TORONTO -- Long before she won the third season of "Canadian Idol," Melissa O'Neil was belting out the tunes of "Les Miserables" over homework assignments.

"My mom had a cassette tape and we used to wear it out while I was doing my science projects and stuff," she says.

The 25-year-old Juno-nominated performer finally got to see the revered musical in Toronto about two weeks after she won "Idol" and was "totally starstruck" by Melissa Lyons, who played lovelorn Eponine.

O'Neil still has the ticket stub from that performance, but her connection to "Les Mis" is even stronger, now that she's landed the role of Eponine in a new Cameron Mackintosh production of the Boublil & Schonberg show.

Mirvish Productions starts mounting the new version with a predominantly Canadian cast at the Princess of Wales Theatre on Friday -- the same venue O'Neil first saw the show over 10 years ago.

"I can't believe I'm going to be there doing it," she says.

"This is a huge childhood dream come true."

The new production that's based on the Victor Hugo epic novel has already been a hit internationally and is said to have inspired the recent Oscar-winning film.

Laurence Connor and James Powell direct, while James Dodgson helms the music, which includes the classic songs "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own" and "One Day More."

Set amid a revolution in early 19th-century France, the story follows ex-convict Jean Valjean, whose efforts to redeem himself are thwarted by police inspector Javert.

Ramin Karimloo of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Peterborough, Ont., is making a homecoming from his triumphant stage career in London to star as Valjean.

"I think with 'Les Mis,' the music is at times so beautifully simple and it sings to your heart," he says. "And then you've got these amazing actors and singers who are putting so much emotion into it."

Fellow West End star Earl Carpenter plays Javert, a role he's played in productions around the world.

Genevieve Leclerc of Gatineau, Que., plays downtrodden Fantine, whose lifelong struggles prevent her from being able to take care of her daughter, Cosette.

Leclerc also played the role on the U.S. tour of the same 25th anniversary production, which has sets inspired by Hugo's paintings.

Audience members on the tour included U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden.

"I have a picture with (Biden)," says Leclerc. "My first day, first night performing. ... I was so overwhelmed. So that was cool."

Winnipeg's Samantha Hill plays Cosette, who is treated poorly by her guardians, slippery innkeepers the Thenardiers.

"I have moments of crying ... because I'm in the moment," she says. "But it's such an emotional, powerful musical that I think a lot of people in the company and offstage will cry or be moved and laugh."

That's certainly been the case for O'Neil, whose character is reeling from the unrequited love of Marius (Perry Sherman), who is in love with Cosette.

"I cry throughout the whole show," says O'Neil, whose other theatre credits include the Broadway/Stratford production of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

"It doesn't matter how many times we've done it. ... This show is filled with honest moments. It's a great company. Everyone wants to be a storyteller, which is awesome."

Eponine is also the daughter of the wily Thenardiers, played by Cliff Saunders and Lisa Horner, who recently played the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" in Toronto. She's also well-known to TV audiences as the Ikea shopper who screams "Start the car!" as she races out of the store.

"I saw ('Les Mis') in 1991 when it was in previews and I was in theatre school -- now I'm aging myself -- and it blew me away and it changed how I saw musicals," she says. "It was completely sung-through and it had so much power and drama to it that I hadn't been used to seeing, because I sort of grew up on 1950s musicals, 1940s, which are very boxed style.

"So this was a very, very different experience and it made me love musicals even more than I already did."