It’s been 40 years since “Les Miserables” opened on London’s West End — and it’s been there ever since.
“Les Mis” is the longest-running musical on the West End, having played there without interruption since it first opened on Oct. 8, 1985. It’s no exaggeration to say that, after 40 years, it’s still one of the world’s most popular musicals: it’s currently on a North American Broadway tour through next year, and a worldwide “Arena Concert Spectacular” tour that’s already sold over 1 million tickets and will be coming to New York City’s Radio City Concert Hall next summer.
To celebrate 40 years of “Les Miserables,” here are some fun facts about the hit musical.
‘Les Mis’ wasn’t exactly loved by critics — at first
In fact, the now beloved musical was panned by many critics when it first opened in London.
“Watching it is rather like eating an artichoke: you have to go through an awful lot to get a very little‚” wrote the Mail on Sunday’s Kenneth Hurren, per Radio Times.
Meanwhile, The Guardian critic Michael Billington (who has since reappraised his original review) had complaints about the show’s “simplification of the novel’s moral dilemmas.”
And the Evening Standard called it a “glum opera,” according to The New York Times.
So how did the show outlast its negative reviews?
“Seeing Les Mis for a second time was a chastening experience,” Billington wrote for The Guardian this week, “and one that reminded me that there are two things that audiences crave in the theatre and that are all too rarely found: an optimistic philosophy and a direct appeal to the heart.”
‘Les Mis’ has been around the world — from Brazil to Iceland and more
“Les Miserables” has struck a chord around the world: So far, it’s played in 53 countries and 438 cities.
Not only that, but it’s been translated into 22 languages, including Japanese, Hungarian, Icelandic and Portuguese.
In total, it’s been seen by over 130 million people worldwide, according to the show’s website.
‘Les Mis’ has won plenty of awards — including Patti LuPone for best actress in a musical
Though “Les Miserables” was nominated four times for a Laurence Olivier Award for its original London run in 1985, it only won one — best actress in a leading role in a musical for Patti LuPone, who played Fantine.
By the time “Les Mis” hit Broadway, it garnered quite a few more nominations during the 1987 Tony Awards. It was nominated 12 times, and won eight of those nominations, including for best musical and best original score.
‘Les Mis’ has a strong Christian message — and that’s on purpose
The story of “Les Miserables,” written originally as a novel by Victor Hugo, features strong religious themes, including mercy, love and forgiveness.
When it was adapted for the stage, the show’s creative team intentionally kept those same themes. The musical contains 31 references to God, six references to Jesus, eight to heaven and four to the soul, according to London’s The Times.
“Our first instinct was to remove all mention of God from the story throughout,” said John Caird, a co-director of the show who was involved in the adaptation process, according to The Times, “but we came to realise that telling the story of ‘Les Miserables’ without God being a central character would be a fruitless task.”
Biblical themes also anchor the characters’ motivations, Caird told The New York Times: the main character, Jean Valjean, “believed in the New Testament idea of forgiveness, while Javert, his pursuer, adhered to a sterner Old Testament form of justice.”
‘Les Mis’ has lots of shows still ahead — including in Utah
The North American Broadway tour of “Les Miserables” is scheduled through next year, with 27 stops still ahead — including one in Boise, Idaho. The tour already made a stop in Salt Lake City earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the world tour of the “Arena Concert Spectacular” is still ongoing, with upcoming shows in Shanghai, Singapore and London’s Royal Albert Hall. On Wednesday, the tour announced that it will also be coming to Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where it will be onstage from July 23-Aug. 2, 2026.
If you want to see “Les Mis” in Utah, you’re in luck — the musical is one of the shows slated for the 2026 season at Tuacahn Amphitheatre in southern Utah.
“If I were to put a bucket list out there of shows that I wanted to do in my life, ‘Les Mis’ would be right at the top,” Scott Anderson, producing artistic director for Tuacahn, said in a press release. “The story and the music … it’s one of the better things ever written for the stage.”