Les Misérables: From Orson Welles to Broadway
A stolen loaf of bread. Nineteen years in prison. A bishop’s extraordinary act of mercy. And two men whose radically different ideas of justice will pursue each other across a lifetime.
Welcome to Broadway in the Common Room, where we go behind the curtain to discover the books, plays, history, old-time radio and enduring ideas behind the great musicals.
For our first journey, there could hardly be a bigger story: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
We begin with Hugo’s monumental 1862 novel and follow it to a remarkable 1937 radio adaptation created by a 22-year-old Orson Welles, who adapted and…
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