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Les Miserables is the world's longest-running musical. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
It's moved and mesmerised audiences in more than 300 cities | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
around the world and has been seen by nearly 60 million people. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
But it nearly never happened. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
Written in the '70s by two unknown French composers, | 0:00:19 | 0:00:24 | |
Les Miserables was all but forgotten after it first played in Paris. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
If I hadn't gone, "This is something I have to do" | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
I suspect it would never have left France. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
And it got panned by critics when it launched in London in 1985. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
We woke up the next morning and the reviews are awful! | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
I mean, they reduce everything to a kind of sentimental, mawkish gibberish. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
Now, Les Mis is celebrating its 25th birthday with the largest of the production of the show | 0:00:46 | 0:00:53 | |
at London's O2 Arena, a massive concert featuring more than 400 performers. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
-Yeah, but, no, but... -Little Britain star Matt Lucas, | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
one of Les Mis's biggest fans, has been invited to fulfil a lifelong dream by performing in the show. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:09 | |
My mum loves Les Miserables as much as I do. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
Aside from being in Coronation Street, this is about the best present I can give her. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:17 | |
But Matt will be the only performer on stage it never to have been in the show before. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
-This will be the ultimate test of his performing skills. -What? | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
What's that? Start when I like? | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
-Right, I was... -You were waiting for me, I was waiting for you! | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
This is the story of how Les Miserables took over the world | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
and how Matt Lucas got to live out the dream of dreams. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
Oh, my word! | 0:01:41 | 0:01:43 | |
Oh, no! | 0:01:43 | 0:01:44 | |
Do you know that this is actually Cameron Mackintosh's office? | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
Look at the ceiling. Look at that. It's pretty grand, isn't it? | 0:01:56 | 0:02:02 | |
Look, Cameron Mackintosh knows Christopher Biggins. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
Look. This is pretty cool. Seriously. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
Cameron Mackintosh and Lionel Bart, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
that genuinely is rather magical. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
You can't see it, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:14 | |
but there's also Cameron with Colonel Gaddafi round there. LAUGHTER | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
# Ah-ah-ah-ah | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
# Ah-ah-ah-ah | 0:02:19 | 0:02:20 | |
# Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah... # | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
As a child, I fell in love with musicals. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
My parents took me | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
and a friend to see Oliver when I was five or six. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:35 | |
I think Ron Moody was in it, actually, at the Albery. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
I was just blown away by it. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
# Eh-eh-eh-eh... # | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
'I continued to go and watch shows. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
'My grandmother would take me, my parents would take me. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
'42nd Street with Frankie Vaughan at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, was a favourite. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:55 | |
It just felt like a safer world to me than the one I was in, | 0:02:55 | 0:03:00 | |
because I was six years old and my hair fell out | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
and I'm atopic, so I had asthma and eczema, all that sort of stuff. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:09 | |
For me, it was a real refuge, the world of musicals, long before | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
I knew I was gay, actually, because there is this correlation | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
between being gay and loving musicals, I'm not quite sure why. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
But maybe that was my coming out. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
I first became aware off Les Mis when it was on in its original production at the Barbican, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:30 | |
because my mum went to see it and she came home crying and she said, | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
"I've seen this marvellous show," and she was raving about it. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
For my 13th birthday, I was taken along with family and friends | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
to see the show. And I loved it. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
From that moment on, it has been my favourite musical. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:53 | |
I think I'm going to have to carry you up. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
I am an enormous admirer of Matt's skill at creating, then sticking to a character, whatever it is. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:04 | |
But when he first mentioned | 0:04:04 | 0:04:05 | |
that Les Miserables had been a really important milestone | 0:04:05 | 0:04:09 | |
in his decision to become a performer, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
I said, "Let's do a little bit of work." | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
Righty-ho. No time like the old present. Oh! | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
I told him what a fan I was of Les Miserables and he said, "Why don't you play Thenardier?" | 0:04:19 | 0:04:26 | |
As one of just two comedy characters in the show, | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
the role of the unscrupulous innkeeper Thenardier | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
is perfect for Matt to play. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
But I've never had that time clear in my schedule to come and do it. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
So when the opportunity came to do a shorter run here at the O2, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:45 | |
I wrote him letter after letter | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
and said, "You've got to let me do this, please." | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
And he very kindly wasn't able to find anyone else. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
Matt Lucas will be joining a show that's become a phenomenon, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:06 | |
with its universal story of revolution, love and redemption. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
# I had a dream my life would be... # | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
For 25 years, Les Mis has entertained audiences across the world | 0:05:16 | 0:05:21 | |
with its infectious songs and unforgettable staging. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
# Everybody bless the landlord | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
# Everybody bless his spouse... # | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
It's a success story that no-one could have envisaged when the musical was first conceived | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
more than 30 years ago. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
# ..more. # | 0:05:40 | 0:05:52 | |
The story starts in 1970s Paris, with two young Frenchmen. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
One was a songwriter, the other a music publisher. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
They shared a mutual passion for one thing in particular - | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
the world of music theatre. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
We used to travel and to watch musicals in England. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:17 | |
Once we went to Broadway to see a musical in the '70s. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
One day, Alain saw in New York Jesus Christ Superstar | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
and you realise that two guys like Andrew and Tim, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
being pop song writers, managed to put on stage a musical. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
They were reintroducing an operatic form to the musical | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
because they were writing through sung operas, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
which is what Jesus Christ Superstar was. And that spoke to me. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:47 | |
