Cassandra Compton in Les Miserables

Les Miserables, already the longest running musical in West End and Broadway history, is set to break through another barrier when, on 10 August, it gives its 9,000th London performance.

Now running at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, it first opened at the Barbican Theatre on 8 October 1985 in a co-production between Cameron Mackintosh and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It transferred to the West End’s Palace Theatre on 4 December 1985, and then to its current home on 3 April 2004.

On its 21st birthday on 8 October 2006, it overtook Cats to take the West End record for the longest-running musical.

Internationally, the show has been seen by over 55 million people in 38 countries and performed in 21 languages, spawning 33 cast recordings. Over 1,500 productions of the Les Miserables School’s Edition are scheduled or being performed by over 100,000 school children in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, making it also the most successful musical ever produced in schools.

[AD]In the West End, Les Miserables currently stars John Owen-Jones as Jean Valjean, Hans Peter Janssens as Javert, Joanna Ampil as Fantine, Gary Watson as Marius, Edward Baruwa Enjolras, Chris Vincent as Thénardier, Melanie La Barrie as Madame Thénardier, Cassandra Compton as Eponine and Claire-Marie Hall as Cosette.