Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Frances Rufelle, Colm Wilkinson - Les Miserables (1987 Original Broadway Cast)

After Les Misérables became a huge hit in London, it moved to Broadway, bringing along two stars from the London production, Colm Wilkinson as the heroic Valjean and Frances Ruffelle as the despondent Eponine. Filling out this 1987 cast are Randy Graff (Fantine), Terrence Mann (Javert), David Bryant (Marius), Judy Kuhn (Cosette), Michael Maguire (Enjolras), and Leo Burmester and Jennifer Butt (the Thénardiers). Whether you prefer the London cast or this one just might depend on which one you heard first, though minor revisions to the show since its London debut make the Broadway version more familiar to current audiences. In fact, the 10th anniversary concert might have the best overall cast of the lot, while the three-disc symphonic recording is a must for completists.

Regardless of cast, Les Misérables has become a sensation. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's score is filled with beautiful ballads ("Bring Him Home," "I Dreamed a Dream") and rousing anthems ("One Day More," "Do You Hear the People Sing?"), and Victor Hugo's classic novel of a student uprising in early-19th-century France provides a compelling story line that continues to thrill audiences all over the world. --David Horiuchi Amazon.com

Great musical, decent recording

I adore Les Mis, and the OBC is a nice recording of it. It comes up a little bit short when compared to the OLC, however; Colm Wilkinson and Frances Ruffelle are on both recordings, but they are much stronger on the OLC.

Michael Maguire is a clear advantage, in my opinion, over David Burt as Enjolras, but the favorable comparison ends after that. I like Patti Lupone more than Randi Graff as Fantine, although Ruthie Henshall is far better than both of them. I love Judy Kuhn and I think her Cosette was good, but Rebecca Caine's voice was potentially better suited to the role.

David Bryant's Marius was very, very poor, especially when compared to Michael Ball's. His head voice is very thin and seems to be on the verge of cracking often, although his belt is decent. I also very much dislike Terrence Mann's Javert; he always seems to crop up on people's lists of greatest Javert actors, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. He doesn't even make my Top 5. His rhythms are odd, his enunciation is just strange, and his voice is far too light. Not as good as Roger Allam on the OLC, and not even in the same league as Philip Quast (CSR and TAC).

In all, I suppose, it's a good recording, and a valuable part of a historical musical. September 29, 2008

Wow just plain bad

I am personally not one to give 1 star reviews, but this really deserves it. I am pretty picky about the Broadways I listen to, and this just didn't make the cut. Firs of all, it's amazing that on amazon it says to buy it together with The Phantom of the Opera, just don't. Buy the Phantom and skip this. I must admit that when I first put it into my car's cd player I was pretty much stunned. It started with booming bad keyboard music and some guy singing almost a slavery sort song. I hoped the next track would get better and it didn't. I'm not saying the singers can't sing, but not all of them were that good. The music itself was bad, the keyboards killed it for me. None of them were memorable like other Broadways I have heard. Come to think of it, I can't remember any of the songs as of right now. Some of the lyrics were rather dirty, the other half seemed rather meaningless. It sounded like they were almost talking really fast to the music and not even singing. Overall, I am glad this only cost me $2 to own and I will be passing it on for sure. July 6, 2008

bad packaging

I opened the tape and noticed that there were two of the same discs. both disc 2. Since i had already mailed back the duplicate which I received in error I got disgusted. I kept disc 2 and threw the other disc 2 out. I will probably not be using amazon again. July 5, 2008

Addicted!

I LOVE this musical. The complete recording is so much better than the highlights, too. I've listened to it nearly every day and still love singing along. And with the complete recording, you get the whole story and understand it so much better than if you just get the highlights. It's fabulous. June 2, 2008

Les Miserables CD- (1987 Original Broadway Cast) by Alain Boublil

Les Miserables (1987 Original Broadway Cast)

This 2 disc set is great. This original cast is spectacular. These are the voices I remember. I had a cassette from the 80's which is so worn out that I can no longer play it so I finally looked on Amazon and purchased this CD online not knowing whether the seller was reputable or not.

My CD arrived carefully boxed and wrapped bubble wrap so it would not be damaged in shipping. There was an extremely nice note from the seller about their shipping practices, additionally asking me to let them know if the CD was damaged in any way. I appreciated this very much. Of course the CD arrived in perfect condition because this seller took such thoughtful care in their packaging prior to shipping.

This seller is small and wants repeat business. I can assure you that any future music purchases I make through Amazon will be made through this seller!

Way to go! May 28, 2008

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