Of Broadway's musical mega-blockbusters, two of the longest running -- Les Miserables and Miss Saigon -- share several things in common: poignant, heart-wrenching stories, gorgeous melodies, multi-million dollar budgets, awe-inspiring spectacle, numerous awards, Tony nominations and awards galore, and an executive producer who believes every performance should be a repeat of opening night. Les Miserables, in its eighth year on Broadway, became the fourth longest-running show in Broadway history in mid-September when it surpassed the 3,486th performance record of 42nd Street.
This world-wide musical phenomenon, originally produced by the London's Royal Shakespeare Company and penned by France's Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schonberg, is based on the Victor Hugo novel set against the struggling classes of the French revolution. It won the 1987 Tony Award for Best Musical. Les Miserables sweeps through three decades in the life of the elusive fugitive Jean Valjean, who's on the run from his nemesis, the self-righteous jailer Javert. The poignant sub-plot tells of his determination to raise the orphan Cossette after the death of her mother Fantine.
The Imperial Theater is filled with pageantry as the story unfolds to the exciting climax when the peasants storm the barricades of Paris. Boublil and Schonberg's mesmerizing score is performed by some of the best voices on Broadway: Frederick C. Inkley as Jean on "Who Am I?" and "Bring Him Home," David Masenheimer as the relentless Javert on "Stars," Jacquelyn Piro on the touching "I Dreamed A Dream," and Tamra Hayden on "Castle On A Clouds." In addition there's the stunning love montage, the side-splitting "Master of the House," and the ensemble numbers, "Drink with Me" and, at the barricades, "One Day More" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?"
Spectacle is not the vital ingredient that has brought Les Miserables and Miss Saigon their longevity. It's not their grand scale but their heart. These shows are not musical fluff, but intense personal dramas. Keeping all that the original directors (John Caird and Trevor Nunn; Nicholas Hytner, respectively) created fresh and ship-shape is the job of the stage managers, supervised by Richard Jay Alexander, an executive producer of both musicals and director of Cameron Macintosh Inc., New York, producer of the shows.
Les Miserables and Miss Saigon have poignant stories and exquisite scores," said Alexander. "Our job is to beautifully maintain them to capture at each performance today the same excitement of their opening nights. Eight times a week audiences are incredibly moved by the written and technical magic, which results in good word of mouth. That's advertising money can't buy!"
They must be doing something very right, for after all these years audiences keep coming. That creates record-breaking shows. The scores of these smash musicals can be enjoyed again and again at home on the original cast albums from Geffen Records.
