Riverside Theatre’s Season continues with the international musical hit, Les Misérables. Winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score, Les Misérables performs on the Stark Stage from February 21 through March 17.

Les Misérables brings to life the tragic story of Jean Valjean, a convict, whose entire life is changed due to a single act of kindness. This beautiful tale, set in early 19th-century France, tells of the redeeming nature of forgiveness and the human sprit. The score features the classic favorites “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Do You Hear People Sing?,” “On My Own,” and many others.

Winner of over 70 major Drama awards, this sweeping musical has captured the hearts of over 60 million people worldwide. The Broadway production opened in March of 1987 and closed in May of 2008 after 6, 680 performances, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway show in history.

With music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Nate and an English adaptation by Herbert Kretzmer, Les Misérables is based on the novel of the same name by French author, Victor Hugo.

Originally released as a French-language concept album, a copy of the album was brought to the attention of producer Cameron Mackintosh, who was impressed enough to assemble a production team to produce an English-language version. The adaptation opened at the Barbican Centre in London on October 8, 1985 and is still playing on London’s West End. It is the longest running musical in West End history. The book of the musical was written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil with an English adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

French poet, novelist and dramatist, Victor Hugo was born in 1802 during a time of national and political turmoil. His father served in Napoleon’s army as Napoleon swept through Europe. His mother, tired of constantly moving, settled in Paris, where she saw to her children’s strict Catholic upbringing. Victor would eventually rebel against the Catholic/Royalist indoctrination and champion Republicanism and free thought.

He waited to marry his childhood friend, Adele Foucher, until after his mother’s death in 1821, because his mother did not approve of her. The couple had five children during their tumultuous marriage with the first child dying in infancy and his eldest, and favorite, daughter dying at the age of 19 in an accident on the Seine River. His estrangement from Adele in the 1830’s resulted in an affair with Juliette Drouet, an actress in one of his plays.

A prominent politician throughout his life, Hugo was first elected as a Peer of France in 1845, the year he decided to write a novel about social misery and injustice that was to be called Les Misérables. It would take 17 years for the book to be finally published in 1862.  Hugo died in 1885 at age 83.  Voted a national hero, he lay in state at the Arc de Triomphe prior to being interred in the Pantheon. According to his wishes, he was buried in a pauper’s coffin.