Tickets for the all-star staged concert of Les Miserables went on sale today with fans queuing up on the website for hours to secure their seats for a show that will see legends Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, Matt Lucas and Carrie Hope Fletcher take the stage at the Gielgud Theatre for just 16 weeks starting this summer.
Theatre-goers are clamouring for tickets to the star-studded concert
But with tens of thousands of people all vying for a seat, at least one person found the funny side when the system let him know he was position 24601 in the queue.
Saw how big the @lesmisofficial queue was so joined just to try and get this moment! pic.twitter.com/Mj20Qlz9dB
— Daz (@dazgale) February 7, 2019
For those not familiar with Les Mis (why on Earth are you on Broadway Baby?), 24601 is leading character Jean Valjean’s prisoner number famously belted out at the end of the song Who Am I?
The concert production of Les Miserables comes during the Queen’s Theatre refurbishment, and whilst theatre-goers are clamouring for tickets to the star-studded concert, there are mixed opinions regarding the version of the show that will return to the Queen’s when it reopens in December. Currently the London production is the only place you can see the 1985 original design, whereas other cities and tours have been using the version devised for the 25th anniversary on Broadway in 2009.
Critics of the loss of the 1985 design include its designer John Napier and Frances Ruffelle, who played Eponine when the show first opened. A petition was started by fans to change producer Cameron Mackintosh’s mind, but as Time Out journalist Andrzej Lukowski noted “Mackintosh is not going to pay attention to a four-figure petition, and the amount of footfall ‘Les Mis’ is liable to lose just because the stage doesn’t spin anymore is going to be pretty negligible.”
