The musical
The musical adaptation of Les Miserables is the world's most popular musical. Though at the time of writing 'Mamma Mia' is doing its best to catch up. "Les Mis" has been seen by over 54 million people (1997 figures), it's earned 1.6 billion dollars, is the longest running musical in either Broadway or London, and was voted the best musical ever in a large British poll (winning over 40 percent of all votes).
Unfortunately I can't show you any pictures, or even quote from the songs. The official web site says that nothing can be used. If you use the name in a similar font, the Cosette picture, or quote from the music too much, you risk receiving a "cease and desist" letter from their lawyers. How serious are they? If you search for web addresses like "lesmiserables.com" or "lesmiserables.org" you will find that most are empty, a sure sign that the lawyers mean business. When there are news items about the musical, some newspapers use pictures from the movies instead, just to be safe!
There are three main variations of the musical:
Version1 is the original French concept album. This was released in 1980 and was wildly popular. The musical was soon performed in Paris, but had to close after 16 weeks because the theater had other bookings.
Version 2 is the English version. When the musical was prepared for an English speaking audience, Herbert Kretzmer kept one third as a straight translation, one third was greatly changed, and one third of the text was entirely new. Since then the musical has often been altered, once with half an hour chopped off, and other changes were made from time to time. The other non-English and non-French versions seem to be heavily influenced by the English one.
Version 3 is the School Edition. This is shorter than the others because some songs have been trimmed, and it doesn't rely on elaborate sets and effects, but nothing major has been left out. It is rare for a musical to be performed by schools while it is still running on Broadway. For legal reasons, the school edition cannot be performed by anyone over 19 years old.
Trivia
The idea for the musical began when Alain Boublil saw Lionel Bart's "Oliver!" in 1978. The character of the Artful Dodger made him think of Gavroche.
This was not the first time that someone thought of making a musical. Puccini and other composers considered doing it in the nineteenth century, but presumably Cameron Mackintosh's lawyers were active even back then. (It's a joke! I like you really!)
Les Mis is the longest running West End or Broadway musical, but has so far only run for half as long as the 42 year off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks.
Les Mis was so successful that Cameron Mackintosh, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil got together to make another musical from another French historical classic, Martin Guerre (based on a true story). It premiered in 1996 but was far less successful.
The first French production of the musical included Monsieur Gillenormand (a major figure in the book) but did not include the song "On My Own" or the Prologue.
Journalist and poet James Fenton was chosen to write the English lyrics, and still receives royalties as promised, even though Cameron Mackintosh later decided to drop most of his words (they were too "poetic") and used Herbert Kretzmer instead.
Theater people sometimes call the musical "the Glums" because of an early review which said "Les Miserables has, sadly, been reduced to The Glums," (The Glums was a gentle family comedy on BBC radio in the 1950s )
Les Mis pioneered the use of the "Symphonia synthesizer," a computer controlled machine that plays instruments in real time, replacing at least nine of the twenty one musicians.
In 1996, Cameron Mackintosh and John Caird (the co-director with Trevor Nunn) visited the Broadway production, decided it had become stale, and sacked half of the 38-member cast.
A film adaptation was planned in the late 1980s and has been on and off ever since. First with Alan Parker, later with Bruce Beresford and Tri-Star Pictures, now... who knows?
Parodies
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. For copyright reasons nobody is allowed to imitate the musical, but copyright laws do allow satire, so we have these affectionate tributes:
Les Miseranimals
Animaniacs episode 11 contains an eleven minute tribute to Les Miserables, including twelve different songs! "Les Miseranimals" is on Disc 3 of the DVD set. (Information from Kelson Vibber's Les Mis fan site.)
Forbidden Broadway
On Amazon you can buy several CDs of Broadway spoofs called "Forbidden Broadway." Volume two contains several parodies of Les Mis songs.
Les Miserables II
"The Harvard Noteables" produced a spoof sequel. Good for fans.
The Desert Star Playhouse spoof
This one played to mixed reviews, but Marius was apparently excellent.
Les Bizzarables
I don't know what to make of this one. (You need to click "next" at the bottom of each page.)
YouTube
There is at least one Les Mis parody over on YouTube.
Beverly Hills 24601
I haven't been able to find a working link to this one. Can anyone help?
Lesmissy
A great site full of Les Mis fun - though some of the links are dead.
The 1991 Disney comic version
This one is an affectionate parody starring Scrooge McDuck as Javert.
That's all for now. For more information on the musical. visit the official site, or Google any of the thousands of fan sites. Strangely most of the fan sites appear to be dead or have not been updated for several years. Is this a sign that interest is waning? Or that Cameron Mackintosh has very efficient lawyers? Or maybe people are so inspired by the musical that they immediately rush out and make a web site, then realise how difficult it is then give up? Or perhaps the official site used to be rubbish, so fan sites filled the vacuum, but the official site is now much better? Who knows?