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Les Misérables
Get To Know The Show – A Teacher's Guide
Suitable For Students
Grade 6 and up.
Interested in: The Arts, English, Social Sciences and Humanities, Language Arts, Social Studies.
Show Style / Genre
Broadway
Musical
Adapted from literature
Venue, Dates & Times
Princess of Wales Theatre
Tuesday - Saturday: 7:30PM
Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday: 1:30PM
Added performance: Thursday May 30: 1:30PM
Show starts PROMPTLY at stated curtain time.
Running time
2 hours 58 minutes (includes intermission)
Content Advisory For Students
Uses ground fog, open flame, gun/cannon fire, haze and strobe lights. Recommended for ages 10+.
About the Show
Set against the backdrop of 19th century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice, and redemption – a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. This epic and uplifting story, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history.
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ACT ONE
PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE
After 19 years on the chain gang, Jean Valjean finds that the ticket-of-leave he must display condemns him to be an outcast. Only the 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 the police and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him. Valjean decides to start his life anew.
1823, MONTREUIL-SUR-MERE
Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has become 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. 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, 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 the hospital instead. The Mayor then rescues a man pinned beneath a cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601 Jean Valjean, who, he says, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison, confesses that he is 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 escape.
1823, MONTFERMEIL
Cosette has been lodged with the Thénardiers, who horribly abuse her while indulging their own daughter, Éponine. Valjean pays the Thénardiers to let him take her away to Paris.
1832, PARIS
Nine years later, there is unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque, the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor. A street gang led by Thénardier and his wife sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognize Valjean until he has gone. The Thénardiers’ daughter Éponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.
News of General Lamarque’s death circulates in the city and a group of politically-minded students stream out into the streets to whip up support for a revolution. Cosette is consumed by thoughts of Marius, with whom she has fallen in love. Éponine brings Marius to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father’s gang to rob Valjean’s house. Valjean, convinced it was Javert lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country.
ACT TWO
1832, PARIS
The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that Éponine has joined the insurrection, sends her away with a letter to Cosette, which is intercepted by Valjean. Éponine decides to rejoin her love at the barricade.
The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning to give up or die. Javert is exposed as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade, Éponine is killed.
Valjean arrives at the barricade in search of Marius.He is given the chance to kill Javert but instead lets him go. The students settle down for a night on the barricade and, in the quiet of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius. The next day the rebels are all killed.
Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting Thénardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels, he comes across Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to the hospital. Javert lets Valjean go and, his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean’s own mercy, he kills himself.
Unaware of the identity of his rescuer, Marius recovers in Cosette’s care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius and insists he must go away. 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 stole from the corpse the night the barricade fell. It is Marius’s own ring and he realizes 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.
PREP YOUR COURSE TO THE THEATRE - Les Misérables
About the Production
The multiple award-winning Les Misérables has become a global success on stage and screen, sweeping audiences through an epic tale of broken dreams, passion and redemption, against the backdrop of a nation seething with revolution. Les Misérables is now the longest running musical in the world and, in October 2010, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a theatrical first – three different productions of the same musical staged at the same time in one city: the star-studded concert at London’s The O2 arena, the acclaimed new 25th Anniversary Production (which completed its sell-out UK Tour at London’s Barbican Theatre) and the original production, which continues its record breaking run at the Queen’s Theatre, London.
Les Misérables is now the longest running musical in the world and, in October 2010, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a theatrical first – three different productions of the same musical staged at the same time in one city: the star-studded concert at London’s The O2 arena, the acclaimed new 25th Anniversary Production (which completed its sell-out UK Tour at London’s Barbican Theatre) and the original production, which continues its record breaking run at the Queen’s Theatre, London.
The newly re-imagined production has already broken box office records across the UK, America, Japan, Korea, Spain, and Australia. The Oscar®-winning film version has become one of the most successful movie musicals of all time.
The US Tour of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony Award-winning musical, presented by Cameron Mackintosh, will perform a limited engagement at the Princess of Wales Theatre, March 26 to June 1, 2024.
About the Theatre
The Princess of Wales Theatre is a 2,000-seat state-of-the-art playhouse that showcases the best in both traditional and contemporary design. With dynamic public spaces that surprise and delight at every turn, the theatre features over 10,000 square feet of artwork created by renowned American artist, Frank Stella. Its stage is one of the largest in North America, capable of hosting large-scale, technically-demanding productions. It opened on May 26, 1993, with the Canadian Premiere of Miss Saigon – the first privately built, stand-alone theatre in North America in over 30 years.
The Princess of Wales is located at 300 King Street West just east of John Street in the heart of Toronto's Entertainment District. It is situated next to the TIFF Bell Lightbox, just west of the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Roy Thompson Hall, two blocks north of the Rogers Centre, the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
During the Show
The Role of the Audience
What is the role of Audience? How does your participation contribute to the experience of the show, for the actors and your fellow audience members?
Please take time to review Mirvish Guide To Attending The Theatre with your student group prior to your theatre visit. It includes some helpful tips and basic “Dos & Don’ts” to assist you in preparing everyone for what to expect, and what is expected of them.
