Photos by Matthew Murphy
Editor’s Note: A cast list was not made available for the performance on June 12th, attended by our reviewer. For that reason, details about specific cast members are not included here.
Les Misérables is once again playing the Kennedy Center, showcasing Victor Hugo’s gripping tale of Jean Valjean’s redemption journey from petty thief to businessman, father, caretaker, and all-around upstanding citizen, with a backdrop of the French revolution. (But not the French Revolution. Common mistake.) This production, while undeniably powerful and full-throated, feels more somber and solemn than previous versions. You can feel it in the lighting design that is full of shadows and receding spotlights, and in the muted tones of the costuming. You can feel it in the special effects: Via computerized animations, the audience sinks
deep into the sewers with a desperate Jean Valjean and watches the bright stars turn to black and the water churn threateningly during the self-reckoning of Javert (the intrepid inspector, hell-bent on vengeance and sending Valjean back to prison). Perhaps you can also sense it in the audience. Though the show includes epic romances and high-stakes games of cat-and-mouse, it’s just as much about patriotism and the pursuit of justice, and that hits differently in a DC audience gearing up for the most talked-about Flag Day in recent memory.
The cast, too, brings out some of the darker themes of this show. This Éponine leans away from the lovesick pining that often characterizes the role and leans into the resentment and pain inflicted by Marius as he chooses Cosette over her. Monsieur and Madame Thénardier are as comical as ever, but there is something particularly sinister about these inn-keeper opportunists and their swindling of unwitting customers. It felt less like you are in on the joke and more like you might become The Master of the House’s victim. As for Javert, his cruelty is accentuated by the actor’s pregnant pauses and his stalking about the theater.
He’s the real standout of this cast, though the actor playing Valjean is a formidable adversary, and the actress playing Fantine shines in the classic “I Dreamed a Dream.”
This show does have some audio issues that will hopefully be worked out as the run continues. It wasn’t easy to discern what certain characters were saying, especially in some full-ensemble numbers. (To love another person is to see the face of what, now?) Had the audience been able to hear better, some of the artistic
decisions (including some severe physical changes between young Cosette and Éponine and their adult counterparts) may have been less confusing, especially first-time viewers of the show, who seemed to spend most of the intermission sorting that out. Gavroche, the young street urchin with adult-sized dreams of revolution, was particularly difficult to hear. That was unfortunate because he carries a decent chunk of the narrative in the barricade scenes. His “Little People” song was awkwardly and sadly truncated.
This production captures better than most the devastating reality that (spoiler alert) no one is coming to join the boys in the barricade. Their fellow citizens do not hear the people sing, so to speak. And maybe that’s why Marius’ lament about empty chairs at empty tables after so many of his friends die at the barricade feels especially and achingly lonely. This show draws out the discomfort that comes from being forced to choose which side of life’s barricades to stand behind, and watching loved ones sometimes make different choices. Valjean himself falters in his pursuit of justice. However, when given the choice, most would surely answer that they’d rather be the kindhearted Valjean than the dogmatic Javert—unempathetic and incapable or unwilling to see beyond a narrow world view. And if you can’t make up your mind between the two? Well, then you may very well be the aforementioned Monsieur Thénardier.
Final Grade: A-
Les Misérables is at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through July 13, 2025. Tickets range from $49.00 – $275.00. Running time is approximately 3 Hours with one intermission. To purchase tickets, click HERE
A limited number of $49 Rush tickets will be available for every performance (excluding June 11) at the Kennedy Center Box Office 2 hours prior to each performance on the day of the performance (noon for Sunday matinees). Tickets are subject to availability and have no guaranteed location.
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