On 8th October 2006, Les Miserables celebrated it's 21st birthday and surpassed Cats as the world's longest running musical. Sophia was priviledged to be part of the cast which took the show to this milestone at a special celebratory performance on 7th October 2006.
That cast provided an outstanding show, as usual, to set the mood for the special finale. After the curtain calls, the barricade reassembled on stage before revolving to take a journey back in time as the current cast were replaced by the original cast of 1985, singing an ensemble version of Bring Him Home then leaving the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, to complete the song solo. The cast of '85 included Les Mis legends such as Michael Ball and Frances Ruffelle.
Following that song, Colm delivered a speech thanking everybody and telling the audience about the days when the show was "fourteen and a half hours long". Trevor Nunn was next to the microphone to give a funny speech, claiming to have invented the reality TV casting concept 21 years ago with "How do you solve a problem called (sic) Marius?", but nobody had taken him up on it! Trevor then apologised that Cameron Mackintosh wasn't there in person as he was in New York, putting the finishing touches to the Les Miserables revival on Broadway, but he was there on video as a giant screen was lowered with Cameron leading the Broadway cast in a version of "Happy Birthday dear Cosette".
The barricades parted and out stepped the original Fantine, Patti Lupone, to sing most of I Dreamed A Dream and as she walked to the side of the stage, former Cats star Elaine Paige stepped forward singing Memory before removing her Grizabella coat and handing it to Little Cosette in a symbolic passing of the baton between the two shows.
The orchestra struck up and the original cast started One Day More, each principal receiving a huge cheer as they sung their part. At the part of the song "the time is now, the day is here" the current cast rejoined them on stage to finish the song in a rousing fashion as the auditorium was covered in tons of red white and blue confetti to finish an emotional evening.
Finale and party picture gallery
