A friend of mine's agent has *apparently* put my friend up for the auditions of the "Les Mis 2010 UK Tour"...

I highly doubt it..(the agent in question is full of S***)...but does anyone know if a UK Tour is in the pipeline??

It has been rumoured on other forums! you can see the sense in it, but i guess we'll wait and see

http://www.wmc.org.uk/index.cfm?alias=lesmiz

Also - http://www.lesmis.com/tour.htm

Very excited about this!

I might've been excited about it (especially as I live near Cardiff, where the tour begins) -
BUT they've started selling tickets Before announcing ANY Cast

So please keep us posted about any Cast -
however minor the role.

I think I've seen it somewhere billed as (or at least referred to as) 25th Anniversary WORLD Tour (2010 being the 25th Anniversary) -
though I see the Official Tour Website (as per link above) just calls it "International Tour 2009/10".

Wuhey! A les Mis tour! That's awesome! The first time i ever saw les mis (although I don't remember much of it cos I was so young) is when my parents took me to see it in birmingham. It's great it's going on tour again so it can reach the people who find it hard to get to london and it can play some bigger theatres than Queens (which is great but very small)

Wooooo! Please come to Manchester. It was one of the first things I saw at the theatre, I was bored as I was too young to appreciate the theatre and was sat in the gods where people on the stage looked like matchsticks. Would love to see this now as a theatre-addict. Have never booked for it on my London visits as there's always been other shows I've wanted to give priority. Have just ordered the Les Mis soundtrack.

Oh yes please for Manchester. Was it at the Palace or Opera House last time it was in Manchester ?

It was at the Palace and I think you can still buy a Manchester cast recording CD online
Surely a big tour wouldn't miss Manchester?!

You can can't you - it has always stuck out to me as I think it must be pretty much the only musical with a widely available Manchester Cast Recording!!

I doubt they would, its one of the main places for touring!
and WWRY has been at the Palace for 2 and a bit months ? hopefully they'd do the same with Les Mis

I'd love to go to a tour of Les Mis. Praying it comes to a city near me!

Hmm...just a thought..

Would they re-stage the show and not have a revolve, or would they take a revolve with them and build it on top of the original stage at every venue?? :/

Yes they would, its quite easy to do. When i did chitty tour, the whole stage was build with a completly new stage above it.

I just wonder, if it's a world tour, might it might only be doing Cardiff, then going abroad?

more than likley not, it did say on the LM website, wait for further dates to be anounced, in my experience of working on large tours, they will go to most big theatre, machester palace, sunderland empire, birminham hip, bristol, edingburugh.

Let's hope they just put that sad old show to bed. A year on it was enough for me.

COME ON PEOPLE DEMAND MORE

I spent a year working on the last tour and loved it, I'd definitely be up for doing it again.

I heard that it was starting in Cardiff and then playing 6 other locations including Paris to mark the 30th anniversary of the original French production.

YAWN

Troll alert.

Not a troll. Just a bitter old man.

Yay! I've booked for January. Hope it goes to Manchester or Edinburgh too.

There's mention of the Cardiff dates on Earl Carpenter's site - I'll be very happy if he's playing Javert on the tour.

It is definitely going to Norwich Theatre Royal for 6 weeks in February/ March 2010

The great Welsh star Jon Owen Jones will play Jean Valjean at Cardiff.

Great indeed: that's exactly the news I've been hoping for!

Any Marius yet???

Enjolras???

etc???

Gareth Gates

True or teasing?

True!

**Grabs the prozac and heads for a dark room**

No need for that. Gareth is a great singer. I hope it is true. Gareth would make an excellent Marius, but I can imagine that people might use his name simply as a talking point.

I don't know why they are taking so long to announce the casting. Perhaps they want to be able to sell the show based on it being Les Miserables and see how far they get that way. It would also help if they announced the other dates.

I'm tempted to make the trip to Cardiff, but I'm holding off in the hope they'll come somewhere closer to home. I'd consider a trip to Paris if the timing was right.

As soon as I saw the comment about John Owen Jones I was all set to go to Cardiff. And then I saw the name Gareth Gates and I don't know what to do...

Les Miz is always sold on it's own name isn't it? I've never seen it advertised as "now starring" or "x now starring is Les Miserables" or anything like that.

i agree its the story and songs that makes me go not because joe blogs from a tv show is in it. i personally dont thinl les mis needs that at all because it has lasted 23/24? years without having to advertise a big name. Although i did love JOJ as valjean so may make a special trip.

How sure are people about JOJ - there is nothing on his official site, nor on twitter. He always said he would never return to Les Mis, that he had done it for long enough.

Looks likely it will be coming to Manchester given this article in the MEN today
http://www.citylife.co.uk/theatre_dance/ne...miserable_again

YAY!!

