Les Mis Review

Title of Play: Les Misérables

Author: Victor Hugo

Viewed: 2/23-2/25 at Cheshire Academy.

Director: Mrs. Guarino

Major Actors:

Fantine – Julia

Jean Valjean – Lexi

Javert – Jenna

Cosette – Maggie

Marius – Aaron

Thernardier – Sam

Madam Thenardier – Gianna

Eponine - Mariel



Les Misérables follows the lives of the people in France as a revolution again the government begins. The story follows a freed prisoner from jail who changes his identity and goes on the run (Valjean), a woman who was abandoned by the father of her child and works endlessly to send her everything she can(Fantine), a family of robbers who own a tavern and steal from the guests (they also watch Cosette for Fantine) (Thenardier’s), and the people of France. As the story progresses tragedy ensues with the death of Fantine and Valjean being discovered, Valjean runs to get cossette to save her, like he promised fantine he would, and stay far away from Javert a man who wants to see vajean back in jail. This stories themes are pain, hope, bravery, love and secrets. We se all of these very close and in many examples, mostly once Cosette has grown and both her and Valjean are hiding away in an abandoned house, helping the poor during the day. Marius comes in when he is walking through the streets with his friend Eponine and bumps into Cossette, falling in love with her right away.



While, I was in the play and only got to see select staging, when I was in there was use of the whole stage and multiple levels that included sitting or standing on the ground or sitting and standing on the bridge. This helped give it the feel of an actual town full of beggars. The bridge was very useful in both the first and second acts as it gave more options for all the actors to place themselves around the stage. During songs like The Docks everyone was in the same spot, on the bridge or in front of it, which gave a different and more sinister feel rather than everyone being spread out and sitting. There was also a great use of lighting, the scene changes had a good amount of blue light that everyone could see but it was less obvious when large items like the barricade were being moved. Comparably in songs with solos like Little Fall of rain, the lights had dimmed on most people but focused on the one or two people who were singing. It was also interesting that the main characters had only a few costumes where as other ensemble members had multiple different costumes. This helped a lot with recognizing the main characters. As for sounds, there were multiple times in the second act where they used real gunshot seconds and twirled the lights to give it a good effect when everyone was fighting.

My favorite actor in the whole show was Aaron playing Marius. This was because I got to see the transition in him every day and see the amazing progression that he went through with this character. He did an outstanding job during and after little fall of rain in his voice alone. I loved seeing it from start to finish of him learning the pieces and really become the character that he was given. He played it so well and was a great sport through the whole thing. Aaron sent a lot of time practicing and working hard in order to find his voice for this and at the beginning it was hard for him to reach some of the notes but by the end he had improved so much.


At the beginning for rehearsal I wasn’t a fan of being in the musical but by the end it was so much fun and everyone was so supportive and helpful. The end product came out really well and I really liked how everything worked out and how the show went on at the end. It was a big show and I think everyone did a great job.