The London production has been running since October , making it the longest-running musical on the West End [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and the second-longest-running musical in the world after The Fantasticks. There have been several recordings of this material, including those by the original London and Broadway casts. However, there are no recordings that contain the entirety of the songs, musical score, and spoken parts as featured on stage. The Complete Symphonic Recording comes closest to achieving this, but a pair of songs that were cut from the show following its initial London run, as well as one song present only in the Original French Concept Album, are not included.
Of note is that the original motion picture soundtrack reached number 1 on the American Billboard chart. The "Overture" is the opening song and a dramatic instrumental introduction that establishes the setting as Toulon, France, The "Work Song" flows from the "Overture", the former opening with a choir of imprisoned men singing a melody later used in "Look Down" but eventually becoming a dark duet between the prisoner Jean Valjean and the guard Javert.
In early versions, such as in the Original London Recording, the "Overture" was essentially just a minor version of the beginning of "At the End of the Day", but is now almost exclusively played with part of the same melody as the "Work Song" and "Look Down".
This theme becomes a leitmotif throughout the musical. Sometimes this is the first half of "Valjean Arrested, Valjean Forgiven" , but is commonly known as the first part of "The Bishop of Digne". The Bishop brings him in and supplies food and wine.
The song contains two parts. In the first, Valjean is invited in by the Bishop and steals the silver. In the second, Valjean is caught by two constables. The former is often omitted in recordings, but when both parts are played, the song is usually known as "The Bishop of Digne".
