Les Miserables at Orpheum Theatre San Francisco

Four decades ago, a grand idea was conceived when Alain Boubil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Claude-Michel Schönberg created the original musical script for the now-famous musical, Les Misérables (initially in the French language). Based on Victor Hugo’s original book of the identical title, Les Misérables was adapted into a theater play performed as a show only sung from start to finish, which was monumental in that time period.

After an initial showing in Paris, France, there was obviously great clamor to make a more accessible version, and once Cameron Macikintosh heard the musical score, he instantly fell in love and announced he was going to write an English interpretation hand in hand with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Herbert Kretzmer, who composed the new song numbers. The English version of the musical at first premiered with a two-month duration at the Barbican Centre, but as a result of its financial success and repeatedly sold-out shows, the musical unsurprisingly relocated to West End’s Palace Theatre in 1985, London theatre's superior location, and ran for 19 years. The West End play then relocated one more time to another location, the Queen’s Theatre (which after some time was remade and renamed to The Sondheim Theatre in 2019), and maintains its shows up until present day. If you include all its runs since its creation four decades ago, Les Mis is statistically the longest-running stage play so far in this generation.

With almost 40 years in London on its own and not even listing its shows in foreign countries, especially its sold-out shows on Broadway, it is incontrovertible that Les Mis perseveres and is second to none in the eyes of the musical’s audiences. The narrative and the rich and touching soundtrack, which revolves around redemption, sacrifice, and selfless love, always brings each viewer to tears because of the apparent passion beneath the surface of each character and act performed. Les Mis has become so critically-acclaimed that the play has been adapted to films several times and received very positively even on a separate platform.

This coming September’s production of Les Mis carries it to California, where the show will be performed on Wednesday 24th September 2025, in Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco. For an auditory experience like Les Misérables, theatergoers all attest to how Orpheum Theatre is the ultimate venue because of its audio construction and acoustic range, in addition to a grand stage to host the play. For ticket purchases or queries, tickets are purchasable through the links that can be clicked above this page.