“Les Miserables” may be a war horse, but dang, that old thoroughbred is spry. The musical by Claude Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretchmer opened in London in 1985 (after being birthed in Paris) and two years later, on Broadway. As new productions are springing up across the country, we turned to Powell, who has staged “Les Mizzes” all over the world, to talk about his history with the show and about its bottomless appeal.

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