The Wild Blog in the West

In 1986, Les Miserables would premiere at the Kennedy Center's Opera House in Washington, D.C. for an eight-week run.  The production then moved to Broadway in March of 1987.  It's not clear to me exactly when they occurred, but by the time Les Miz arrived on Broadway, it had undergone several changes. What would result would be the English-language version of Les Miz that we now consider "definitive" -- or at least we did until the 1998 changes came along that shortened things further, and then certain changes were made to the 2007 Broadway revival, and then the 25th Anniversary production made even more cuts to the songs and score. The Production As with London, I never had the privilege of seeing the original Broadway production live.  However, I did see the touring production a few years later, so I at least have a vague recollection of what that version of the musical was like.  The most obvious changes were the following: 1.  "Little People"

"Someone who looks like a convict, can carry a man on his back of  about 120 pounds and can sing like an angel." "You want Colm Wilkinson." So said Tim Rice to Trevor Nunn, as they discussed whom to cast as Jean Valjean in the English-language version of Les Miserables. Most Les Miz fans are already familiar with the story behind the musical's transition from the French stage to London's West End, so I won't provide more than basic details.  In 1982, Cameron Mackintosh first listened to the French concept album and was eager to produce an English language adaptation.  Trevor Nunn and John Caird would direct, while Herbert Kretzmer was brought in to rework the French lyrics and add new material, replacing poet James Fenton.  The entire Prologue was added, along with notable songs like "Bring Him Home," and although it retained the basic elements of the French adaptation, the story was substantially reworked. The English-langu

As the movie date draws ever closer, I thought that this would be a good time to look at the musical as a whole and how it developed.  My intent is to only focus on the English-language releases, but I can't ignore the French concept album by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg that started it all. The story behind the concept album is that in the mid to late 1970s, Boublil and Schonberg attended a production of Oliver! and, upon seeing the Artful Dodger, suddenly had an image of Gavroche.  From there, the story grew, and the initial result was a concept album (released wide in 1989, but developed in the late 1970s). The concept album featured several tunes that are familiar to us today.  Some were so like their future versions that the English-language songs seem like mere translations; others were altered thematically and given to other characters; some were fleshed out, while others were dropped entirely.  The cast included Maurice Barrier as Valjean, Jacques Mercie