Les Misérables

Les Misérables is a true cultural phenomenon, based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 French novel of the same name. The sprawling plot centers on the fugitive and sacrificial existence of reformed ex-convict Jean Valjean, lived out within the inscrutable urban landscape of 19th-century Paris, which is overtaken by a deadly youth uprising in Act 2. Along the way, the story contrasts the transformative power of love and redemption with the dogged threat of retribution, which chases Valjean to the end.

Ratings and age restrictions are not issued for The Muny’s professionally licensed shows, but we offer the following notes regarding content that may have a bearing on patron comfort.

Language • The words bastard, bitch, damn, hell, slut and whore and are each used several times. The words hussy, pissed and shit are each used once.

Sexual Innuendo • Prostitution is depicted in several scenes and is the topic of one song.

Drugs and Alcohol • Characters reference alcohol or drink in several scenes.

Violence • The show includes a youth uprising in which many characters are killed.

Mature Content • A character dies by suicide onstage.

Special Effects • Includes haze, gunshots and a blinding effect.

ACT ONE

PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE

Jean Valjean, released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang, finds that the yellow ticket-of-leave he must, by law, display condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly. Still, Valjean, embittered by years of hardships, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by the police, but he is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him, also giving him two precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew.

1823, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER

Eight years have passed, and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has become both a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this, they demand her dismissal. The foreman, whose advances Fantine has rejected, throws her out.

Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter, Fantine sells her locket and her hair, then joins the whores in selling herself. Utterly degraded by her new trade, she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert when the “Mayor” arrives and demands that she be taken to the hospital instead.

The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of the convict 24601, Jean Valjean, a parole-breaker whom he has been tracking for years but whom, he says, has been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison in his place, confesses to the court that he is prisoner 24601. At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine that he will find and look after her daughter, Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.

1823, MONTFERMEIL

Young Cosette has been lodged for five years with the Thénardiers, who run an inn. They have horribly abused the little girl, whom they use as a skivvy, while indulging their own daughter, Éponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching water in the dark. He pays the Thénardiers to let him take her away to Paris.

1832, PARIS

Nine years later, there is a great unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader, General Lamarque, the only man left in the government who shows any empathy for the poor. The urchin, Gavroche, is in his element mixing with the whores and the beggars of the capital. Among the street-gangs there is the one led by Thénardier and his wife, which sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognize Valjean until he has gone.

The Thénardiers’ daughter, Éponine, who is secretly in love with the student, Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.

At a political meeting in a small café, a group of idealistic students prepare for the revolution they are sure will erupt following the death of General Lamarque. When Gavroche brings news of the General’s death, the students, led by Enjolras, stream out into the streets to whip up popular support. Only Marius is distracted by thoughts of the mysterious Cosette.

Cosette is consumed by thoughts of Marius, with whom she has fallen in love. Valjean realizes that his “daughter” is changing very quickly but refuses to tell her anything of her past. Éponine brings Marius to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father’s gang to rob Valjean’s house. Valjean, convinced it was Javert lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country.

On the eve of the revolution, the students and Javert see the situation from different viewpoints; Cosette and Marius part in despair of ever meeting again; Éponine mourns the loss of Marius; and Valjean looks forward to the security of exile. The Thénardiers, meanwhile, dream of rich pickings underground from the chaos to come.

INTERMISSION

ACT TWO

The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that Éponine has joined the insurrection, sends her with a letter to Cosette, which is intercepted at Rue Plumet by Valjean. Éponine decides, despite what he has said to her, to rejoin Marius at the barricade.

The barricade is built, and the revolutionaries defy the army’s warning for them to give up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade, Éponine is shot and killed.

Valjean arrives at the barricade in search of Marius. He is given the chance to kill Javert but instead lets him go.

The students settle down for a night on the barricade, and Valjean prays to God to save Marius from the onslaught that is to come. The next day, with ammunition running low, Gavroche runs out to collect more and gets shot. The rebels are all killed, including their leader, Enjolras.

Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting Thénardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels, Valjean emerges into the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to a hospital. Javert lets Valjean go, and — his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean’s own mercy — Javert throws himself into the swollen River Seine.

A number of Parisian women come to terms with the failed insurrection and its victims.

Unaware of the identity of his rescuer, Marius recovers in Cosette’s care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius and insists that, after the young couple are married, he must go away rather than taint the sanctity and safety of their union.

At Marius and Cosette’s wedding, the Thénardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thénardier says that Cosette’s “father” is a murderer and as proof produces a ring that he stole from the corpse in the sewers the night the barricade fell. It is Marius’ own ring, and he realizes it was Valjean who rescued him that night.

Marius and Cosette go to Valjean, where Cosette learns for the first time her own history before the old man dies.