Les Misérables, the West End’s – and the world’s – longest-running musical, has reopened at the beautifully refurbished and renamed Sondheim Theatre (formerly the Queen’s Theatre) on Shaftesbury Avenue.
It is 35 years since the RSC and Cameron Mackintosh unveiled their new musical based on Victor Hugo’s tale of the revolutionary 1830s Paris. And now this rebooted production returns to the Sondheim Theatre after a multi-million pound refurbishment.
The critics loved the show, hailing the new staging – and the renovated theatre – as a triumph. See more reviews below from the Guardian, Evening Standard, TimeOut, Telegraph and more.
Book tickets to Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre in London
Les Miserables reviews
" Just hear these people sing!"
"With a cast that never misses a note, the West End’s longest-running musical proves a haunting and thrilling inspiration"
"This new version is less showy than the original; no longer a spectacle to lean back and admire but, instead, something more truthful and, ultimately, more moving. The battles, the poverty, the degradation and the danger: all feel more relevant and real."
"Revamped musical opens at London's Sondheim Theatre with added grit"
"All in all, Les Mis and the refurbished Sondheim feel fit for purpose for the next decade or three."
"The mighty Mis is still revolutionary"
"... this 'new staging' of one of the world's longest-running musicals remains fit to burst the seams of the mightiest of stages. Laurence Connor and James Powell's rendition of Boublil and Schonberg's musical reinvention of Victor Hugo's novel is an absolute blinder."
"Still spectacular"
"It’s really quite magnificent. When you combine the new production with the renovated theatre, the experience is completely different from anything that came before. While it is a huge shame the original production no longer exists, this ‘new’ version keeps the show alive. It’s angstier, angrier, with a little dose of psychological realism and crucially, considering it has been scaled back in so many ways, there’s no less sense of spectacle."
"Mesmerising Les Misérables returns home to the Sondheim Theatre"
"I LEFT wanting to start a revolution. It was mesmerising from start to finish and I couldn't get Do You Hear The People Sing out of my head."
"If you've not seen Les Misérables don't wait any longer. It's a must see and I'm not surprised it's still delighting audiences."
"Perfect theatre, in a perfect theatre"
"Prepare for a fresh outbreak of Les Mis mania."
"It’s been reworked, but ‘Les Misérables’ is still very much ‘Les Misérables’, in all its OTT glory"
"I don’t think anybody could realistically see this imperfect, absurd, magnificent show and suggest that its crown as London’s longest-runner is in any danger."
"Overlong and clunky, but there was much to admire in the performances"
"The old revolving stage has been jettisoned. Instead, using images based on Victor Hugo’s paintings, the designer Matt Kinley has created a backdrop, augmented by Paule Constable’s artful beams of light, that proves even more atmospheric. As pure theatre, it is enchanting, like watching a Romantic panorama of grimy, pre-Haussmann Paris come to life."
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