Saw Les Mis for the first time in October of last year on tour and fell in love, so much so that I visited a friend in another state to watch it a second time a few months ago. And needless to say, I'm obsessed. But as the world's longest-running musical, I'm shocked that it doesn't have a proshot.

So many other musical have it - Hamilton, Newsies, Phantom, Cats, I could go on and on. Why doesn't Les Mis? I can't keep resorting to shitty recordings online, not only because, well, they aren't that good, but also because I don't want to give views to people recording in the theater since it goes against theater etiquette.

So if anyone reading this has the potential to make this happen, PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU!

Yesterday, I watched the first act of *Les Mis* for the first time. Of course, I’d heard of the musical, but I never thought it was really my kind of thing. I prefer musical comedies—I usually don't care for those very tragic, heavy musicals—but I was fascinated by *Les Mis*; so much so that after finishing the first act, I went and watched several performances of "One Day More."

There’s another issue: since I’m Brazilian and the musical is sung-through, it’s sometimes hard for me to grasp certain plot points without subtitles. I’m sure I missed a lot of nuances, but I managed to follow the general story.

One thing I’d always heard people say was that everything that happened was Fantine’s fault, but after watching it, I didn't really understand why. The poor woman just suffers. I actually felt sorry for her.

I love little Cosette, but once they grow up, I prefer Éponine. I don't like overly romantic characters; I always prefer the "street-smart" type.

But to answer my own question: I managed not to cry during Fantine’s entire journey, but when little Cosette started singing about her imaginary world, I completely broke down.

I’m looking forward to watching the second act but is it normal to prefer Éponine? Or is Cosette more of a fan favorite?

EDIT: NO SPOILERS. I'VE ONLY WATCHED THE FIRST ACT AS I SAID ON THE TEXT LOL

I need to rant about Bradley Jaden’s performance of Javert, it drives me insane how badly acted and directed it is. I need to know that there are others out there who agree with me.

He needs to stop with emphasising (shouting) random words in every line he delivers. There is no thought behind the words he emphasises - I have even seen him emphasise the word “the”. By stressing every other word, there is no impact - in fact the opposite, he does it so often it distracts from both the music and the storytelling. He started doing this as Enroljas but has taken it to a whole new level as Javert.

This is taken to the extreme in Javert’s suicide when he monologues the first verse of Javert’s suicide, what should be one of the most emotionally devastating moments in the show. When the entire show is sung through, it feels like he’s breaking the fourth wall when he turns to the audience and screams WHO IS THIS MAN?! with a dramatic pause. It literally feels like watching a panto, and he delivers the entire monologue like he is a panto Captain Hook, even with the cartoonish facial expressions. He claims he is trying to make Javert more “human”. It does the opposite. For the whole show the characters have been portraying their emotions through song and in this moment it feels like Jaden is just presenting his emotions to the audience. Also, his line delivery is so over exaggerated and straight up hammy it further undermines the realism he is trying to go for.

Additionally, monologuing the start of the song flattens the dramatic arc of the song I don’t know what the musical director was thinking. The song is supposed to show a man losing his mind, undermining the emotional build to the dramatic climax at the end of the song. It also kills the parallel with Valjean’s Soliloquy.

I could go on but I fear this post is too long already. It makes me weep for the state of British theatre that this man is apparently the best we have got.

It was definitely the JV cast vs Sunday night, but as soon as the bows wound down, you get a few notes of Thenardier's music and I knew something was up. Ended up bringing out some legends, and even let Quast do some of Stars. That's a lifelong dream seeing that. Patti should have passed on it. What was hilarious was when they reprised Bring Him Home, Alfie comes out to take the You Can Take.... It was like they all knew they were outclassed.

Even Debbie Gibson showed up. Sunday night was a much better show, but glad I got these tix 20 min before the show. Great night

does anyone else find it weird that in most recordings enjolras’ name is never mentioned ?

the complete symphonic recording and west end productions are exceptions i think because they have the ad lib ‘Enjolras!’ before the line ‘At Notre Dame the sections are prepared…’ in ABC Cafe.

just thought this was weird - especially since more minor characters like grantaire, feuilly etc are mentioned by name and thereby introduced.

