As previously tipped – and announced by impresario Cameron Mackintosh himself to the audience at Sunday night’s 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards - opera tenor Alfie Boe will reprise his performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables at the West End’s Queen’s Theatre from 23 June 2011.
He’ll be joined in the cast by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas, who also featured in the Boublil and Schonberg musical’s 25th anniversary concert at The O2 last October. Lucas will play Thenardier from 23 June to 10 September, while Boe will continue through to 26 November 2011.
Also joining the cast from 23 June will be Hadley Fraser, playing the police inspector Javert. Like Boe, Fraser also performed both at last October’s O2 extravaganza and at the Whatsonstage.com Awards Concert on Sunday night, where Mackintosh and members of the various Les Miserables companies – also including Samantha Barks, Norm Lewis and Ramin Karimloo – were on hand to collect three awards for the show in its anniversary year: Best Musical Revival (for the touring production of the Barbican), Best Ensemble Performance (for The O2) and Theatre Event of the Year.
Les Miserables had its world premiere at the Barbican on 8 October 1985. Based on Victor Hugo's classic humanitarian novel set in 19th-century revolutionary France, the musical has a book by Alain Boublil, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.
After its premiere at the Barbican, the landmark Royal Shakespeare Company production, adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird and designed by John Napier, transferred, care of Cameron Mackintosh, to the West End’s Palace Theatre where it ran for 18 years before moving down the road on 3 April 2004 to the Queen’s.
As exciting as it is for some that Matt Lucas & Alfie Boe will be in Les Miserables, I am most excited to see Hadley Fraser back on the West End. He was a brilliant Marius. His voice has definitely matured with a warm & strong timbre that was showcased a bit when he played Grantaire at the O2.
- mae
Whatsonstage.com - Discount London theatre tickets, theatre news and reviews, Theatre videos, Theatre discussion, National Theatre Listings. Covering London's West End, all of Theatreland and all UK theatre. The best
for London Theatre Ticket Discounts.