Alain came back to Paris and told me, "Why don't we try to do | 0:06:47 | 0:06:53 | |
"the same thing with the 1789 French Revolution?" | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
# Francaise | 0:06:57 | 0:06:58 | |
# Francaise | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
# La revolution de la liberte | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
# Citoyens | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
# La Bastille est tombee... # | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Claude-Michel and Alain had written a great rock opera years before Les Miserables | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
called La Revolution Francaise, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
which is a musical theatre version | 0:07:15 | 0:07:16 | |
of the whole of the French Revolution. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
# Lutte sans pitie | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
# Pour sa liberte... # | 0:07:21 | 0:07:27 | |
You think Les Miserables was ambitious, boy! | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
Definitely, Alain and me were caught by the virus of musical shows on stage. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:37 | |
Without having any culture of musicals. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
# Consider yourself at home... # | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
Years before they were destined to meet, Alain Boublil | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
found himself seeing Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver in London. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:51 | |
It made him think of a young boy from the story of Les Miserables. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
I was enjoying immensely this musical, until the Artful Dodger suddenly started to disturb my mind | 0:07:55 | 0:08:03 | |
and that's the minute I remember thinking of Gavroche. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
And from there on, of the whole novel. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
Victor Hugo was a great political figure, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
an artistic figure in 19th-century France. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
He grew in stature all through his career | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
until he really became the father of the nation. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
You don't have one town in France without a Victor Hugo Street, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:34 | |
Rue Victor Hugo, or Avenue Victor Hugo in all the French towns. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:39 | |
His works are very remarkable because they tell thumping good stories on the one hand | 0:08:39 | 0:08:46 | |
and they tell an extraordinary number of truths about French history on the other. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:51 | |
And it's that mixture of history and romance that makes them so powerful. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
It's about all the big words - | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
redemption, truth, forgiveness. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
It's about two strong men facing each other, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:07 | |
two men of equal moral strength and certainty. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:12 | |
The hero of Les Miserables is the ex-convict Jean Valjean. He jumps parole, changes his name | 0:09:12 | 0:09:19 | |
and becomes a town mayor. But he's pursued relentlessly by his nemesis, the self-righteous Inspector Javert. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:26 | |
Valjean's journey takes him to 1830s Paris, amidst the destitute and the students of the June Rebellion. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:34 | |
As he goes through his life, he learns the value of love. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
And all the other things that are wrapped up in the story | 0:09:39 | 0:09:44 | |
are nowhere near as important as that central idea. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
We spent a two years between '78 and 1980 to write the show. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:53 | |
I did a demo tape of the show with me at the piano singing every part and the tape is still over there. | 0:09:53 | 0:10:01 | |
# La journee est finie 14 heures a la peine | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
# Le nez sur l'etabli 14 heures a la chaine | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
# C'est fini, ca recommence | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
# Dans la vie, nous les femmes on a la chance | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
# D'avoir un deuxieme patron a la maison... # | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
And during several months, nobody was interested by it. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
Nobody. They thought Les Miserables as a musical was irrelevant, | 0:10:19 | 0:10:25 | |
that musicals were not working in France. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
After much persistence, in September 1980, Boublil and Schonberg finally managed | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
to get their new French musical off the ground in Paris. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
And Les Miserables was born. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
# La journee est finie 14 heures a la peine | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
# Le nez sur l'etabli 14 heures a la chaine | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
# C'est fini, ca recommence | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
# Dans la vie, nous les femmes on a la chance | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
# D'avoir un deuxieme patron a la maison | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
# Que l'on sert en silence... # | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
The French have never really embraced musicals and indeed, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
when they premiered Les Mis in 1980 | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
as an arena stage production, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:08 | |
it was a success and an album but it didn't have a long life. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
It completely vanished. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
# On ne peut que s'aimer bien | 0:11:15 | 0:11:16 | |
# Pour mettre un peu d'azur dans notre enfer | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
# Et pouvoir encore sourire | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
# Continuer a vivre... # | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
LOUD PIANO AND MAN SINGING | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
I have been in one musical before called Taboo, which is Boy George's musical. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:34 | |
I finished in Taboo early in 2002, so eight-and-a-half years ago, | 0:11:34 | 0:11:40 | |
and I haven't really done much singing since, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
apart from Shooting Stars. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
# Baked potato changed my life | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
# Baked potato showed me the way... # | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
One of the songs that I'm most fond of is the Baked Potato Song. | 0:11:54 | 0:12:00 | |
# B-A-K-E-D P-O-T-A-T-O | 0:12:00 | 0:12:06 | |
# Baked potato! # | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
Yeah! Baked potato! | 0:12:11 | 0:12:12 | |
I have performed in front of large audiences before, but never under the pretence of being a singer. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:18 | |
More of being a comedian. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
So I'm pretty nervous. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
It was in October 1982, just after I'd opened Cats on Broadway, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
and a Hungarian director, Peter Farago, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
walked into my office and said to me, "Look, I'd like to talk to you about Les Miserables. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:47 | |
"I've got a concept album, a French concept album, of the show that was done in Paris | 0:12:47 | 0:12:52 | |
"in 1980, and I'd be really interested for you to look at it." | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
And I put it on, and by the opening... I was tingling, by the second and third track. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:02 | |
There was just something extraordinary about it. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
# La misere enfante la detresse | 0:13:04 | 0:13:11 | |
# Bien des vices et toutes les faiblesses... # | 0:13:13 | 0:13:19 | |
Suddenly we had a phone call from London that a guy called Cameron Mackintosh, | 0:13:19 | 0:13:24 | |
who had been producing Oliver! and Cats wanted to meet us. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
I said I wanted to rebuild it with them and take them on a journey | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
and find the collaborators that could actually turn it into | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
a proper musical that anyone who'd never read Les Miserables would be able to understand. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:42 | |
To find the people who would create the new Les Mis, Cameron Mackintosh turned to | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
