Les Miserables Celebrates 20 years of London Show

The long running musical Les Miserables celebrated its 20th birthday on the 8th October with a gala performance.

Les Miserables is the second longest running London musical, beaten by only one year by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats which ended its reign after 21 years on the stage in May 2002.

Les Miserables has proved to be a global phenomenon popular in all 38 countries it has been performed in. Producers were worried that the move to the Queens theatre, London, would dull public popularity as it meant a down size for the orchestra and production. However, a record 5000 tickets were sold within the first hour proving Les Miserables is still as popular as ever with audiences.

To celebrate its birthday the show put on a gala performance, bringing on stage for the finale, 35 school children to mark the success the production has had in schools. Les Miserables was the first production made available for schools to stage, since then 3000 schools and under 19 amateur dramatic productions have performed the show.

Les Miserables is set to take the crown of longest running musical, having already performed the production 40,000 times in 242 cities and taken £1 billion at the box office. Phantom of the Opera has also celebrated a birthday recently, the production turned 19 on the 9th October.

Published By: Samantha Gilmartin