Les Miserables at Cadillac Palace Theatre

In 1980, history was being made when Jean-Marc Natel, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Alain Boubil created the very first musical screenplay for the now-famous musical, Les Misérables (initially in French). Stemming from Victor Hugo’s original book of the matching name, Les Misérables was adapted and turned into a musical as a show only sung from start to finish, which was monumental in that time period.

After a limited season performed in French in Paris, France, there was already a growing demand to make a more accessible show, and when Cameron Macikintosh listened to the score, he was so inspired and decided to write an English version hand in hand with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the new song numbers. The English production of Les Misérables initially premiered with a two-month period at the Barbican Centre, but as a result of its impressive success and positive reviews from critics, the show unsurprisingly moved to West End’s Palace Theatre in 1985, a significantly more top theater, and remained there for 19 years. The West End play then moved once more to another theater, the Queen’s Theatre (which after some time was remade and renamed to The Sondheim Theatre in roughly half a decade ago), and maintains its shows up until today. If you include all its tours since its creation all those years ago, the stage adaptation of Les Mis is as it happens, the longest-running stage play so far in this generation.

With 37 years in West End solely and not even enumerating its tours in international countries, including and definitely not limited to its well-received Broadway seasons, it is with certainty that this global hit perseveres and is astounding in the perspective of the play's audiences. The plot and the rich and touching soundtrack, which revolves around redemption, sacrifice, and unrequited love, tugs on a viewer's heartstrings due to the evident passion beneath the surface of each character and act performed. Les Mis has become so successful that the play has been turned into movies several times and received very positively even on a different medium.

This coming December’s production of Les Mis carries it to Illinois, where the show will be performed on Thursday 26th December 2024, in Cadillac Palace, Chicago. For fully lyricized show like this, locals all attest to how Cadillac Palace is the unrivaled option thanks to its audio design and acoustics, and also a spacious stage platform to hold the play. For ticket purchases or questions, tickets are available by using the links that can be clicked on the top of this page.