Alain Boublil

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Alain Boublil is a librettist, born in Tunisia in 1941, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. These include:

Alain Boublil’s first musical, La Révolution Française, was the first-ever staged French rock opera. It debuted in 1973 in Paris. The composer was Claude-Michel Schonberg, with whom Alain has since collaborated on a number of successful projects, including Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. Les Misérables first opened in Paris in 1980. On October 8, 1985, an English-language production of Les Misérables produced by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Trevor Nunn premiered in London at The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre. The show transferred to the West End’s Palace Theatre on December 4, 1985. It is the longest-running musical in West End history.

[edit] Les Misérables

Main article: Les Misérables (musical)

Productions based on the Nunn/Mackintosh staging of Les Misérables have been staged all over the world, including a second French production which opened in Paris in 1991. Worldwide, Les Misérables has been seen by over 50 million people, with a total box office gross of over $1.8 billion.

53 productions have been presented in 39 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Over 36,000 performances have been presented in 212 cities including a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the 10th anniversary.

There are currently 9 productions around the world: London, New York, the U.S. National Tour, Budapest (Hungary), Tokyo (Japan, in repertory), Bonn (Germany, in repertory), Gyor (Hungary, in repertory), Chemnitz (Germany) and Detmold (Germany) and a Scandinavian concert tour (featuring the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and a cast of 170) traveling to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland that began in October 2002). Upcoming productions include: the long-awaited Mexican premiere in Mexico City (November 2002) and Saarbruecken, Germany (December 2002), and concert versions in Australia and several other nations.

In June 2002, the U.S. National Tour traveled to Shanghai, becoming the first Broadway/West End musical ever to play China.

  • Les Misérables has been performed in 21 languages: Czech (Czech Republic), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), English (Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America), Estonian (Estonia), Finnish (Finland), Flemish (Belgium), French (Canada, France), German (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), Hebrew (Israel), Hungarian (Hungary), Icelandic (Iceland), Japanese (Japan), Korean (South Korea), Latvian (Latvia), Mandarin (China), Norwegian (Norway), Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Argentina, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Spain), Swedish (Finland, Sweden).

There have been 31 cast recordings, with the Original London Cast Recording awarded Triple-Platinum status in the UK and Gold status awarded to three U.S. recordings: the Original Broadway Cast, the Complete Symphonic Recording and the Complete Symphonic Recording Highlights.

  • Les Misérables has won over 50 international awards, including 8 Tony Awards (including Best Musical). Alain collected the coveted Tony on two occasions, for Best Book and Best Score, as well as 2 Grammy Awards for Best Original Cast Recording for the Broadway Cast Recording (1988) and the Complete Symphonic Recording (1991). The 1991 Paris production earned Alain 2 Victoires de la Musique and a Molière award.
  • Les Misérables opened at The Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987. On October 17, 1990, it moved to The Imperial Theatre to make way for the Broadway production of Miss Saigon.

The New York production has been seen by 9 million people.

The Broadway production has grossed more than $390 million.

421 actors performed in the original Broadway production, including: 13 Valjeans, 18 Javerts, 23 Fantines, 21 Eponines, 11 Cosettes, 14 Marius’s, 5 Thénardiers, 10 Madame Thénardiers, 11 Enjolrases, 40 Gavroches and 45 Young Cosettes.

1,633 people have worked on the show in various capacities.

477 shows have opened on Broadway since Les Misérables and 461 have closed.

6 U.S. Presidents have seen Les Misérables: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter and Nixon.

There have been over 200,000 total revolutions of the now famous on-stage turntable.

Each performance uses 392 costumes, consisting of 1,782 items and 31 wigs.

In the US, Over 25 million people have attended the four U.S. productions (New York and three National Tours).

721 actors have performed in the four U.S. companies.

42 states and the District of Columbia have hosted Les Misérables.

141 cities have hosted the American National Company of Les Misérables.

St. Paul, Minnesota holds the record for Les Misérables engagements: 9 times.

269 U.S. schools will perform Les Misérables, School Edition during the first year that the rights have been made at last available (July 2002 – July 2003). Les Misérables is the first musical ever to become available for school productions while still playing on Broadway, in the West End and in productions around the world.

[edit] Miss Saigon

Main article: Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon opened in London on September 20, 1989 where it played for 10 consecutive successful years at the Drury Lane Theatre. It spawned two US touring companies, a Toronto production and has been seen by more than 13.2 million people in North America for a gross of $612 million. The current US national touring production concludes its phenomenally successful run of more than five years this August in Buffalo.

Internationally, Miss Saigon has been seen by more than 28 million, having been performed in ten countries: Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the Philippines.

The Broadway production of Miss Saigon broke several records during the course of its phenomenal run: the largest advance ticket sale in Broadway history ($37 million); the most expensive production ever at its time ($10.9 million); the longest-running show ever to play the landmark Broadway Theater (having surpassed the runs of Fiddler on the Roof, Evita and Gypsy); and the highest ticket price ever for a musical at the time ($100 for front mezzanine seats during its first year), which enabled the production to pay back its investors in an astonishing 39 weeks.

  • Miss Saigon collected numerous awards all over the world including the Evening Standard Drama Award. It received 11 Tony nominations in 1991, including Best Musical, and won three (for Pryce and Salonga as Actor and Actress in a Musical, and Hinton Battle as Best Featured Actor).
  • Miss Saigon also received the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.

The Broadway company of Miss Saigon has employed 155 actors in its nine years. All U.S. companies of Miss Saigon combined have employed 421 actors.

The Bui Doi Fund was established, whereby the proceeds of a certain number of house seats at each performance of the show around the world would be donated to various Southeast Asian refugee relief programs and organizations. A total of $3.5 million has been distributed to charities throughout the world by the Bui Doi Fund.

The Broadway cast of Miss Saigon has raised more than $1.1 million through various fund-raising activities for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS since the show’s premiere in 1991.

[edit] Other works

Martin Guerre reached the West End in 1996 and won the 1997 Olivier Award for Best Musical. Productions on tour in the UK and the US, and Europe followed.

Alain has also written the play Le Journal d'Adam et Eve, based on two short stories by Mark Twain. It premiered in Paris in 1994 at Le Petit Montparnasse.

He has recently published his first novel Les Dessous de soi, published by Flammarion. The book was awarded the Prince Maurice du Roman d’Amour.

He has worked on the stage adaptation of Jacques Demy’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, together with composer Michel Legrand, that opened at Le Palais des Congrès in 2003.

Boublil's latest project with Schönberg is The Pirate Queen, a musical about the 16th century Irish pirate, chieftain and adventuress Grace O'Malley. The Pirate Queen debuted at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre in fall 2006.

The world premiere of the new musical Marguerite from Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg will include music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Marguerite, set during World War II in occupied Paris, and inspired by the romantic novel The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, is about the mistress of a high-ranking German officer who attracts the love of a pianist half her age. The musical will premiere on May the 6th, 2008, at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London.[1]