Alain Boublil News

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. This week: Our TOP TEN HOT TOPIX for the second half of 2012!!

Will LES MISERABLES return to the Great White Way? With the starry film adaptation on track for a successful opening week nationwide, producer Cameron Mackintosh confirmed today with Showbiz411 that the show is preparing to return to Broadway in 2014.

"To love another person is to see the face of God" - Colm Wilkinson's Bishop Myriel of Digne and Anne Hathaway's Fantine, together with Hugh Jackman's Jean Valjean, sung those arguably the most indelible lyrics by tail end in the Tom Hooper-helmed musical motion picture, "Les Miserables," a faithful film adaptation based on the 1987 Tony Award-winning musical, written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil, and Herbert Kretzmer, which in turn was inspired by the French historical novel of the same name, published in 1862, by Victor Hugo, a well-known French Romantic poet and novelist who had evident antipathy toward the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church; but, interestingly, had high regard for the Church's doctrines.

It's been a busy year in Nashville theater in 2012, with audiences treated to a whole slate of theatrical offerings spanning multiple genres-from productions of time-honored classics to new and original contemporary works, from dramas to comedies, from straight plays to musicals-and giving local theater-goers more opportunities than ever before to be challenged by the onstage magic created by some of Tennessee's most talented and gifted artists.

BroadwayWorld brings you the Best of Baltimore in the year 2012. Check out the Top Theatre Stories from each month during in the year 2012. We look forward to another exciting year of theatre in 2013!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, December 23, 2012 - Sunday, December 23, 2012.

In an interview with the New York Post, LES MISERABLES star Hugh Jackman confirmed that director Cameron Mackintosh has approached him for a potential movie adaptation of MISS SAIGON. Jackman said he has never seen the musical but is 'all for it.'

MISS SAIGON's leading ladies Joan Almedilla, Rona Figueroa and Tony Award winner Lea Salonga recently gathered to pay tribute to the musical's lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. Click below to watch an excerpt from PhilDev's benefit concert at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall!

LES MISERABLES fans may opt to listen to the soundtrack of Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh's highly anticipated movie adaptation of the mega-musical three days before the film opens Christmas Day by downloading 20 highlight tracks from the new album 'LES MISERABLES: Highlights From The Motion Picture Soundtrack' for $5 only at Amazon MP3 until Monday, December 31, 2012.

Christmas Day 2012 marks the biggest and best day of the year for many Broadway babies around the world, but the anticipatory fervor has little to do with the man with the beard in red and white from the North Pole - you see, the guy in question in this equation is more apt to be seen in red and black and his origins are decidedly a bit more Gallic than Jolly Old St. Nick. The man whom I speak of is, of course, Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo's spellbinding 1862 historical epic LES MISERABLES, a novel which was subsequently adapted into a 1980 concert spectacular and ultimately a 1985 full-fledged stage musical, painstakingly developed through the shepherding of uber producer Cameron Mackintosh, alongside the talents responsible for breathing song into the story - original French composer/lyricist team Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil (along with Jean-Marc Natel), to whom Mackintosh added English lyricist Herbert Kretzmer (and also contributor James Fenton). Through a special partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, LES MISERABLES: THE MUSICAL premiered at the Barbican Theatre in the West End soon thereafter under the direction of Trevor Nunn and John Caird and opened to largely negative reviews, albeit ecstatic, ebullient audiences. Broadway was next, where it went on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Featured Actress & Actor and even more (eight total). LES MISERABLES onstage was a hit like few others from then on and the rest, ze say, is history - or, in this case, l'histoire. Yet, on Christmas Day, the next step in the evolution of the worldwide phenomenon commonly and colloquially known as LES MIZ will occur - just days after the Mayan-predicted end of days, no less - and the movie musical adaptation of the stage show will finally become a reality, featuring an all-star cast comprised of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, among others. The time has come to hear the people sing onscreen at long, long last. But, first, how is the film?

While many MIZ-heads may have assumed the film adaptation of their beloved musical would never actually come to fruition, here it really is, all too soon available for all to see - lo, more than twenty years after it was first announced byway of an official promo ad in a tour souvenir going as far back as the late-1980s. I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening during the dawning days of December and many small moments, full musical sequences and my first impressions themselves have filled me with a certain kind of inexpressible enrapturing ecstasy heretofore inexperienced, coming as a direct result, no doubt, of the sheer force of power the film exacts in its relentless, barreling, blazingly bravado-bedecked style - a style, I can firmly say, is completely unique in movie history. LES MISERABLES is a lot of things, but, first and foremost, it is that which it is unlike that makes it most remarkable of all; that is: it is unlike any movie musical ever made. And, it is a masterpiece.

LES MISERABLES' Anne Hathaway is set to be honored at the Costume Designers Guild Awards, a spokesperson announced this afternoon.

The highly anticipated film version of LES MISERABLES doesn't hit theaters for another week, but producer Cameron Mackintosh may already have his eye on another movie musical.

Anne Hathaway and Samuel L. Jackson pull out all the stops in a Funnyordie.com video as the two film stars battle over which upcoming movie is more depressing, Django Unchained or Les Misérables. This holiday battle of wits features everything from a gingerbread slave plantation to faux tuberculosis. Check out the video inside!

Making its tenth visit to Washington, DC, LES MISERABLES is still impressive, boasting a revised look and sound and a dynamic duo Jean Valjean and Javert, Peter Lockyer and Andrew Varela. The national tour makes a holiday season stop at the National Theatre through December 30.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced the nominees for the 18th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. The winners will be announced live at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards ceremony on Thursday, January 10, 2013 from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. The show will broadcast live on The CW Network at 8:00 PM ET/PT.

For the first time ever, the full-length version of LES MISÉRABLES is available to license, for a limited time, for performances starting in June 2013 announced theatrical licensor Music Theatre International today.

Hooper recently chatted with the press about bringing the classic musical to the big screen, and you can check out his full interview below: