Alain Boublil

Modern musical theater lyricist and librettist Alain Boublil is one half of a hit songwriting team with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg that is responsible for the theater smash successes Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. Boublil wrote his first musical, La Revolution Française, with Schönberg in 1973, and the duo teamed up five years later to work on Boublil's idea for Les Misérables. The production opened in Paris two years later. The English version of the musical opened in London in 1985 and was successful enough to continue running through the late '90s. The Broadway production of Les Misérables garnered two Tony Awards (1987 Best Score, Best Book) and a Grammy (1988, Best Original Cast Recording). Boublil's follow-up was another wildly successful musical written with Schönberg, Miss Saigon, which opened in London in the fall of 1989, and internationally shortly thereafter. The duo's next musical, Martin Guerre, opened in London in the mid-'90s. Boublil also wrote a musical based on the songs of Swedish rock group ABBA, called Abbacadabra.