a trusted collaborator who'd recently staged another 19th-century tale - the director Trevor Nunn. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:57 | |
Not only had I worked with Trevor on Cats, but in the meantime I had | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
obviously seen Nicholas Nickleby, which was a brilliant piece. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:06 | |
Of course, people said, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
"You can't possibly do a musical with "miserable" in the title. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
"There is no such thing! | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
"What are you saying?! | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
"You're asking everybody to pay their money and come and have a miserable experience. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:21 | |
"It's intolerable, you can't do that." | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
On the face of it, Les Miserables is | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
a very bad idea as the book of a musical. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
Just the title alone, Les Miserables - it sounds awful, doesn't it? | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
And it's huge. It's 1,500 pages long. And it's in French. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:39 | |
New words in English were written by the acclaimed poet James Fenton, but in time, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:45 | |
the team realised that someone more steeped in song lyrics was required | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
for this Herculean task. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
Fortunately, there was just the man for the job. His credits included writing the words of a TV theme tune | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
for another Frenchman that went on to become a worldwide hit. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
# She may be the face I can't forget | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
# A trace of pleasure and regret... # | 0:15:11 | 0:15:16 | |
When I was brought in to Les Miserables in January '85, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
a lot of work had already been done on it. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
For six months, we laboured in my flat in Basil Street. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:28 | |
We were working like dogs. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
Because we have been reshaping and rewriting the show until the previews. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:37 | |
I felt very often that I was going to have to disappoint my collaborators and friends | 0:15:37 | 0:15:43 | |
because the work had not been done in that time. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
The cast was only handed the first act when they gathered together on August 1st. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
Some of the key songs had not yet been written. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
A song like Bring Him Home had not even been conceived when rehearsals began. | 0:15:55 | 0:16:03 | |
When it came to casting the show, the first challenge was to find the star role, Jean Valjean. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:09 | |
The directors needed someone with stature, stamina and the best voice in the West End. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:15 | |
Colm Wilkinson suddenly came into the frame. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
There was something otherworldly about him, there was a life experience in him. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:24 | |
# When the feeling hit me | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
# Yet I had to move along | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
# You said, "You were right, I guess | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
# "You must sing your song" | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
# And a man is born to do one thing | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
# And I was born to sing... # | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
Trevor Nunn said, "We need a guy who looks like a convict, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
"can carry a guy on his shoulders and sing like an angel," | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
and he says, "That's Colm Wilkinson!" | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
And he came to see us at the New London, where the Cats set was, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
and moment he picked up these songs, we knew we'd found our Jean Valjean. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
# Take an eye for an eye | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
# Turn your heart into stone | 0:17:01 | 0:17:06 | |
# This is all I have lived for | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
# This is all I have known... # | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
# A heart full of love... # | 0:17:25 | 0:17:30 | |
I'd heard about Michael Ball from friends, and I trotted up to Manchester, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:36 | |
to the Opera House, to see him play Frederick in a tour of Pirates Of Penzance, opposite Bonnie Langford. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:44 | |
We went to a matinee, and at the end of the matinee, I went back to meet him. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:49 | |
I said, "You've got to come and play Marius." | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
The first day of rehearsal, Trevor asked if everybody had | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
read the book, and everybody put their hands up, | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
except for me. I was sitting next to Michael Ball. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
He put his hand up. And he was gorgeous, as well. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
He was so gorgeous in those days, and Michael, you still are gorgeous, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
but he was absolutely so handsome, giggly, little dimples. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
I'd had two ambitions when I left drama school. I wanted to | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
work for the RSC, I wanted to be in Coronation Street. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
While I was doing Pirates in Manchester, I got two episodes of Coronation Street. Result! | 0:18:18 | 0:18:23 | |
Two weeks later, I'd got my audition and got into Les Mis at the RSC. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:30 | |
So as far as I'm concerned, I was thrilled. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
I'd never done a big musical before. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
I'd done Poppy at the RSC a couple of years before, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
I'd done Kiss Me, Kate in rep, | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
I'd a lot of shows that required music and singing, but I'd never done a big musical like this before. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:51 | |
The first week was generally improvisation and games. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
We had to be cartoon characters. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
I played Woody Woodpecker, so I don't quite know what effect that had on my character! | 0:18:57 | 0:19:02 | |
When we got into rehearsal, the first act was pretty much written, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
except there were two or three major songs that hadn't been written. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
On My Own hadn't been written, Stars hadn't been written, but we didn't even know | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
we are going to have a song called Stars at that point. But the second act was almost entirely unwritten. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:28 | |
It was really only sketched. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
And the second act was written in the first three weeks of rehearsal. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Everybody knew that it was something very special that we were doing. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
We knew that there was something there that was totally unusual. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
After a year's long slog, on 8th October 1985, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:49 | |
the show finally opened, at London's Barbican Centre. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
# At the end of the day, you're another day older | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
# And that's all you can say for the life of the poor | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
# It's a struggle, it's a war | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
# And there's nothing that anyone's giving | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
# One more day standing about, what is it for? | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
# One day less to be living... # | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
Tonight at London's Barbican Centre, they're already celebrating the opening of an ambitious new musical, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:15 | |
which seems certain to offer stiff competition | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
to the 12 other musical shows already running in the West End. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
Joan Bakewell is down there, | 0:20:21 | 0:20:22 | |
covering the first-night celebrations. Joan. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
