# Les Misérables (musical)

Les Misérables (1980, French; 1985, English) is a musical play based on the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, with an English-language libretto by Herbert Kretzmer. The show was an immediate hit and went on to became one of the most successful and popular of modern plays in many productions around the world.

## Prologue

* Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave. Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.
** Chain Gang
* I know the meaning of those 19 years A slave of the law!
** Jean Valjean
* Never forget the years, the waste. Nor forgive them, for what they've done. They are the guilty, everyone. The day begins... And now lets see What this new world Will do for me!
** Jean Valjean

## Valjean Arrested, Valjean Forgiven

* But remember this, my brother See in this some higher plan You must use this precious silver To become an honest man By the witness of the martyrs By the Passion and the Blood God has raised you out of darkness I have bought your soul for God!
** Bishop Myriel

## What Have I Done (Valjean's Soliloquy)

* Yet why did I allow that man To touch my soul and teach me love? He treated me like any other He gave me his trust He called me brother.
** Jean Valjean
* He told me that I have a soul, How does he know?
** Jean Valjean

## At The End of The Day

* At the end of the day you're another day older And that's all you can say for the life of the poor.
** Workers

## I Dreamed A Dream

* He slept a summer by my side He filled my days with endless wonder He took my childhood in his stride But he was gone when autumn came.
** Fantine
* And still I dream he'll come to me That we will live the years together But there are dreams that cannot be And there are storms we cannot weather.
** Fantine

## Lovely Ladies

* Easy money Lying on a bed Just as well they never see The hate that's in your head Don't they know they're making love To one already dead!
** Fantine
* Tell me quickly what's the story Who saw what and why and where Let him give a full description Let him answer to Javert! In this nest of whores and vipers Let one speak who saw it all Who laid hands on this good man here? What's the substance of this brawl?
** Javert

## Who Am I? — The Trial

* You have only done your duty. It's a minor sin at most. All of us have made misjudgments You will return Sir to your post.
** Jean Valjean to Javert
* If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned!
** Jean Valjean
* My soul belongs to God, I know I made that bargain long ago He gave me hope when hope was gone He gave me strength to journey on!
** Jean Valjean
* Who am I? Who am I? I'm Jean Valjean! And so, Javert, you see it's true! This man bears no more guilt than you! Who am I? 2 4 6 0 1!
** Jean Valjean

## Fantine's Death

* Hurry near, another day is dying Don't you hear the winter wind is crying There's a darkness which comes without a warning But I will sing you lullabies and wake you in the morning.
** Fantine, imagining that she is speaking to Cosette

## The Confrontation

* Valjean, at last We see each-other plain M'sieur L'Mayor You'll wear a different chain
** Javert
* I am warning you, Javert! I'm the stronger man by far. There is power in me yet. My race is not yet run!
* Valjean
* You know nothing of Javert I was born inside a jail I was born with scum like you I am from the gutter too!
** Javert

## Castle On A Cloud

* I know a place where no one's lost, I know a place where no one cries, Crying at all is not allowed, Not in my castle on a cloud.
** Cosette
* Madam Thadenier: Still there, Cosette? Your tears will do you no good. I told you fetch some water from the well in the wood. Cosette: Please do not send me out alone, not in the darkness on my own — Madam Thadenier: (cuts her off) Enough of that! Or I'll forget to be nice! You heard me ask for something and I never ask twice!!

## Look Down

* With all the anger in the land How long before the judgment day? Before we cut the fat ones down to size? Before the barricades arise?
** Enjolras

## Stars

* You know your place in the sky You hold your course and your aim And each in your season Returns and returns And is always the same And if you fall as Lucifer fell You fall in flame!
** Javert

## The ABC Cafe — Red And Black

* Red — the blood of angry men! Black — the dark of ages past! Red — a world about to dawn! Black — the night that ends at last!
** Student revolutionaries
* Who cares about your lonely soul We strive toward a larger goal! Our little lives don't count at all!
** Enjolras to Marius Pontmercy

## Do You Hear The People Sing

* Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people Who will not be slaves again!
** Enjolras
* Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance? Some will fall and some will live, will you stand up and take your chance? The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France!
** Feuilly

