No More “One Day More”
Les Miserables has closed on Broadway after 6,680 performances and 16 years at the Imperial Theatre. That leaves only Phantom of the Opera left from the crop of big splashy musical happenings that defined Broadway in the 1980s.
Usually musicals, even ones that have made a bajillion dollars and run for decades, close after they start to lose money and it’s clear that public interest is elsewhere. I haven’t seen any mention of how Les Mis was doing financially but I can only assume some combination of these factors was the case.
Me, I’ve seen the musical maybe 3 times and loved it. My first car, a crappy 1978 Volvo station wagon had two cassette tapes in the front seat, AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and the Les Mis Original Boradway recording.
I am no fan of the musicals but Les Mis got me interested (briefly) in the second French Revolution and the idea that Broadway can make an enormous work of classic literature as much fun as a rock concert. Purists scoff at this sort of thing, arguing that the movement started by Cats and amped by Les Mis and Miss Saigon made musicals less about theater and more about fancy sets and clever marketing. I couldn’t agree more. Without Les Mis and its brethren, there would be no Mamma Mia and no Disney footprint on the Great White Way.
All true, all true. It just doesn’t bother me all that much.