The performance ended over an hour ago, and the party is now in full swing. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:29 | |
The music is very simple, and full of instantly-likeable tunes. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
The audience loved it. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:35 | |
-It was tremendous. -This is absolutely marvellous. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
One of the best we've ever seen. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
Magnifique! | 0:20:40 | 0:20:41 | |
'We had a party afterwards, in the Barbican, in the atrium there, and I can remember | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
'myself and Becky and Frances being interviewed by Joan Bakewell.' | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
I'd never been on telly before! | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
And all of us trying to be our best received pronunciation, trying to talk sensibly. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:58 | |
What do you think are the merits of the piece? | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
I think the beauty of it is that it's so unique. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
-I don't think there's anything you can compare it with. -We love it! | 0:21:03 | 0:21:07 | |
And then we woke up the next morning, and the reviews are awful! | 0:21:07 | 0:21:13 | |
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, is one of those daunting French novels | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
that generally comes in two volumes. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
I've had them in the house for 20 years and still haven't read them. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
But I've never seen, till now, any of the attempts made to popularise the book. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
-Well, have they managed it? -I mean, it gave me a headache, I have to admit. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
I'd have thought that it was impossible to pastiche the music | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
of Andrew Lloyd Webber, given that the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is entirely pastiche. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:44 | |
We are also given an endless sequence of extremely banal lyrics, and songs which seem to be | 0:21:44 | 0:21:50 | |
specifically arranged not to refer to the drama. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
What these lyrics actually manage to do is an-all purpose bland-out. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:58 | |
They reduce everything to a kind of sentimental, mawkish gibberish. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
The first reviews were very poor. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
I mean, almost entirely bad. Rather predictably so, because the average | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
drama critic in England then, and pretty much the same now, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:16 | |
they don't really like musicals very much. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
We read in some dailies, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
"What could be worse than a bad musical? A French musical!" | 0:22:22 | 0:22:28 | |
Cameron used to have a lunch after the opening night, and the lunch of Les Miserables | 0:22:28 | 0:22:33 | |
after the opening at the Barbican was like attending a funeral. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:38 | |
It was joyless, and everybody depressed. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:46 | |
The great Bernie Jacobs, who owned half the theatres in New York at that time, | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
came and he said, "My advice to you, gentlemen, is, if you've git a stiff, you bury it." | 0:22:50 | 0:22:57 | |
We thought that the critics are so bad that we do the run at the Barbican for two months, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:03 | |
because it was the Barbican, and that's it. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Cameron Mackintosh had just 24 hours to decide whether to keep Les Mis alive and to transfer it | 0:23:08 | 0:23:14 | |
into London's West End. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
He'd already paid a substantial deposit on the 1,100-seat Palace Theatre. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
It's like trying to get through to the box office at the Barbican. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
To my surprise, I had to make several attempts, and eventually | 0:23:24 | 0:23:29 | |
I got through, and the box-office man... I said, "What's been happening?" | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
He said, "It's extraordinary. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
"We can't understand it. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
"We've sold 5,000 tickets already. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
"We've never had a rush for tickets in the way that this has happened. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
"And we can't explain it." | 0:23:43 | 0:23:44 | |
Against all the odds, in December 1985, Les Miserables opened at the Palace. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:54 | |
It soon became a massive hit, and has been selling out in the West End ever since. | 0:23:54 | 0:24:00 | |
It was very hard, other than looking at the box-office figures, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
to work out what your indictor of success might be. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
And in our case, they were the ticket touts who arrived outside your theatre! | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
The one problem they had, that everybody had, they couldn't pronounce it. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:15 | |
I remember one day a particularly large, burly guy, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
who I'd seen outside Cats | 0:24:18 | 0:24:19 | |
many times before, walked along, going, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
"Lesbian Rebels! Lesbian Rebels! Get your tickets for Lesbian Rebels!" | 0:24:22 | 0:24:27 | |
I found myself correcting him. After all, I said, "Call it what you like, it's fine!" | 0:24:27 | 0:24:32 | |
Hello there. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:36 | |
Can I go to the O2, please? Thanks. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
Today, I'm going for my very first rehearsal for these two Les Miserables concerts. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:44 | |
It's Saturday and the show's on next Sunday. I did do a couple of days of singing rehearsal, and I had | 0:24:44 | 0:24:50 | |
one session with Jenny Galloway, who plays Madame Thenardier, and Alfie Boe, who's playing Jean Valjean. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:56 | |
I haven't had much of a chance to rehearse properly with them. I'm a bit in awe of Jenny. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
She's sort of famous for never having done the same performance twice. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:04 | |
When I met her, she was very quiet and very reserved, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
and apparently in the rehearsal room, she can be quite quiet, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
but then when she gets out on that stage, all hell breaks lose! | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
Thank you very much. What's the damage? | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
Matt's first rehearsal is being run by co-directors James Powell and | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
Laurence Connor, both of whom have previously performed in the show. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
# Master of the house, quick to catch your eye... # | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
'You need quite a lot of stamina and quite a lot of breath to sing this song. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
'And it's very wordy, and I'm always getting the words mixed up.' | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
# Everybody's boon companion, gives 'em everything he's got | 0:25:43 | 0:25:48 | |
# Dirty bunch of geezers | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
# Jesus, what a sorry little lot! # | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
Ok, good. Good. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
'Monsieur and Madame Thenardier are the comic relief of the show. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
'Much needed, I have to say, because...' | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
Phew! Oh, it's depressing! | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
Oh, it's bleak! | 0:26:04 | 0:26:05 | |
'I think you're quite grateful when they come on.' | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
-What's going on? Going all right? -Look! -I'll have a look. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:15 | |
# My band of soaks, my den of dissolutes... # | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
Well, Matt's got this great anarchy, which I find really interesting. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:26 | |
Bit of a drunken swagger here. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
And he has a completely different take on it. And he's Matt Lucas, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
we wanted to see a little bit of that. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
Little girl walks in, pursued by... | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
