This new revival of the show will take a fresh approach to the classic musical with new scenic elements and even some updated orchestrations. Producer Cameron Macintosh has said that the "re-imagined" scenery is inspired by paintings of Victor Hugo (the author of the 19th century Les Miserables novel).The production has already been performed in the U.K. and the U.S. in a tour that is also slated to open in Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil in the near future.
The original London production of Les Miz is the longest running musical of all time, still running after 27 years! To date, it is the fourth longest-running Broadway show (beat by Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Chicago).
Truth be told I've always liked the classic Les Miz songs (On My Own, At The End of the Day, Bring Him Home, Empty Chairs and Empty Tables, etc.) but I found the Broadway revival in 2006 to be a snooze-fest. Apart from the famous songs the rest of the show was pretty boring. For that reason I was skeptical of the movie when it came out, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it! My favorite performances were by Anne Hathaway (Of course! Who didn't love her??), who gave the most emotionally intense rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" that I have ever encountered, Aaron Tveit, who I've been a huge fan of since Next to Normal, and Samantha Barks, who's subtle performance of "On My Own" was extremely refreshing after hearing the song over sung by so many Broadway wanna-bes (including those from my high school choir) that it's almost ruined the song for me.
I don't know if this revival will be much more exciting overall than the last was but I'll definitely give it a chance, that is if the popularity of the movie doesn't cause the prices to sky rocket.
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