--- title: Les Miserables Turns 30: Read TIME's Original Review description: The musical opened in London 30 years ago, on Oct. 8, 1985 canonical: https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-08T13:00:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:29:29.728Z article:section: History og:title: Read TIME's Original Review of 'Les Mis' og:description: The musical opened in London 30 years ago, on Oct. 8, 1985 og:url: https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d66023e2aa200a/698866bd2dce0121919e5dc0/les-mis.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Les Miserables og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read TIME's Original Review of 'Les Mis' twitter:description: The musical opened in London 30 years ago, on Oct. 8, 1985 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d66023e2aa200a/698866bd2dce0121919e5dc0/les-mis.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's Original Review of _Les Mis_ When It Opened 30 Years Ago > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 8, 2015 1:00 PM UTC  Colm Wilkenson and Terrance Mann performing Les Miserables on Broadway, 1987. Colm Wilkenson and Terrance Mann performing Les Miserables on Broadway, 1987. Jack Mitchell—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 8, 2015 1:00 PM UTC When _Les_ _Misérables_, the lavish stage musical based on Victor Hugo’s classic book, opened in London exactly 30 years ago, TIME’s reviewer didn’t exactly hold back: the show was “thrilling,” William A. Henry III proclaimed. At the time, the main question on the mind of theater-goers was whether the musical would stack up to a hit staging of _Nicholas Nickleby_ from the same director, which regularly sold out despite high prices and an epic running time of more than eight hours. The success of _Nickleby_ prompted some to wonder whether _Les Mis_ would prove a disappointment in comparison. TIME’s reviewer dispatched those concerns: --- > “” --- And now, decades later, that question seems almost silly. Not only was _Les Mis_ a huge hit in London, but when it came to Broadway in 1987, the show [broke ticket-sales records](http://time.com/vault/issue/1987-03-23/page/84/) and quickly became a phenomenon in New York City too. It ran until 2003, [at which point ](http://playbill.com/news/article/broadways-les-miz-closing-march-15-2003-108680/print)it was the longest-running show on Broadway at the time and the second-longest ever. After just three years off, it returned to Broadway in 2006 and ran for about two years; a few years later, following the success of the 2012 movie version, it returned to Broadway again—where it’s still playing today. **_Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault:_** [A Jubilant Cry From the Gutter](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-10-21/page/83/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/"},"headline":"Read TIME's Original Review of Les Mis When It Opened 30 Years Ago","datePublished":"2015-10-08T13:00:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:29:29.728Z","description":"The musical began in London on Oct. 8, 1985","url":"https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/","keywords":["Books","broadway","Theater"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d66023e2aa200a/698866bd2dce0121919e5dc0/les-mis.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d66023e2aa200a/698866bd2dce0121919e5dc0/les-mis.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Les Miserables","caption":"Les Miserables","creditText":"Jack Mitchell—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4060242/1985-les-mis/","name":"Read TIME's Original Review of Les Mis When It Opened 30 Years Ago"}}]}] ```