Claude-Michel Schönberg

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Claude-Michel Schönberg (born 6 July 1944 in Vannes, France) is a French music producer, singer, songwriter and musical theatre composer. He is best known for working with lyricist Alain Boublil. Their major works include La Révolution Française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996), The Pirate Queen (2006) and Marguerite (2008).

Schönberg started as a record producer and singer, writing much of the music for La Révolution Française, France’s first rock opera, in which he also played King Louis XVI. He had a 1974 hit with Le Premier Pas and made a French version of ABBA’s Waterloo.

In 1978 he and Boublil began developing Les Misérables; it premiered in Paris in 1980, then opened in London (1985) and Broadway (1987), earning multiple Tony Awards. Miss Saigon opened in London (1989) and Broadway (1991) after a record-breaking pre-sales run. Martin Guerre premiered in London in 1997 and won the Olivier Award. Schönberg later wrote his first ballet score, Wuthering Heights, in 2001. The Pirate Queen, about Grace O’Malley, debuted in Chicago in 2006 and on Broadway in 2007, but closed after a short run. Marguerite, with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, came out in 2008. In 2011 he scored the ballet Cleopatra for Northern Ballet.

Schönberg has been nominated for Best Original Song for “Suddenly” from the 2012 film version of Les Misérables. He was born to Hungarian Jewish parents; his father repaired organs and his mother tuned pianos. He was married to Béatrice Schönberg, with whom he has two children, and later married Charlotte Talbot, with whom he has a daughter.