“Les Miserables”, a majestic return to the Théâtre du Châtelet

Having an appointment, for real, with the convict Jean Valjean, Javert, the bad cop, Fantine, the desperate one, Cosette, who is a Cinderella, Gavroche and his literary rhymes is an incredible opportunity. More than one hundred and sixty years after the publication of the colossal novel by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Les Miserables is not only still there – on display until January 2, 2025, at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris – but it speaks to us eye to eye. Cockade in his buttonhole, he raises a snarling storm of class struggle and revenge, curiously softened by the great feelings of this Valjean. Good as the loaf of bread that he stole and for which he was sent to the penal colony, he demonstrated a generosity which ended up pushing Javert, “humbled by his kindness”to suicide. Is a world of good, forgiving people so horribly unbearable?

This intimate and harsh violence, reread to the dimension of the political and social conflicts of the early 19th century^e century, explodes in the very successful staging, both compact and sober, suggestive and eloquent, by Ladislas Chollat. The adventures of Jean Valjean’s life, from his release from prison until his death, intersect with those of the workers, the mistreated women, until the Republican riots of June 1832. Blackened by the jealous cruelty of men and women, this humanist fresco, fierce and timeless, ribs the new production in French of the work created in 1980 by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, here accompanied by the orchestra of the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Fabulous success

In agreement with the British producer Cameron Mackintosh, the linchpin of the versions presented since 1985 in London, then on Broadway, two years later, she relaunched the fabulous success of this profoundly French musical, translated into twenty-two languages, and which has reached 130 million people since its creation. A record that risks being broken very quickly, if we are to believe the crowd effect, Saturday November 23, at the Théâtre du Châtelet. We notice a spectator dressed in the fashion of the time. At the end of the applauded performance, a group of young fans gathered in front of the artists’ entrance to meet the cool heroes and ask them for autographs. This shows the impact of this recovery.

It is simply astonishing that this insurrectional saga of love and injustice still captivates audiences today. Because the phenomenon Misérables is double trigger. Alongside the conservation of an oversized literary work, which has undergone a number of theatrical and cinematographic adaptations, and is here reduced to three hours (50 pages synthesized in a three-minute song), the history of this musical show is worth also the story.

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