Heaven knows we're all Les Misérables now

Panned by critics, loved by the public. As Les Mis celebrates its extraordinary 40th anniversary in the West End with a star-spangled charity performance, Cameron Mackintosh looks back on the dream he dreamed into a masterpiece

- EXCLUSIVE By Richard Barber

PEOPLE POWER: Original London cast with Michael Ball as Marius and Frances Ruffelle as Eponine, front left, watched by a gang of Paris revolutionaries including young boy Gavroche.

CAMERON Mackintosh first heard the French concept album of Les Misérables in 1982. “I immediately made it my business,” he says now, “to travel to Paris to meet composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil who'd adapted the story from the Victor Hugo classic.” Cameron smelt a hit.

But he's the first to admit its unparalleled and sustained success has exceeded even his wildest dreams.

Next Wednesday, with a special charity gala performance at Shaftesbury Avenue's Sondheim Theatre, it will celebrate 40 continuous years in the West End, the longest running production in London with the single exception of The Mousetrap.

A company of nearly 100 performers, including guest artists from the first four decades of Les Mis Patti LuPone, Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, Samantha Barks, Matt Lucas, Frances Ruffelle, Carrie Hope Fletcher and Bonnie Langford will join the celebration cast in a special finale.

As it happens, and he's the first to acknowledge this, Les Mis wasn't an instant hit. Not with the critics, at least. One critic dubbed it The Glums.

“I can remember trying to call the box office the morning after the first night to confirm my worst fears,” says Cameron. “The line was permanently engaged.

“When I finally got through, I was told they'd never had a response like it. The theatre-going public had formed long queues at the box office, the phones were ringing off the hook and 5,000 tickets had already been sold. Truly, we'd created the people's musical.”

Word of mouth, moreover, had been helped not a little by Joan Bakewell’s vox pop interviews on Newsnight with first-night audience members as they left the theatre.