Probably true but City Life facts are wrong. It ran at the Palace in 2004 for 2 months, not a year. previous to that the show had had a good 4 month run at the opera house and previous to that, in 1992 ran at the Palace for 13 months.

I think this performance by Gareth Gates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic60j9Y3Weo...D04&index=0 demonstrates how he could contribute to the part of Marius, should he be considered.

Can I just say that if it is going to the Theatre Royal in Norwich, I feel that it is very likely that the show will be restaged. I don't see them taking the original show to Norwich. I know that they managed to squeeze the show into the Queens in London but Cameron has a tradition of only touring the large set productions into the really big touring houses like he did with the Poppins tour. There have been rumours for a while that Les Mis was going to be restaged like they did with the last version of Saigon that was done with projection.

Can I just say before any body states this as fact or utter rubbish this is just my gut feeling based on what has happened in the past and having toured many shows around the country and heard what the staff at the touring theatres have been saying.

are you ACTUALLY being serious!? He is a lovely singer but he can't act to save the nasty brown stuff. I want to be able to cry at Empty Chairs, not beg for it to be over or be imagining I'm at another teeny-bopper pop concert.

If this is true (and I sincerely hope it's not) then I shan't be spending my money on the tour and I would rather spend more and go to see it at the Queens again where it doesn't have to rely on very poor 'celeb casting' to sell.

Susan Boyle has been asked to play Fantine - she will definately bring the crowds in!

Yes, I am ACTUALLY being serious. Just because you have one view doesn't mean others don't have another. If you watch any performer with the pre-conception that they are another teeny-bopper pop singer, then of course you will struggle to get into the emotion of a song, but that's up to you. If you have a very narrow view of how a song ought to be sung, then you stand a fair chance of being disappointed too. All I know is that Gareth did a good job of the acting when I saw him in Joseph. There was plenty of emotion conveyed during Close Every Door and quite a few glassy eyes around me, so I don't think it was a moment of personal madness.

Obviously live theatre means that not every performance is the same, and perhaps when you saw Gareth he was having a bad day. When I saw him, it was about a month into the run, so he was probably better than during the early performances. I can only go from what I've seen, and in my opinion, he could do a very good job.

I'm sure whoever they pick, they'll pick a good cast, even if we don't all agree with every single decision. They've been building up to this for a while, and it seems that they are putting a lot of thought into it.

Just to add, there will probably be a lot of rumours that turn out to be false. There's no point in getting too worked up about any of them, and certainly no point in having a go at someone who happens to like someone you don't.

Gareth Gates would make an outstanding Marius. He has been an immense success as Joseph. (You can view him singing Close any Door on youtube)!

Just because he was on Pop Idol doesn't mean he has to be looked down on. There are too many snobs around! Pop Idol was over 7 years ago and the world has moved on. Whatever anybody says, you can't deny the fact that Gareth Gates is a fantastic singer and I wish him well. He deserves it.

Well I have to agree with people about Gareth Gates.

Firstly, I hate Joseph as a show. I saw it last summer with Lee Mead and was thoroughly underwhelmed and felt ripped off that such a cheap set and short show should have cost me £30 to sit in the upper circle. So I'm not the biggest fan.

When I heard Gareth was taking over, I laughed. I really did think 'teeny-bopper' and have done until the last poster prompted me to actually do some research and watch a vid of Gareth.

I have to admit now, I was wrong. Having watched Gareth's performance of 'Close Every Door' I bet he's actually been an outstanding Joseph. It was vocally great and full of emotion. I wish I could have seen him instead of Lee!

So, after initial skepticism about Gareth playing Marius, after seeing a clip I really do think people should give him a chance and he'd be a great Marius. He reminds me very much of Jon Robyns. Before seeing Jon in les mis I could only see him as that funny guy from avenue Q (although I'd never seen the show, just clips) but after watching him play Marius, he really did change my opinion of him. I think this will be the same with Gareth, and I actually quite hope I do get to see this tour cast.

Those who are unsure, watch the video of Close Every Door!

I really hope that's a joke. She's about 40 years too old. She'll be perfect if Shrek ever comes to london though...

I won't deny that Gareth is vocally up for the part of Marius, as he's got a great voice, but I seriously doubt he could convince me with his acting. I have seen him in Joseph and he plays the part really well, but lacks any emotion during CED.

susan boyle would make a good madam T , would she not ?she`s quite funny and not a huge singing role and the right shape and look ..what do u think?...

Help! Help! I can't stand this!
She may be a lovely person, she can sing quite well but please don't give her a lead role in a musical which trained professionals would give their right arms for! Can she act? Can she cope with the demands of 8 shows a week? There is more to Fantine or Madame Thenardier than just singing.