"VICTOR Hugo on the garbage dump!" screamed the headline in the Observer on October 9 1985.

Well, there's one theatre critic kicking himself as an incredible 24 years later Les Misérables is still playing strong in the West End and in productions around the world, having become the world's most popular stage musical.

This summer the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will perform 'Les Misérables in Concert' on the Isle of Wight with the current 2008/9 West End cast.

Instigated by Southampton's own West End export Earl Carpenter, a leading man of substantial critical acclaim and the current Javert in Les Miserables, this is his fifth collaborative concert production of this musical with the BSO but a first for such an iconic musical to be performed on the Island.

Now the theatrical superstar, who was born in Southampton and grew up in Ringwood, is looking for two local children to join him and the cast on stage at the concert on Sunday July 26.

The two lucky auditionees will join a company of 32 West End performers who make up the current West End cast of Les Misérables, including leading artists like David Shannon, Jimmy Johnston, and Jon Robyns on stage. Plus they will perform alongside the full Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performing the concert version of this spectacular musical in the stunning grounds of Osborne House.

Earl, whose impressive credits also include Phantom in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and the world premiere UK tour of Zorro, explains his affinity with the Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Royal Shakespeare Company production Les Miserables: "It was my first West End show and it took a long time to get into it. I suppose I started professionally in '93 and it was pretty much years of auditioning to get into the show. It's a phenomenal musical, which has real weight and gravitas. It's always been a part of my life."

He hopes it will become part of the lives of the two young stars that appear in the concert too.

Earl adds: "This could be a great stepping stone. Certainly it will give an idea of what's expected in musical theatre. With reality TV, I don't knock it in any way, shape or form, but on one hand it gives theatre fantastic exposure, but what it doesn't do is show people how to be realistic. That's my biggest bug bear with it. It just doesn't show people how we do it eight shows a week 48 weeks a year.

"It's great for producers and it gives you your 15 minutes of fame that many of us in the business can only dream of, but it doesn't give you longevity.

Hopefully this process will. I'm very much the Simon Cowell of this and they will have to get it right. But it will be a great experience and they will have a phenomenal time."

Earl may have his reservations about reality TV, but he's still fascinated by the global response to Britain's Got Talent auditions from Susan Boyle and Jamie Pugh singing songs from Les Miserables.

"It's extraordinary. Forty million people have viewed Susan Boyle's piece on You Tube. But I do wonder if it would have achieved as much notoriety if she had chosen a different song. You have to think how many people have seen Les Miserables and around the world it is pushing 100 million."

The concert will be the 10th anniversary version Cameron Mackintosh put on at the Royal Albert Hall in 1995.

This will be Earl's fifth Les Miserables concert piece with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

His other concert appearances include the closing ceremony for Euro'96 and a special performance for The Queen to celebrate the Entente Cordiale.

Earl has appeared in a host of top productions including Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard since making his theatre debut in Southampton, starring alongside Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden in Bugsy Malone.

Tickets for the concert are now available on 01202 669925 and you can obtain more information and book tickets online at bsolive.com

HOW TO ENTER

EARL Carpenter and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra are looking for children between ten and 15 to sing the roles of Gavroche and Little Cosette in the concert.

So if you think you have got what it takes to impress Earl and the audition panel then here's your chance to impress them and to win your chance to sing alongside some of the finest musical theatre stars of our time.

You will have two opportunities to audition, at the Mayflower on Sunday May 24 and at the Medina Theatre in Newport on Sunday June 7.

If you're successful you will be asked to return to the finals held here at the Daily Echo offices in late June.

But that's not where it ends. Your final audition will be filmed and uploaded to our website where the public can view and vote on the auditions before a winner is announced.

If you want to audition for Little Cosette then you must fill in the registration form and take to register at 10.30am on either audition day.

You must have prepared and learnt Castle on a Cloud from Les Misérables to sing with piano in front of one of the show's stars, Earl Carpenter, and other members of the audition panel.

If you want to audition for Gavroche then you must also fill in the registration form and take to register at 2pm on either audition day.

You must have prepared and learnt the excerpt that has been chosen that Gavroche sings in Les Misérables to sing with piano.