 LES MISÉRABLES
A Musical in 2 Acts, a Prologue and 4 Scenes by Alain Boublil and
Claude Michel Schönberg, based on the novel by Victor Hugo :
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Music by Claude Michel Schönberg
: Original text by Alain Boublil, Jean Marc Natel and James Fenton
Palais de Sport, Paris - 17 September, 1980 (107 perfs)
Barbican Centre, London - 30 September, 1985 (63 perfs)
Transferred to Palace Theatre, London - 4 December, 1985 -still running
Broadway Theatre, New York - 12 March, 1987 - still running
THE STORY:
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 being an outcast . Only the saintly bishop of Digne treats
him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by
stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by police. He
is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him. He also
gives him two candlesticks. Valjean vows 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 risen to 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 she has rejected, throws her out.
Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter,
Fantine sells her locket, her hair and 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 she be taken to hospital
instead.
The Mayor then rescues a man pinned to the ground by
a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict
24601, Jean Valjean, a parole-breaker, whom he has been tracking for years
but who, he says, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an
innocent man go to prison in his place, confesses to the court that he
is, in fact, prisoner 24601.
At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine to
find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him
but Valjean escapes.
1823 Montfermeil
Cosette has been lodged for five years with the Thénardiers
who run an inn, horribly abusing the little girl whom they use as a skivvy
while indulging their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching
water in the dark. He pays the Thénardiers to let him take Cosette
away and he takes her to Paris. But, Javert is still on his trail ....
1832 Paris
Nine years later there is great unrest in the city
because of the likely demise of the popular leader, Général Lemarque,
the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor.
The urchin Gavroche us in his element mixing with the whores and beggars
of the capital. Among the street gangs is one led by Thénardier
and his wife, which sets upon Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by
Javert who does not recognise Valjean until after he has made good his
escape. The Thénardier's daughter Eponine, 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 on the death of Général Lemarque. When Gavroche
brings the news of the General's death, the students, led by Enjolras,
stream out onto the streets to whip up popular support, only Marius
is distracted by thoughts of the mysterious Cosette.
Cosette is consumed with thoughts of Marius, with
whom she has fallen in love. Valjean realises that his "daughter" is changing
very quickly but refuses to tell her anything of her past. In spite of
her own feelings for Marius, Eponine sadly brings him to Cosette and then
prevents an attempt by her father's gang to rob Valjean's house. Valjean,
convinced it was Javert who was 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 their different viewpoints.
Cosette and Marius part in despair of ever meeting again; Eponine 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.
The students prepare to build a barricade. Marius, noticing
that Eponine has joined the insurrection, sends her with a letter to Cosette.
It is intercepted at the Rue Plumet by Valjean. Eponine decides, despite
what he has said to her, to rejoin Marius at the barricade. The barricade
is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning that they must give
up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In trying to return
to the barricade, Eponine is shot and killed. Valjean arrives at the barricade
in search of Marius. He has the opportunity of killing Javert but, instead,
lets him go.
The students settle down for a night manning the barricade
and in the quiet of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius from
the onslaught which is to come. The next day, with ammunition running
low, Gavroche runs out to collect more - and is shot. The rebels are all
killed, including their leader, Enjolras.
Valjean escapes into the sewers with an unconscious
Marius. After meeting Thénardier, who is robbing the rebel corpses, he
emerges into the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time
to deliver the young man to hospital. Javert decides to let him go and,
in his uncompromising principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean's
demonstration of mercy, he kills himself by throwing himself into the
swollen 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 Cosette's "father" is a murderer
and, as proof, produces a ring which he has stolen from one of the
corpses in the sewers the night the barricades fell. It is Marius'
own ring and he realises that it was Valjean who rescued him that night.
He and Cosette go to Valjean where Cosette learns, for the first time,
of her own history before the old man dies, joining the spirit of Fantine,
Eponine and all who died at the barricades.
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