What is the Biggest Musical in the World?

Les Mis

56 professional companies have opened Les Misérables in:
London, Washington/Broadway, Tokyo (3 companies), Tel Aviv (2 productions), Budapest (2 productions), U.S National 1, U.S National 2, U.S Bus and Truck, Sydney, Reykjavik, Oslo, Vienna, Toronto, Gydnia, Melbourne, Stockholm, Montreal, Amsterdam, Odense, Paris, Prague (2 productions), Madrid, Copenhagen, U.K. Tour (2 companies), Manila, Duisburg, South East Asia, Karlstad, Aalborg, Australia National Tour, Antwerp, Aarhus, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Malmo, Bonn, Sao Paulo, Chemnitz, Estonia, Gyor, Detmold, Shanghai, Korea, Mexico, Saarbruecken, Dessau, Bolmo, Berlin and Danish Tour.

Productions have played in 38 countries and 223 cities. The countries include:
England, United States Of America, Japan, Israel, Hungary, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Austria, Canada, Poland, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, New Zealand, France, The Czech Republic, Spain, Northern Ireland, Eire, Scotland, Wales, Bermuda, Malta, Philippines, Mauritius, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, South Africa, Belgium, Finland, Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, China and Mexico.

Les Misérables has been translated into 21 different languages:
English, Japanese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, German, Polish, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, French, Czech, Castillian, Mauritian Creole, Flemish, Finnish, Argentinian, Portuguese, Estonian and Mexican Spanish.

The production has played over 38,000 professional performances worldwide giving a total audience figure of more than 51 million people.

There have been 31 cast recordings of Les Misérables (including albums, singles and the symphonic).

Les Misérables has won over 50 major theatre awards, a Grammy for the Broadway cast album and a Triple Platinum Disc for the London cast album which has now sold over 1,030,000 copies in the U.K. The highlights album has gone gold in the UK and Australia and the Les Misérables in Concert album has gone gold in the UK.

well done charles on les mis !

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Hmm id probably say Phantom has the biggest worldwide recognition.

I'd say Les Mis. It's the longest running West End musical. It's definitely not Wicked. Wicked may be big in the US and UK, but it's only been translated into German and Japanese. RENT has also had quite a few international productions.

Updated On: 8/16/09 at 01:51 AM

GONE WITH THE WIND ! deffo went with mine ! Lol

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scale-wise... shudn't it be Lord of the Rings?

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and also these arena shows like Ben Hur and stuff.

Wicked certainly is the biggest musical in a long, long time. Les Miserables, though, I think has to take first place - purely for the length of time it's been playing and the amount of places it has played!

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How about Phantom?

It is the most successful entertainment verture of all time (with a total international gross of over $3 billion) and unlike Les Mis, it is still playing in both London and New York, plus has a $40 million production in Vegas.

It's defo Les Mis... but give it a few years and see what happens. Wicked is HUGE and the film will make it even bigger. I reckon WICKED could possibly overtake it.

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Desperately Seeking Susan.

I know the films not gonna come anytime soon... but it isn't losing popularity and you throw a film into the equation in 5 years time and it'll explode all over again!

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