Maria Dixon

Intro to Theatre and Dance

Tony Hotstetter

10-30-2020

I am the miserables

Les Miserables, ​the musical is based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo​.​ It’s first premier

on a broadway stage was in 1987, and in 2012 was made into a movie, produced by Cameron

Mackintosh, Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and directed by Tom Hooper​.​ The cast

starred Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne, Russell Crow, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried,

and impressively, every actor sang every song live during the filming as compared to many other

movie-musicals that pre-record the songs​.

Les Mis is a drama about former prisoner Jean Valjean reinventing his life after a 19 year

jail sentence​.​ We follow his life as soon as he is released, constantly on the run from the man

who freed him, Javert​.​ He finds refuge in a church, and in being given mercy by the priest, he

breaks parole and changes his life to become an honest and good man, going on to become a

mayor and factory owner​.​ Discovering a woman he had once brushed aside, he makes her pain

his own and sets off to find her child, Cosette, who lives with scamming inn keepers in filth​.

Valjean runs away with the child to start a new life, raising her as his own, still running from the

man of his past​.​ Years pass and a boy, Marius, catches Cosette’s attention in the market one day​.

He instantly becomes infatuated with her, asking his best friend, Eponine, who was a child with

Cosette, to find where she lives​.​ All this on the eve of the french revolution brings tension and

Valjean flees with Cosette to a safe haven, while the young men of the city stay to fight​. ​Upon
learning that his daughter and this boy are in love, Valjean returns to the barricades and saves the

wounded Marius, bringing him home to be with them​.​ Upon asking Valjean for his daughter’s

hand, Marius is told the story of the old man and is sworn to secrecy as Valjean must disappear

before their wedding to protect his daughter from his past​.​ The night of the wedding, Marius and

Cosette receive word of where their father has gone and arrive at the convent in time to be given

his last confession and witness his passing​.​ In the last scene, we see all of the characters we lost

over the story together singing of freedom from the heavens for tomorrow’s people​.

The central idea in this show is about not letting your past define you and bettering

yourself for the people that you will somehow impact in your life​.​ Valjean was a decent man

before stealing food and in his time in prison, grew hard and mischievous​.​ Upon his release, he

steals silver the first chance he is given and through the mercy of the priest he stole from,

realized the error of his ways​.​ He becomes a chritian man and throughout the story we see him

making decisions to better the lives of others, even if it meant putting himself in a negative

position in the eyes of the law or others​.​ When Valjean hears of a man who was captured under

his name and faced the court for going to prison, he had to make the choice of staying silent and

condemning an innocent man, or speaking up and letting him live, even though he’d have to run

from his position in office and the business he was incharge of​.​ Ultimately, he chose the latter

and took the opportunity to find the child of a prostitute he had fired from his factory​.​ The

selfless act of taking the child and raising her as his own is also evidence to the claim that he

bettered himself for the benefit of others at personal expense​.

Throughout the show we can see the differences in class, education, and beliefs through

the costumes and sets shown​.​ From Fantine’s transition into postitution and the boat in which she
works, to the wedding ceremony of Marius and Cosette, and the cafe for which the men prepare

for the revolution, there are many different styles of clothes and architecture that give us the

impression of the different classes​.​ Even from the streets we can see the differences between the

area in which general Lamarque lives and that of the cafe streets, older and more ragged, used as

a meeting place other than a party place​.

One of my favorite parts of this show is the ending scene as all of the characters that died

stand on a huge barricade singing “Do you hear the people sing”​.​ This is probably one of the

lightest scenes as there is sun shining above the buildings and lighting the young men and

women who fought so that the people could be heard​.​ The pure energy, strength, and closure this

scene brings is like a hope for those in the future, that someday they will be heard and they have

the power to stand up to everything against them​.

Russell Crow is probably my least favorite part of this show as I’m not a big fan of his

voice and I’m sure it’s not his fault, but I don’t understand why “Stars” had to have been set on

the balcony of a rooftop. Although I’m sure he can see the stars beautifully from that angle, he’s

not quite suicidal yet and I think his death could have been more dramatic if he wasn’t as high in

his first song. Though it can also be considered symbolic as if he has come off of his high horse

in seeing that Valjean let him go so many times.

This was the first show I ever had the pleasure of seeing on broadway years ago and

having the movie so easily accessible is such a gift. This show is a classic and it opened my eyes

to the world of musical theatre, the amazing acting, movement, and music inspiring me to

explore this genre more.