Many of the hottest tickets theatergoers are after this summer come courtesy of one person — English director John Caird.

With three very different plays sweeping Tokyo this month and in July, 58-year-old Caird, an honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, looks likely to take this country's drama world by storm, just as he did 20 years ago when, with former RSC Director Sir Trevor Nunn, he brought the musical "Les Miserables" to Japan — just two years after it premiered at London's Barbican Centre.

That grand staging has replayed here with Japanese casts often enough to have become synonymous with Western musicals in many people's minds. This time around, however, Caird, who has staged more than 20 productions at the RSC, marks the 20th anniversary of "Les Miserables" not just with a reprise of the work but by bringing with it a true sense of the West End through a well-nigh unprecedented three-month run in a country infamous for low-risk short stagings.