I found her wandering in the woods, very good... | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
Today, Matt needs to create his version of Thenardier, and to rehearse the bargain scene, in which | 0:26:40 | 0:26:46 | |
he and his greedy wife take money from Jean Valjean in exchange for giving away the orphan, Cosette. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:53 | |
"This is my girl." Do you know what I mean? To really try and... | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
-Face in to... -Yeah... | 0:26:57 | 0:26:58 | |
I've got to link myself with her in order to justify getting all this money. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
# Beggar at the feast, master of the dance | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
# Life is easy pickings if you grabs your chance | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
# Everywhere you go, law-abiding folk | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
# Doing what is decent, but they're mostly broke... # | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
'What I think this musical really has... Every song has a soaring, rousing melody,' | 0:27:17 | 0:27:25 | |
the most delightful, catchy tunes. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
They lyrics are emotive without being sentimental, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:32 | |
and intelligent and witty, but without taking you out of the show. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:38 | |
I really don't think any musical has come along in the last 25 years to topple it. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:44 | |
# I dreamed a dream in time gone by | 0:27:51 | 0:27:56 | |
# When hope was high and life worth living... # | 0:27:58 | 0:28:03 | |
I wrote it, of course, for French lyrics, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
and we used for the start of the song | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
what Victor Hugo had written in his book, "J'avais reve de notre vie." | 0:28:11 | 0:28:17 | |
# Then I was young and unafraid | 0:28:17 | 0:28:22 | |
# And dreams were made and used and wasted | 0:28:23 | 0:28:28 | |
# There was no ransom to be paid | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
# No song unsung, no wine untasted... # | 0:28:36 | 0:28:42 | |
The tragic thing is, it's not a song sung by an old person | 0:28:42 | 0:28:49 | |
about the dreams of their youth. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
It's sung by a very young person, | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
about the fact that her life is over all too soon. | 0:28:55 | 0:29:00 | |
# He slept a summer by my side | 0:29:00 | 0:29:05 | |
# He filled my days with endless wonder | 0:29:06 | 0:29:11 | |
# He took my childhood in his stride | 0:29:13 | 0:29:18 | |
# But he was gone when autumn came... # | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
# Bring him home | 0:29:24 | 0:29:29 | |
# Bring him home | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
# Bring him home... # | 0:29:33 | 0:29:37 | |
We asked Claude-Michel | 0:29:37 | 0:29:38 | |
to go away and write a song for Jean Valjean. More specifically, to write a song for Colm Wilkinson. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:45 | |
# If God had granted me a son | 0:29:45 | 0:29:49 | |
# The summers die one by one | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
# How soon they fly on and on | 0:29:53 | 0:29:58 | |
# And I am old and will be gone... # | 0:29:58 | 0:30:04 | |
'When I heard it being played, and then I heard Herb Kretzmer's lyrics to it,' | 0:30:04 | 0:30:10 | |
it just was beautiful. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
# Bring him joy | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
# He is young | 0:30:23 | 0:30:26 | |
# He is a only a boy... # | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
In the score, it's called the prayer. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
It's a moment for me to really seriously pray on my own. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:38 | |
And once you get that attitude, that feeling inside your body that | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
you are praying, then the song really does carry you. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
# Let him live | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
# If I die, let me die | 0:30:51 | 0:30:58 | |
# Let him live... # | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
The big moment in the song is | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
the last line... | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
# Bring him home... # | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
We can all hit it for a little bit. Even quite long. Hit it to the end of the phrase. Try it. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:19 | |
# Bring him home... # | 0:31:19 | 0:31:26 | |
And he was doing it without breathing! | 0:31:34 | 0:31:36 | |
He'd go... | 0:31:36 | 0:31:37 | |
# Bring him home... # | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
You're going, "How can you do that?!" | 0:31:40 | 0:31:42 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
When I've had the misfortune of doing it in concert, you go... | 0:31:48 | 0:31:52 | |
# Bring him ho... # | 0:31:52 | 0:31:55 | |
VOICE FADES OUT | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
# ..ome! # | 0:31:58 | 0:31:59 | |
Make it look like the mic's got you, "They're too loud! The mic's a little bit..." And you cheat it! | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
It's the only way I can do it! | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
# One day more | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
# Tomorrow you'll be worlds away | 0:32:09 | 0:32:14 | |
# And yet, with you my world has started... # | 0:32:14 | 0:32:19 | |
I cannot think of a more rousing end to an act in any musical ever | 0:32:19 | 0:32:27 | |
than One Day More. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
# One more day with him not caring | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
# I was born to be with you | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
# What a life I might have known | 0:32:36 | 0:32:40 | |
# And I swear I will be true... # | 0:32:40 | 0:32:42 | |
It's what's know in music as a quodlibet, which is | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
all the different tunes being brought together | 0:32:45 | 0:32:49 | |
in a great sort of cauldron of different contrapuntal tunes. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:54 | |
# One more day before the storm | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
# At the barricades of freedom... # | 0:32:58 | 0:33:05 | |
The entire company's on stage - | 0:33:07 | 0:33:08 | |
everybody is singing about their own predicament, their own fears, their own hopes, their own needs. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:16 | |
# The time is now, the day is here | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
# One day more | 0:33:22 | 0:33:23 | |
# One more day to revolution, we will nip it in the bud | 0:33:23 | 0:33:28 | |
# I will join these little schoolboys | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
# They will wet themselves with blood | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
# Watch 'em run amuck, catch 'em as they fall... # | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
'Everyone thinks their part is the best. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
'But I think Marius is, because he has that final...' | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
# My place is here, I fight with you! # | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
# My place is here, I fight with you... # | 0:33:46 | 0:33:52 | |
# One day more, I did not live... # | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
And I just love it to bits. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:58 | |
# Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in Heaven has in store | 0:33:58 | 0:34:04 | |
# One more dawn | 0:34:05 | 0:34:07 | |
# One more day | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
# One day more! # | 0:34:12 | 0:34:16 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:34:28 | 0:34:29 | |
You've got lots of hats - | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
you've had different actors with different-sized heads playing this role. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
-So, am I going to be wearing a hat worn already by somebody? -Yeah. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:52 | |
Who wore this hat? | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
'At the costume fitting, I met Tracy, who had worked on the show since its inception. | 0:34:54 | 0:35:00 | |
'I looked through some of the costumes that people have worn, | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
'and I got very excited at the prospect of wearing | 0:35:04 | 0:35:06 | |
'Alun Armstrong's hat, because he was the original Thenardier.' | 0:35:06 | 0:35:10 | |
-All right. -The buckle goes at the back. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:12 | |
-No, the other way. -The other way round? Like that? And it fits! | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
There's got to be a wig underneath. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
So, I've got one of the smallest heads in show business. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:22 | |
Vic Reeves probably has the biggest head, along with Rory Bremner. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
These are the things you learn. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
So, Alun Armstrong, we know, had... | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
