The producer, Cameron Mackintosh, and librettist of the original 1985 show, Herbert Kretzmer, recall an adventure that began in a canoe surrounded by crocodiles, and ended with an all-night writing marathon
…The original concept lacked tension: it began at the factory gates and ended at the barricades, and most of act two concentrated on the love between Cosette and Marius. I tracked down the French creators, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg in Paris; they were surprised I wanted to collaborate with them, rather than taking the rights and reinventing it. Boublil told me that it was while watching the Artful Dodger in my 1978 production of Oliver! that the character of the street urchin Gavroche had come into his head; all the other characters then fell into place. So I was, in a way, godfather to Les Mis. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/feb/18/how-we-made-les-miserables