## Rue Plumet — In My Life

* Valjean: Dear Cosette You’re such a lonely child! How pensive, how sad you seem to be. Believe me, if it were in my power I’d fill each passing hour. How quiet it must be, I can see, With only me for company. Cosette: There’s so little I know that I’m longing to know Of the child that I was and the time long ago! There’s so little you say of the life you have known, Why you keep to yourself, why we’re always alone! So dark, so dark and deep, The secrets that you keep. In my life I have all that I want You are loving and gentle and good. But Papa, dear Papa, in your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in a wood. Valjean: No more words! No more words, it’s a time that is dead! There are words, that are better unheard, better unsaid! Cosette: In my life I’m no longer a child And I yearn for the truth that you know Of the years Years ago. Valjean: You will learn Truth is given by God to us all in our time. In our turn.
* In my life She has burst like the music of angels The light of the sun And my life seems to stop As if something is over And something has scarcely begun.
** Marius

## One Day More

* One Day More. Another day another destiny. This neverending road to Calvary. These men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time One Day More!
** Jean Valjean
* One day more to revolution. We will nip it in the bud! We'll be ready for these schoolboys, They will wet themselves with blood!
** Javert
* Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in Heaven has in store! One more dawn! One more day! One day more!
** Whole Cast

## On My Own

* In the rain The pavement shines like silver All the lights are misty in the river In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight And all I see is him and me forever and forever
** Éponine
* I love him But every day I'm learning All my life I've only been pretending Without me his world will go on turning A world that's full of happiness That I have never known!
** Éponine

## Little People

* So never kick a dog Because he's just a pup We'll fight like twenty armies And we won't give up So you'd better run for cover When the pup grows up!
** Gavroche

## A Little Fall Of Rain

* Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius I don't feel any pain A little fall of rain Can hardly hurt me now You're here, that's all I need to know And you will keep me safe And you will keep me close And rain will make the flowers grow.
** Éponine

## Night Of Anguish

* You are wrong, and always have been wrong. I'm a man, no worse than any man. You are free, and there are no conditions, No bargains or petitions. There's nothing that I blame you for. You've done your duty, nothing more.
** Valjean to Javert

## The Night / Drink With Me

* Drink with me to days gone by Can it be, you fear to die? Will the world remember you when you fall? Could it be your death means nothing at all? Is your life just one more lie?
** Grantaire
* Drink with me to days gone by To the life that used to be At the shrine of friendship, never say die Let the wine of friendship never run dry Here's to you and here's to me.
** Revolutionaries

## Bring Him Home

* You can take You can give Let him be Let him live If I die, let me die Let him live Bring him home.
** Valjean, of Marius

## The Final Battle

* Let us die facing our foes, make them bleed while we can!
** Enjolras
* Make them pay through the nose, make them pay for every man!
** Revolutionaries
* Let others rise to take our place until the earth is FREE!!!!
** Enjolras

## Javert's Suicide

* I am the law and the law is not mocked.
* It is either Valjean or Javert!
* How can I now allow this man To hold dominion over me? This desperate man whom I have hunted He gave me my life. He gave me freedom. I should have perished by his hand It was his right. It was my right to die as well Instead I live... but live in hell.
** Javert

## Turning

* They were schoolboys Never held a gun... Fighting for a new world That would rise up like the sun. Where's that new world now the fighting's done?
** Crowds

## Empty Chairs At Empty Tables

* Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me, What your sacrifice was for! Empty chairs at empty tables Where my friends will drink no more...
** Marius

## Valjean's Death

* To love another person Is to see the face of God!
** Jean Valjean, Fantine, & Éponine

## Finale

* Do you hear the people sing Lost in the valley of the night? It is the music of a people Who are climbing to the light.For the wretched of the earth There is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest night will end And the sun will rise!
** Whole Cast
* They will live again in freedom in the Garden of the Lord! They will walk behind the ploughshare. They will push away the sword! The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!
** Whole Cast
* Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade Is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring When tomorrow comes... Tomorrow comes!
** Whole Cast

## External links

* Official site: Cameron Mackintosh presents Les Misérables
* Lyrics of Les Misérables Online