He doesn't have a small head - he certainly had a small head. So there's a Les Mis fact for you. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:36 | |
How about that? Now, how many items of clothing are there | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
in the production of Les Miserables, roughly? | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
-It's over 500. -Over 500? | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
Not including all the understudy stuff, which we have to keep as well. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:49 | |
For me, the character comes alive when I'm actually performing it, but a big part of it is | 0:35:49 | 0:35:54 | |
the costume and make-up, so it's really important to get these things right. | 0:35:54 | 0:36:00 | |
'It was fun to put the costume on, and the hair, as well, with the hat.' | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
Here we go. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:05 | |
'It looks pretty grotesque, which is something I always enjoy playing, grotesque.' | 0:36:06 | 0:36:12 | |
Brilliant. Love it. Do you need to take pictures? | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
They're for my album. We've got two different albums. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
Another British success has | 0:36:26 | 0:36:27 | |
crossed the Atlantic to a rapturous reception. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
This time it was the Royal Shakespeare Company's | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
epic musical Les Miserables, | 0:36:33 | 0:36:34 | |
which has already been a smash hit in London's West End. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
Broadway is used to British success. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
Cats has been the greatest hit for years, Me And My Girl is doing quite nicely, thank you, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:45 | |
and now, Les Miserables. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
Right in, please. Don't block the doors, folks. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:50 | |
Last night it opened, and if the critics are anything | 0:36:50 | 0:36:53 | |
to go by, it will stay open for some considerable time. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:56 | |
It became the biggest box-office ticket sale in New York. | 0:36:56 | 0:37:01 | |
It was absolutely lauded by every critic in New York. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:06 | |
My last night on Broadway, they were selling tickets for 2,500. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:11 | |
I said, "Why didn't you tell me, for Christ's sake? | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
"I would have got a few and went out and sold them myself!" | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
With the Broadway show up and running, in just a year Les Mis was also launched in a handful of | 0:37:19 | 0:37:24 | |
other countries, including Japan, where it plays to this day. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:29 | |
The Japanese came to me very shortly after in January and said, "We want to open it | 0:37:33 | 0:37:39 | |
"in June of the following year," which is incredibly fast | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
for the Japanese, I mean literally, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
I said, "Don't you want to wait and see how it goes on Broadway?," | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
and they went, "We don't care what happens to Broadway." | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
I met the Japanese translator, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
and he said it takes three words to equal one word in the English version. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:58 | |
If he was to translate every single word, it would be a nine-hour show. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:03 | |
I said, "Well, even the hardy Japanese would | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
"find that difficult going." | 0:38:06 | 0:38:08 | |
Then Norway came. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
The National Theatre in Norway said, "We'd like to put it on." I said, "Where?" | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
"In the National Theatre." They closed down the National Theatre in Norway | 0:38:29 | 0:38:34 | |
and ran for 15 months with a reproduction of our show. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
We put it on there. It played to 15% of the entire population of Norway, which is unheard of! | 0:38:37 | 0:38:45 | |
And the only reason they took it off is because they felt they had to put some Ibsen back on! | 0:38:45 | 0:38:50 | |
HE SINGS IN NORWEGIAN | 0:38:50 | 0:38:53 | |
What had struck me about the show is how it evokes these identical responses all around the world. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:07 | |
Even if I don't understand the language, even if I'm hearing it | 0:39:07 | 0:39:10 | |
in Swedish or Japanese, there are points in the show where you feel the emotion of the audience. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:16 | |
# Oh, my friends, my friends, forgive me | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
# That I live and you are gone | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
# There's a grief that can't be spoken | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
# There's a pain, goes on and on... # | 0:39:33 | 0:39:38 | |
When we see Marius sing Empty Chairs At Empty Tables, he's returned to the ABC Cafe, where he used to meet | 0:39:39 | 0:39:46 | |
with his friends, all the other students, who believed they could make the world better. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
But this time, he's gone back and he finds himself alone, of course, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
because his friends have died, fighting for what they believe in. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:57 | |
# Oh, my friends, my friends | 0:39:57 | 0:40:02 | |
# Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for | 0:40:03 | 0:40:09 | |
# Empty chairs and empty tables | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
# Now my friends will sing | 0:40:17 | 0:40:24 | |
# No more. # | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
'It's an incredibly emotional song. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
'It's where Marius becomes a man, where he loses his idealism, where he realises that the price that | 0:40:34 | 0:40:40 | |
'one pays fighting for what you believe in is enormous.' | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:40:44 | 0:40:45 | |
The O2 arena events in six days' time will involve no fewer than | 0:40:52 | 0:40:56 | |
400 Les Mis performers past and present, | 0:40:56 | 0:40:59 | |
the largest-ever production of the show. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
Today, they have been called to rehearse the start of Act I, and to greet a newcomer to their ranks. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:09 | |
-I'm Gemma. -Hi, I'm Matt. -I'm Laura. -Nice to meet you. Matt. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
-Hello, you all right? -Kyle. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
Hi. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:16 | |
Yeah. Yeah, I'm a bit nervous. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:19 | |
The star role of Jean Valjean will be sung on Sunday at the O2 by the celebrated tenor Alfie Boe. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:26 | |
Someone like me would never normally get to meet, let alone perform with, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
someone of the magnitude of Alfie Boe. Yesterday, he invited me to come to one of his shows, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:35 | |
and I said, "Of course," and I said, "Where is it?," and he said, "Oh, it's at the Albert Hall." | 0:41:35 | 0:41:41 | |
I said, "Wow, who are you singing with?" He said, "Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa." | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
So it's pretty amazing to think that I'll be working with the genuine article. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
And wipe. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
# The earth is still, I feel the wind | 0:41:58 | 0:42:02 | |
# I breathe again... # | 0:42:02 | 0:42:05 | |
OK. That's good. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:06 | |
Matt, a while back, said to me, | 0:42:09 | 0:42:10 | |
"I can't sing, I don't have a voice. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
"It's just characters that I do." | 0:42:13 | 0:42:15 | |
But I was convinced that he had an ability to sing, | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
that he has an ability to sing, by the way | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
he does his characters, all the different voices he puts on. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
'You can hear it in those accents that he can hold a tune.' | 0:42:26 | 0:42:30 | |
# At the end of the day, you're another day older | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
# And that's all you can say for the life of the poor | 0:42:33 | 0:42:37 | |
# It's a struggle, it's a war | 0:42:37 | 0:42:38 | |
# And there's nothing that anyone's giving | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
# One more day standing about, what is it for? | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
# One day less to be living... # | 0:42:44 | 0:42:46 | |
Guys, sorry, I'm going to pick on you on the text here, OK? | 0:42:46 | 0:42:50 | |
At the moment, we're not really giving a story here. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
"At the end of the day, you're another day colder, | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
