Les Miserables at Kennedy Center Opera House

More than 40 years ago, a star show was born when Alain Boubil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Claude-Michel Schönberg created the initial musical screenplay for Les Misérables (initially in French). Based on Victor Hugo’s late novel of the identical title, Les Misérables was transformed and turned into a theater play as a fully sung-through show, which was monumental in that decade.

After an initial showing in Paris, France, there was evidently overwhelming support to create a more accessible version, and once Cameron Macikintosh listened to the musical score, he fully committed and decided to produce an English adaptation while working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the new songs. The English version of Les Mis only performed with a two-month period at the Barbican Centre, but because of its impressive success and repeatedly sold-out shows, the musical unsurprisingly transferred to West End’s Palace Theatre in due time, London theatre's top location, and was performed for 19 years. The West End play then transferred once more to another location, the Queen’s Theatre (which one day renovated and renamed to The Sondheim Theatre in 2019), and maintains its shows up until today. Adding together all its runs since its first showing four decades ago, Les Mis is as it happens, the longest-running musical in the entire world.

With almost 4 decades in London's West End on its own and not even listing its tours in international countries, including its sold-out shows on Broadway, it is with certainty that Les Mis perseveres and is astounding in the eyes of the show's attendees. The plot and the rich and touching soundtrack, which revolves around redemption, sacrifice, and selfless love, tugs on a viewer's heartstrings due to the evident passion behind each song and act performed. Les Misérables has become so critically-acclaimed that the play has been converted to films repeatedly and has been met with glowing reviews even on a different medium.

This approaching June’s season of Les Misérables carries it to District Of Columbia, where the show will be running on Thursday 12th June 2025, in Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington. For an auditory experience like Les Misérables, theatergoers can agree that Kennedy Center Opera House is the favorite venue thanks to its sound engineering and acoustic range, as well as a magnificent stage platform to hold the musical. For ticket purchases or queries, tickets are purchasable through the links that can be clicked above this page.