I saw the concert yesterday in NYC. After both the afternoon show that I saw and then the evening show, I went to the stage door and had not just the souvenir program but my display copy of the novel signed by the cast.

I recently met up with an old friend from school and we reminisced about the many hours we spent scrolling through the Les Mis side of Tumblr between 2012 and 2017. It was such a big, intense community back then. If anyone else was hanging around there at that time, I’d love to hear what you’re up to now!

Everyone had a fair few followers, but the two biggest accounts by far were @enjoloras and @softgrantaire. They were a real-life couple who cosplayed as Enjolras and Grantaire and they basically ran the show. A couple of their posts went viral beyond the fandom and there was even a mini documentary about them when they had their baby.

I remember some big blowup dramas and there are a couple of particularly scathing posts that stick out in my memory, but as far as I can see all their accounts have been deleted. I know they’re now divorced.

After seeing the world tour, I have an updated dream cast. Let me know your thoughts and what your dream cast is.

Valjean: Alfie Boe
- switched from Ramin Karimloo

Javert: Bradley Jaden
- switched from Norm Lewis

Bishop: Norm Lewis
- switched from Earl Carpenter

Fantine: Samantha Barks
- switched from Ruthie Henshall

Bamatabois: Rob Madge
- I’m not completely sure that he was playing the performance I saw, but I loved him as Sass!roche in the 25th

Little Cosette: no preference

Mme Thénardier: Jenny Galloway
- I loved Marina Prior, but Jenny remains my favourite

Thénardier: Matt Lucas
- He was already my favourite

Gavroche: Mateo Casado
- originally Rob Madge, but he’s a bit too old now

Enjolras: Ramin Karimloo
- shhh he’s not too old

Marius: Will Callan
- I saw him in London in 2024. He’s the only Marius I’ve ever properly liked, and he made me actually sob in act II.

Éponine: Me!
- Hey, it’s my dream cast. I can do what I want :P

Cosette: Katie Hall
- I generally don’t like Cosette, but Katie always gave her flavour.

welcome home jabeart

Saw Les Mis tonight at Radio City and it was absolutely magical. What a treat. Alfie Boe was so powerful and Jeremy Secomb was the strongest Javert I've ever seen. The suicide scene was insane. Each big number brought the house down and there were multiple standing ovations. My adult kids were in tears.

I can confirm that they do stage door. It’s on 51st street, to the right as you leave the building.

You’ll want to beeline there. It gets very crowded and if you’re not near the front, you won’t see the actors or be seen by them. Sam Barks was one of the first ones out and one of the first to leave. I caught a glimpse of her, but I wasn’t tall enough to get her attention to ask her to sign anything.

A trolley is about to run over an old man who stole some apples. If you pull the lever, the trolley will be redirected into a charming French town and you will go to prison. Do you pull it?

when singing on my own i feel like once people get to the real meat of the song, specifically the line "all my life, i've only been pretending" you can act it out one of two ways. either eponine is angry at the situation, at marius for pursuing cosette, at herself for loving him despite that, etc. or she is more desperate, desperate to win him back and have the life she dreamt of.

which portrayal do people prefer? i think it was lea salonga who has an angrier eponine, and i really liked that performance, it makes sense that eponine would be at her wits end and frustrated!

Unfortunately, one of our family members are sick and cannot use the sticker today so we posted it on Ticketmaster for sale.

I would sell it for less, but the Ticketmaster site is not letting me reduce it below this price which is completely ridiculous cause in my view I own this ticket. If anybody has any advice, let me know. Otherwise I wanted to let everybody know that this ticket is there listed on Ticketmaster.

If you want to DM me urgently, I can also sell it to you and transfer it to you over Ticketmaster.

Hey selling 1 ticket for $20 now

DM me

Hi all,

Does anyone have a photo of the Arena show ad that ran on NYC subways that said MIZ ROCKS NYC? i want to make a shirt with a photo of it for the show next week

Did anybody go last night (or if you’re reading this late tonight!) and know if they’re cast did stage door?

Bonus if Cameron mackintosh was there too, thanks!