Les Miserables

Plot Summary:

Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Jean Valjean is paroled from prison after serving 19 years at hard labor for stealing food. He is taken in for the night by a kindly Bishop, whose silverware he steals on his departure. When he is caught with the silverware, the bishop not only does not press charges, he also gives Valjean his silver candlesticks. With this start, Valjean reforms and becomes the mayor and head businessman in a small town. But when former prison guard Javert is transferred to become police captain and recognizes Valjean, his past life comes back to haunt him. Meanwhile, Fantine, one of Valjean's employees, has had a baby (Cosette) out of wedlock and is dismissed from her job while Valjean is away; when he finds this out (far too late), he takes responsibility for them.

In France, the poor are planning a revolution. Jean Valjean is an ex-convict who tore up his prison papers confirming him a free man. Several years after his parole, he is a mayor. He is forced to fire the over-stressed Fauntine, who is forced to become a prostitute to support her waif-like daughter. After a rough beating in the streets, Fauntine is almost sent to prison but Jean bails her out and supports her. Inspector Javert is catching up with his, discovers his identity and tries to follow him. Fauntine dies traumitically, she writes a note agreeing that Jean takes her child. He rescues young Cosette from the evil, theiving landlord and his wife and they sneak into Paris. For years they lived in the church and finally ten years later they spend Valjean's hard earned money from his past. Cosette soon falls in love with a revolutionary in the streets, they all soon get wrapped up in a battle between the rich and the starving, which, sadly, has faulty results.

I went to see Les Mis in the summer of 2002 with my mum at the Queens Theatre, London. I have been to a few smaller scale musicals in the past, some on the Isle of Man. One I remember vividly in a theatre in Liverpool - The Phantom of the Opera - amazing! Les Mis was the first big, long running show I had seen - and to see it in its "home place" of the Queens Theatre was just amazing. The atmosphere was so powerful and consuming. The actors and actresses were so talented there was never a point at which you felt they were just acting, this was their lives you were watching up there on the stage. All through the play I was engrossed, suckered in to the emotions and happenings, I laughed, I even cried... Before taking the trip down to Londom my mum and I had been looking into all the different types of plays london had to offer. I have to admit I didn't know the plot or even the basics of Les Mis and so wasn't particularly bothered about seeing it. After seeing it, I couldn't have imagined going to see a better play... I loved it so much. I would recommend this play to anyone. GO AND SEE IT NOW!

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