The hit songs of Les Misérables are known the world over. But there was always one country where the global smash set on the streets of revolutionary Paris never quite took off – France.

Now, years after the musical broke West End box office records, the show has finally returned home to France to a rapturous reception – albeit with a twist.

The new production is based on the British version but has been stripped of its Englishness.

The show opened last week at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to rave reviews, with newspapers hailing the “majestic” and “flamboyant” return.

The musical has been reworked by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg who were responsible for the initial 1980 show.

Boublil told The Telegraph he had rewritten about “15 per cent” of the lyrics.

“I’m delighted it’s being sung in French. After all, it was originally in French and comes from a great French work that we can say founded [France’s] collective imagination,” he said.

Les Misérables was initially written in French and performed in Paris in 1980.

Enter West End mogul

It then crossed the Channel five years later when Sir Cameron Mackintosh bought the rights to the show and produced an English-language version.

Paris had turned its nose up at Sir Cameron’s musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s epic 19th century novel. Audiences there found his production too British for their liking, observers say.