Themes & Motifs
JUSTICE & INJUSTICE
One way of comparing justice to injustice is through the legal system, personified by Javert and illustrated in the various courts, juries, and policemen that appear throughout the novel. Yet by creating in Valjean a protagonist who is an escaped convict - one who, in fact, can only continue to do good by remaining outside the law - Hugo challenges the notion that legal justice is just at all. Of course, this notion is complicated, given that the novel doesn't portray those seeking legal justice as entirely evil or malicious. s, people like Javert are imperfect, perhaps overly zealous followers of the law who fail to understand that this auhtority can, in some cases, be unjust.
LOVE & REDEMPTION
In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean is transformed from a hardened criminal into a paragon of virtue. He ultimately sacrifices himself so that his adopted daughter Cosette might attain happiness with Marius, even as it devastates Valjean to "lose" her to the man she loves.
FUN TECHNICAL FACTS ABOUT THE LES MIS TOUR
Load–in
• 61 local stagehands over two days are hired in every market to load the production into the theatre
• The shows takes approximately 21 hours to load in and approximately 8 hours to load out.
• 35 local stagehands are used for each performance
• 11 trucks are used to move the production from city to city
Costumes
• The show uses approximately 1,200 costumes and they take up one entire tractor trailer.
• There are 8 wedding ball gowns on stage for less than 5 minutes. Each dress requires 15 yards of Fabric and 50 hours to construct.
Wigs
• Over 88 wigs travel with Les Misérables
• About 40 wigs are used in the show every night.
• All wigs are made from human hair except 8.
• The Wig department gives approximately 15-20 actor haircuts per month.
Sound
• The production carries 148 speakers total, so all venue sizes will be covered. (Most standard touring Broadway sound packages have 32-50 speakers across the entire audio package.)
• There are 32 speakers hidden on the stage.
• The barricade speaker towers contain 36 speakers and weight in at 2 tons per tower.
• There are 19 speakers mounted inside the electrical truss used for lighting.
• There are 12 speakers that live in the Orchestra Pit.
• The audio console alone costs $250,000
• Standard digital audio is 24bit/48khz. Les Misérables runs digital audio 32bit/96khz for the higher audio quality possible with the Quantum Engine installed into the audio console.
Electrics
• There are 76 moving lights in the show.
• The projections are images created by the design team processed through a media server program called Catylist and projected on to the scenery.
• There are 5 projectors used to produce the images projected on the scenery during the show.
• The show uses 4 separate theatrical fog systems to produce the atmospheric effects in the show.
• The lighting console is an arid Eos Ti and it has control over everything from projection, lighting, and fog, to the orchestra music stand lights.
Scenery
• The scenic towers take up a complete tractor trailer and build in two hours with a crew of 16 and 4 lifting service hoists
• Final assembly weight of the show is over 2,000 lbs
• Cast and crew ride in the three floors of the towers
• Including the two automated tracks that drive the towers on and off stage, there are 7 deck tracks moving scenery and props throughout the show.
• There are 16 scenic pieces or props that automate on and off via the tracks.
• There are 10 additional automation effects over-Head.
Orchestra
• There are 14 musicians in the pit who play 23 instruments throughout the 3 hour-long musical . . . all let by a conductor on the podium.
Did you know?
• In 1980, Les Misérables began with a concept album by the French writers, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Two short years later, producer Cameron Mackintosh listened to the recording and, without understanding the French lyrics, recognized the material’s potential.
• Les Misérables comes from the French operatic tradition, a through-composed piece of musical theater on the mega scope and grand scale of the French operas of the Baroque period.
• The [original] show in 1985 that few people had booked in advance to see was coolly, if not hostilely, reviewed by the early critics. It has [now] become the longest running musical in the world and the most financially successful show ever to be on in London’s West End.
• This current engagement marks the seventh time Les Misérables has played in Toronto at a Mirvish theatre, beginning with the acclaimed Canadian Premiere Production produced by Mirvish Productions and Cameron Mackintosh at the Royal Alexandra Theatre (1989/90).
• The Canadian premiere of the new 25th Anniversary Cameron Mackintosh production of Boublil & Schönberg's masterpiece was presented at the Princess of Wales Theatre as part of the 2013/14 Mirvish Main Season. On January 13, 2014, Colm Wilkinson, in a fundraising performance, sang "Bring Him Home" together with Ramin Karimloo at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto in a moment that took 24 years to arrive.
To learn more about past productions of Les Misérables and other shows, visit the Show Archives on our website!
Enrichment & Resources
Additional resources are available to help you build a bridge between your experience of the show and your own classroom. Visit the Resources page to explore what is available for Les Misérables.
Looking to build more into your field trip? A variety of enrichment experiences are available to choose from, including Q&As, guided historic theatre tours, workshops and performance group opportunities. Contact our Education Manager at educationandevents@mirvish.com to learn more. Subject to availability; additional costs and restrictions apply.
How To Book
Our team of Audience Services Representatives is ready to book your student group order!
By Phone: 1.800.461.3333
In Person:
322 King Street West, Suite 325
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5V 1J2
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