"and that's all you can say for the life of the poor." | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
-What is it? "It's a struggle, it's a war, and there's nothing that those -BLEEP -are giving." Yeah? | 0:42:59 | 0:43:05 | |
Really bite into the text. The text is everything. One more time. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
# At the end of the day, there's another day dawning | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
# And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
# Like the waves crash on the sand | 0:43:16 | 0:43:17 | |
# Like a storm that'll break any second | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
# There's a hunger in the land | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
# There's going to be hell to pay | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
# At the end of the day! # | 0:43:28 | 0:43:29 | |
Split! Good. Much better, guys. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
As rehearsals continue, Cameron Mackintosh has invited Matt for | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
a sneak preview of the enormous set being built in the arena. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
Thank you for letting me be in your show. I'm so thrilled. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:46 | |
-Look at this. -Oh, no! | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
-I mean, look. -Oh, my word! How many are we going to be playing to? | 0:43:48 | 0:43:53 | |
The last figure I heard was about 16,500, in this configuration. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:59 | |
But it's amazing how good the sightlines are. We've managed to sell absolutely everything. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:04 | |
Even the matinee, which is the extra show we put on, has now only got a few hundred seats left. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:10 | |
-So it'll be packed by Sunday. -What was the budget for this show? | 0:44:10 | 0:44:13 | |
One of the reasons we're doing two shows on the Sunday is that | 0:44:13 | 0:44:18 | |
-I knew it would cost about £2 million to stage this one day. -Really? | 0:44:18 | 0:44:22 | |
When the first one sold out, we could take about 1.3 on the first concert. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:29 | |
So we knew we had to do a second. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
Luckily, we're going to more than break even, which is a great relief! | 0:44:31 | 0:44:36 | |
-What's next for Les Miserables? -The next big adventure is that | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
-I've just signed a contract to make the movie, at long last. -Really?! This is very interesting news! | 0:44:40 | 0:44:45 | |
-Which I'm doing with Working Title. -Congratulations. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:48 | |
The author of the screenplay will be watching one of the performances this weekend. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:52 | |
So we hope, within the next year or two, that will finally happen. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:57 | |
By 2009, Les Mis had sold more than 50 million tickets around the globe. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:06 | |
With its 25th anniversary looming, a new production was unveiled, | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
which broke audience records on tour across the UK. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:15 | |
But no-one could have predicted that the next chapter of this remarkable story would | 0:45:15 | 0:45:20 | |
come from outside the world of theatre altogether. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
Susan Boyle and Britain's Got Talent was | 0:45:26 | 0:45:29 | |
one of those extraordinary things, the thunderbolt from leftfield | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
that changed the way everybody thought about the show. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
The funny thing is, there's this belief that | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
the show's been running for 25 years but there's never been a hit from it. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
But there has now, with I Dreamed A Dream. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
# I dreamed a dream in time gone by | 0:45:44 | 0:45:49 | |
# When hope was high and life worth living... # | 0:45:51 | 0:45:55 | |
You didn't expect that today, did you? No! | 0:45:55 | 0:45:57 | |
# I dreamed that love would never die... # | 0:45:57 | 0:46:02 | |
Within hours, within days, people were talking about it everywhere in the world. | 0:46:04 | 0:46:08 | |
It became number-one news. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
Perhaps you're one of the more than five million people who've seen | 0:46:10 | 0:46:14 | |
the world's newest singing sensation online - | 0:46:14 | 0:46:16 | |
Susan Boyle, from the hit UK show Britain's Got Talent. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
# And dreams are made and used and wasted... # | 0:46:19 | 0:46:24 | |
Not many people had connected it with Les Miserables, and the fact that everywhere, they kept saying, | 0:46:26 | 0:46:33 | |
"This is I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables," and that had a profound effect, and indeed | 0:46:33 | 0:46:40 | |
hugely increased the appetite of audiences | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
that possibly hadn't seen it to come and see it live on stage. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
Two days to go till show day, and at an East London studio, | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
the cast is assembling for one of the final rehearsals, | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
known in theatre speak as the sitzprobe. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
A sitzprobe has always been a very emotional moment, | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
because it's the first time | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
when the singers are listening to the orchestration, after spending an average of two months with a piano. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:12 | |
'But of course, I'm here today just to listen to what's wrong and not to what's gorgeous and beautiful. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:18 | |
'On Sunday, I will enjoy it.' | 0:47:18 | 0:47:20 | |
Today, we are still checking what's right and what's wrong. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:24 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our marvellous orchestra and our marvellous cast. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:28 | |
Today's historic for yet another reason. | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
This is the very first time this new orchestration has ever been sung. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
So I want you all to have a fantastic time. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
# Look down and see the beggars at your feet | 0:47:41 | 0:47:45 | |
# Look down and show some mercy if you can | 0:47:45 | 0:47:50 | |
# Look down and see the sweepings of the street | 0:47:50 | 0:47:55 | |
# Look down, look down upon your fellow man | 0:47:55 | 0:48:01 | |
# 'Ow do you do? My name's Gavroche | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
# These are my people, here's my patch | 0:48:03 | 0:48:06 | |
# Not much to look at, nothing posh | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
# Nothing that you'd call up to scratch... # | 0:48:09 | 0:48:11 | |
# What to do, what to say? | 0:48:15 | 0:48:19 | |
# Shall you carry our treasure away? | 0:48:19 | 0:48:23 | |
# What a gem, what a pearl | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
# Beyond rubies is our little girl | 0:48:26 | 0:48:30 | |
# How can we speak of debt? | 0:48:30 | 0:48:34 | |
# Let's not haggle for darling Colette... # | 0:48:34 | 0:48:38 | |
Cosette. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:39 | |
# Cosette - this one | 0:48:39 | 0:48:41 | |
# Dear Fantine, gone to rest | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
# Have we done for her child what is best? | 0:48:45 | 0:48:49 | |
# Shared our bread, shared each bone | 0:48:49 | 0:48:53 | |
# Treated her like she's one of our own | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
# Like our own, Monsieur... # | 0:48:56 | 0:48:58 | |
Go on, get it all out now! | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
# Your feelings do you credit, sir | 0:49:07 | 0:49:10 | |
# And I will ease the parting blow | 0:49:10 | 0:49:12 | |
# Let us not talk of bargains or bones or greed | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
# Now, may I say... # | 0:49:15 | 0:49:17 | |
-Oh, -BLEEP -it! | 0:49:17 | 0:49:19 | |
We've just run Act I, and it is sounding incredible. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
It's the beefed-up, wonderful orchestration, and the voices, | 0:49:23 | 0:49:28 | |
there's so many voices... It's amazing. I'm thrilled. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
All well and good, but when it comes to Act II, it looks like Matt still has one or two creases to iron out. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:37 | |
-What? What's that? -Start when you like. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:42 | |
I'll start when I like? Oh, right, cos I was watching... | 0:49:42 | 0:49:46 | |
You were waiting for me, and I was waiting for you! | 0:49:46 | 0:49:48 | |
I was seeing this... | 0:49:48 | 0:49:49 | |
We would have been there all night! | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
'I'm very excited and very nervous, as you would imagine.' | 0:49:51 | 0:49:54 | |
And right now, I'm wrecked. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:56 | |
