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.

Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring — When tomorrow comes...

Prologue

The day begins...
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!

• 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

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!

Why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?

• 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

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.

• 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

Who laid hands on this good man here? What's the substance of this brawl?

• 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

If I speak, I am condemned.
If I stay silent, I am damned!

I will sing you lullabyes and wake you in the morning.

• 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

Valjean, at last
We see each-other plain…

• 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…

• 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

How long before the judgment day?

• 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!

• 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

We'll be ready for these schoolboys, They will wet themselves with blood!

• 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

Without me his world will go on turning
A world that's full of happiness
That I have never known!

• 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

We'll fight like twenty armies
And we won't give up
So you'd better run for cover
When the pup grows up!

• 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

A little fall of rain
Can hardly hurt me now…

• 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

If I die, let me die
Let him live
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?

• 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

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.

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

Finale

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
  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