CLOC Returns to the Barricades with Les Misérables

When Melbourne’s CLOC Musical Theatre was offered the opportunity to produce a new re‑imagined version of the beloved musical theatre classic Les Misérables for today’s audiences and for a whole new generation of performers, the company jumped at the chance to present a new vision of this much adored tale.

It seemed fitting to approach pre-eminent director Chris Bradtke to direct his fourteenth CLOC production and one that brings him full circle back to where it all started with CLOC.  Twenty-four years ago, Chris was hired to direct his very first CLOC show, which was one of the very first Australian non-professional productions of Les Mis. The show broke box office records for the company and won nine Music Theatre Guild awards, including for Chris as director and for Production of the Year. To this day, it is still regarded as a landmark production for CLOCand  the wider Melbourne musical theatre world. Since then, both CLOC and Chris have cemented their reputations for producing innovative, spectacular productions on a grand scale.

Clearly, there is an endless love and appetite for Les Mis from both audiences and performers. From the time the show was announced, records tumbled. CLOC held their biggest auditions ever, early registrations, pre-sales and group bookings were at record levels, and an additional performance has been added due to popular demand. 

Remarkably, there are a number of CLOC production and crew personnel who were there the first time around in 1993 and are still there today, just as passionate and excited now about the show as they were then. And no wonder – Les Mis is a show that transcends ages, cultures, interests and differences and unites audiences in this epic and sweeping tale which, while grand in scale, is also at its heart about the power of love and the nobility of the human spirit.

And so, almost twenty-four years to the day after their first production of Les Misérables, CLOC is preparing to storm the barricades and to hear the people sing once more.

Les Misérables

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text byAlain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Additional Material by James Fenton. Adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

CLOC Musical Theatre

National Theatre, St Kilda

May 12 – 27, 2017

cloc.org.au

Image: Mark Doran (Jean Valjean) & Ava Rose Houben-Carter (Little Cosette). Photo by Ben Fon | fon.com.au

More Community Theatre Reading

Community Theatre Seasons 2017

Win Tickets.

Win a pair of tickets to the performance on Thursday May 18, 2017.

Visit our contact page - http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/contact

Enter 'Les Miz Tix' in the subject field, and name your favourite Les Misérables song or character.

We will draw a winner on May 6.