I'm wrecked. That emotion has really taken it out of me, yeah. | 0:49:56 | 0:50:00 | |
Show day at London's O2 arena. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
Today, the largest-ever production of Les Miserables will be mounted twice | 0:50:10 | 0:50:14 | |
in front of audiences of 18,000, | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
and beamed live to more than 1,000 cinemas across the world. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:21 | |
I'm very excited, actually, because I'm a great Les Mis fan. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:25 | |
I just absolutely love the story and the production, I love the songs. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:29 | |
Nothing to beat it. I can't see it coming off! | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
The story is absolutely fantastic. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:36 | |
It has you with tears in your eyes all the way through it! | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
We're so, so excited. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
I can't believe the cast. The cast is absolutely fantastic. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
Well done, Sir Cameron! | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
Oh, my goodness! | 0:50:47 | 0:50:49 | |
-Flowers, Matt. -Really? -Yeah. -That's very nice. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
-There's a card. -Thank you very much. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
-You probably want to open it. -Yeah, let's have a look. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
Aw! It's from Imelda Marcos! How lovely! | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
-Hey, Mr T! -How are you doing? | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
-How are you doing? -How are you feeling? | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
I'm all right. Good to see you. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
I just made the mistake of looking at the screen. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
-Have you looked at the screen? -Not yet, no. | 0:51:29 | 0:51:31 | |
-Hang on a minute. Don't turn. -OK. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
-Look at all those people. -Oh, my goodness. | 0:51:33 | 0:51:38 | |
I know, I just had one of those moments! | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
-Oh, my word. -I know. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:42 | |
Thank you. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:47 | |
30 seconds, guys. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
Have fun, everybody. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:55 | |
# At the end of the day there's another day dawning | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
# And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
# Like the waves crash on the sand | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
# Like a storm that'll break any second | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
# There's a hunger in the land | 0:52:28 | 0:52:32 | |
# There's going to be hell to pay | 0:52:32 | 0:52:35 | |
# At the end of the day! # | 0:52:35 | 0:52:36 | |
# He slept a summer by my side | 0:52:36 | 0:52:43 | |
# He filled my days with endless wonder | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
# He took my childhood in his stride | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
# But he was gone when autumn came... # | 0:52:55 | 0:52:59 | |
# Who am I? | 0:53:02 | 0:53:04 | |
# I'm Jean Valjean | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
# And so Javert, you see it's true | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
# This man bears no more guilt than you | 0:53:12 | 0:53:17 | |
# Who am I? | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
# 24601! # | 0:53:22 | 0:53:26 | |
# Dare you talk to me of crime | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
# And the price you've had to pay | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
# Every man is born in sin | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
# Every man must choose his way | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
# You know nothing of Javert | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
# I was born inside a jail | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
# I was born with scum like you | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
# I am from the gutter too! # | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:53:57 | 0:53:58 | |
Thank you. Nice kiss, mate! | 0:54:06 | 0:54:07 | |
# Aren't any floors for me to sweep | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
# Not in my castle on a cloud... # | 0:54:12 | 0:54:15 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:54:20 | 0:54:22 | |
Oh, shit! | 0:54:27 | 0:54:29 | |
# Please do not send me out alone | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
# Not in the darkness on my own... # | 0:54:37 | 0:54:41 | |
Enough of that! | 0:54:41 | 0:54:42 | |
# Or I'll forget to be nice | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
# You heard me ask for something, and I never ask twice | 0:54:46 | 0:54:51 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:55:03 | 0:55:04 | |
# My band of soaks | 0:55:10 | 0:55:12 | |
# My den of dissolutes | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
# My dirty jokes | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
# My always pissed as newts | 0:55:17 | 0:55:18 | |
# My sons of whores | 0:55:18 | 0:55:20 | |
# Spend their lives in my inn | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
# Homing pigeons homing in | 0:55:23 | 0:55:27 | |
# They fly through my doors | 0:55:27 | 0:55:32 | |
# And their money's as good as yours | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
# Welcome, Monsieur... # | 0:55:39 | 0:55:41 | |
'It's been one of the most challenging, but exciting, jobs I've had. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
'Les Mis has always been a part of my life, | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
'but now I'm a part of its life, and I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity.' | 0:55:48 | 0:55:54 | |
# Seldom do you see honest men like me | 0:55:55 | 0:56:01 | |
# A gent of good intent who's content to be | 0:56:01 | 0:56:08 | |
# Master of the house, doling out the charm | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
# Ready with a handshake and an open palm | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
# Tells a saucy tale, creates a little stir | 0:56:13 | 0:56:16 | |
# Customers appreciate a bon viveur | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
# There to do a friend a favour | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
# Doesn't cost me to be nice | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
# But nothing gets you nothing | 0:56:24 | 0:56:26 | |
# Everything has got a little price... # | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
He has a masterful sense of timing. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
He's a natural clown. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
You can feel the tears behind the wax, and I think he is | 0:56:34 | 0:56:39 | |
one of the better Thenardiers we've had over the years. | 0:56:39 | 0:56:42 | |
# Everybody bless the landlord | 0:56:42 | 0:56:45 | |
# Everybody bless his spouse | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
# Everybody raise a glass | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
# Raise it up the master's arse | 0:56:50 | 0:56:54 | |
# Everybody raise a glass to the master of the house! # | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
For 25 years, Les Miserables has been mesmerising audiences around the world. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:26 | |
Now, with a capacity audience at the O2, and with the show still playing in eight different cities, | 0:57:26 | 0:57:31 | |
one might wonder how a musical that so nearly never happened has come so far. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:39 | |
# For the wretched of the earth | 0:57:39 | 0:57:41 | |
# There is a flame that never dies... # | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
Something about that show is larger than life, touching people everywhere in the same way. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:51 | |
Oddly enough, I predicted 25 years ago that Les Miserables would run for 30 years! | 0:57:51 | 0:57:58 | |
Let's see if I'm right! | 0:57:58 | 0:58:00 | |
It broke the mould, and I think it continues to do so. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:04 | |
It's always got something relevant to say to every audience. | 0:58:04 | 0:58:09 | |
As long as people continue to love the music and as long as that story has | 0:58:13 | 0:58:19 | |
a resonance for people, they're going to want to go on seeing it. | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
It will be the one show of mine that will be done for evermore as long as anyone goes to the theatre. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:29 | |
# Will you join in our crusade? | 0:58:31 | 0:58:34 | |
# Who will be strong and stand with me? | 0:58:34 | 0:58:36 | |
# Somewhere beyond the barricade | 0:58:36 | 0:58:39 | |
# Is there a world you long to see? | 0:58:39 | 0:58:42 | |
# Do you hear the people sing? | 0:58:42 | 0:58:44 | |
# Say, do you hear the distant drums? | 0:58:44 | 0:58:47 | |
# It's the future that they bring | 0:58:47 | 0:58:51 | |
# When tomorrow comes | 0:58:51 | 0:58:53 | |
# Tomorrow comes! # | 0:59:02 | 0:59:06 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:59:16 | 0:59:18 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:59:31 | 0:59:33 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:59:33 | 0:59:36 |