Matt Lucas and Marina Prior: The Les Miserables arena show is here

British musical theatre stars Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, in town to perform in Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular, have just caught wind of Australia’s penchant for election day democracy sausages.

“I want a sausage sizzle in our elections in the UK,” Boe says. “Seriously. Being here is so nice because you seem so removed from the rest of the hassle and stress that’s going on in the world.”

Matt Lucas and Marina Prior in Les Miserables The Arena Spectacular.Credit: Daniel Boud

“Australians don’t take things too seriously.”

We do, however, take musicals seriously. Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular, produced by theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh, is now playing at the 9000-seat ICC Sydney Theatre and will travel to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre as part of a world tour. It has broken the record for the highest number of tickets ever sold at the ICC.

Not content with being the world’s most famous musical or the longest-running West End musical (40 years), Les Miserables’ story of love, revolution and social injustice in 19th-century France seems indefatigable.

The “bloody big” arena show – as described by producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh – sold a record number of tickets for Sydney’s ICC Theatre.Credit: Janie Barrett

Boe thinks he knows why. “I heard this couple last night, and she was saying to her husband, ‘I think I can carry on with things, the stress that we’ve been going through, I think I can cope with it now’,” he says. “All after seeing a musical.”

But why present an arena version of the musical?

Mackintosh, whose prolific and influential career includes producing The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver! and co-producing Hamilton in London, says it’s going back to the essence of what the show is about. “One of the things I insist – and that makes it special – is that everyone in the arena show has been in the stage production of the show,” he says. “Even [the] big stars.

“Because it’s part of their DNA. It’s not about singing the notes. It’s not about singing the score. It’s about the lyrics and telling the story through Claude-Michel [Schönberg’s] brilliant music. It’s timeless.

“People who’ve seen the show, and people who’ve never seen the show, can equally enjoy this absolute spectacle.”

This “bloody big show”, in Mackintosh’s words, features 160 cast members, crew and orchestra musicians. Cast members range from Ball and Boe to Marina Prior, who appeared in the original Australian cast, and British actor, writer and comedy star Matt Lucas.

Lucas, who plays Monsieur Thénardier in the season, a role he played in the show’s 25th Anniversary Concert and on the West End in 2019, has loved musicals since he was a kid. “I saw Les Mis in 1987 for my 13th birthday present,” he says. “I’ve had a love affair with it for 40 years.”

Lucas, who has just finished writing his own musical, says he couldn’t resist being part of the arena show. “The musical’s longevity is testament to how beautiful the melodies are, how inciteful the lyrics are, how epic the story is and also how well it’s directed and produced as well.

“When I’m doing One Day More every night I get to look out at the audience and see their faces. Some people are smiling in sort of ecstasy. Others are just bawling their eyes out. Some are on their feet. Sometimes we get an ovation at the interval.

“I’m just very lucky to be a small part of something so big.”

Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular is at the ICC Sydney Theatre until May 11 and Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, May 14-25.

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