control of Beijing.
8 “Les Misérables” broke all records
If we are to believe its creators, it is the most performed musical of all time. And Alain Boublil added: “If we think about it, it’s hard to carry it on our shoulders, fortunately we don’t think about it often.”. On Broadway, the show ran for sixteen years. In London, Les Mis have been played uninterruptedly for 39 years, which amounts to more than 15,000 performances. The show has already been performed in 442 cities around the world and more than fifty countries. Translated into 22 languages, it has also won 160 of the most prestigious international awards: Oliver, Tony, Grammy, Academy Awards, Golden Globe… In France, it won a Molière and the Victoire de la Musique for Best Musical Show in 1992.
9 The book has been adapted into films many times.
In 2013, Les Miserables also triumph on the big screen in Tom Hooper’s adaptation with Anne Hathaway in the role of Fantine and Hugh Jackman in that of Jean Valjean. France does not appreciate this remake but globally, box office revenues exploded, reaching $442 million. Nominated eight times for the Oscars, the film won 3 statuettes including that of best supporting actress for Anne Hathaway. Long before that, in 1897, it was the Lumière Brothers who were the first to tackle Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, shooting small scenes with the main characters. Around fifty adaptations followed with renowned actors: Harry Baur in 1933, Jean Gabin and Bourvil in 1957, Gérard Depardieu, Lino Ventura and even Jean-Paul Belmondo in the film directed by Claude Lelouch in 1995. Director Ladj Li, in a version as personal as it is impactful, will put the title of the novel back on display in 2019.
10 The French could finally ignite
France, the last bastion having resisted the force of Misérablesmusical comedy version, is it about to give in? Maybe if the ticket office is to be believed. Tickets for performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet from Wednesday November 20 sold like hotcakes. Most dates are already sold out. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, supported by producer Stéphane Letellier and director Ladislas Chollat, are confident, musical comedies having finally found their audience in France in recent years. The owner of the rights, Cameron Mackintosh, dragged his feet a little but ended up accepting this new production with texts partly reworked compared to the English version. The sets and costumes were made by the Châtelet workshops. If success is achieved, a tour will follow. The whole team is already crossing their fingers.
