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
Miss Saigon people predicted that "Miss Saigon", an import from London, would be the victim of a backlash. There is lingering bitterness against both the huge amount of publicity "Miss Saigon" has received and the battle by its producer, Cameron Mackintosh, to permit its two foreign stars, Mr. Pryce... and the Filipina actress Lea Salonga, to re-create on Broadway their number one award-winning roles." The show lost to "The Will Rogers Follies" for nearly every major award, though Lea Salonga, Jonathan Pryce and Hinton Battle all won awards. On 21 October 2009, a film version of the musical was reported to be