Musical theatre responsible for "Les Misérables", which became the longest-running international musical hit in history. The team, in collaboration with Richard Maltby Jr., continued to produce hits, including "Miss Saigon", inspired by the Puccini opera "Madama Butterfly". The British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber saw similar success with "Evita", based on the life of Argentina's Eva Perón; "Cats", derived from the poems of T. S. Eliot (both of which musicals originally starred Elaine Paige); "Starlight Express", performed on roller skates; "The Phantom of the Opera", derived from the Gaston Leroux novel, "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra"; and "Sunset Boulevard" (from the classic film of
Beauty and the Beast (musical) musical came back to Brazil, Kiara Sasso was playing Maria in "The Sound of Music". "Beauty and the Beast" remained for six months at Teatro Abril. Even though the play was brought back as a way to try to recoup some of the money lost in Brazil's version of "Miss Saigon", this second incarnation of "Beauty and the Beast" failed to create any critical buzz, or to be a box office success. In Spain there have been three productions of the show. The first one, based on the original Broadway production, had its Madrid debut on December 2, 1999, at