My Thoughts & Feelings on the Les Misérables Stage Play (2026) at the Théâtre Hébertot
(Dir. Manon Montel, Company Chouchenko)
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion! I’m not a theatre critic, just some guy who likes Les Mis. Also, apologies if I missed things; I had to get the cheap seats & was getting very intimate with a pillar at points
It was a packed theatre, and pretty diverse audience in terms of ages, including younger people & kids with families. I just think that’s nice to see, because theatre often feels like it gets a reputation for being inaccessible (i.e. expensive). Also I think this would be a great adaptation if you'd no experience w/ LM before
The show was performed by a small cast (10 ppl), and acting was good all round! It probably wasn't the largest budget, I'd say I noticed that with the costumes, but that might have just been because I was sat quite close; from a distance they probably came together well. And some outfits were great, e.g. Marius' (also Javert’s swishy coat <3).
Generally, it followed the novel very closely. The runtime was under 2 hours, so it's a real feat that they managed to fit so much of the plot & material in without it feeling disjointed or rushed. Obviously, there were some changes and cuts. The biggest two for me were probably that Fauchelevent & the Gorbeau House plotline (incl. Eponine) were gone.
Narration & Digressions:
The play was done with lots of narration & monologues – often using Hugo’s words/the source text. Personally, I like this approach – it’s a good way to get a lot of the material in there. We even had some (parts of) digressions!! (Prouvaire did Cambronne at Waterloo, Gavroche a bit of Argot (so less condemnatory than Hugo), a tiny ‘insurrections VS émeutes’ from Courfeyrac-Combeferre (see below), Madame Thénardier the convent). I’ve been in the LM fandom a long time, I have come to appreciate the digressions as a part of the whole and where the themes & ideas often come through. Maybe it won’t work for some, but this was something I really liked, in how they adapted the material; a good way to go with LM particularly. There is still the action but so much of the source material is imbedded in the discussions about ideas, etc. And while obviously they could not include it all (some of the digressions could be a play on their own!) it keeps the spirit of Hugo’s work.
Overall, there were quite a lot of jokes/humour, including some from Hugo’s original. Even though some of them didn’t land for me, I don't mind that tone being included bc it is present in the source text they're pulling from!
Madame T.: More explicit child abuse/cruelty than how it is in the musical (they bring out a cat o’ nine at one point! *). As someone (Checco) in the discord mentions about the trailer, Mme T. is the (main) narrator. It's an interesting choice. She mocks other’s experiences, sometimes using ironic points of Hugo’s text. I didn't feel she was supposed to come across as a positive character, but perhaps to be sympathised with to an extent – she makes the point that some people are just cruel (in reference to M. Thénardier), but who's to say she wouldn't have ended up different (better) given the chance that was given Valjean. It’s hard, I think this is something people will have strong feelings about, i.e. whether or not she can/should be made sympathetic in that way given how explicitly cruel the couple are in the original text, even if she is also a misérable – I could maybe write more on this and future need to think about it more. But re: her as narrator, I think it’s cool to have such an original with the material.
*Note: there are no child actors in the show
She explains her own death which is compared to Fantine’s entrance/life
Fantine: No Mme Victurnien, why Fantine is fired isn’t specified. I really liked staging of the Fall, poverty felt emphasised (as it sometimes doesn’t in other versions): it had Mme T. narrating her letters/requests for money from above as Fantine went through the different stages of selling parts of herself. Scene of her waiting for Cosette narrated by a doctor and Mme T. The relationship between her and Cosette was present throughout
There was a factory interpretive dance scene? Trying to understand it, I felt we were going to get some comment on the nature of labour or something, but this never came back? (There was something similar with the convicts, but unless I missed it, it didn’t have a throughline for the rest of the show)
Valjean: My main takeaway was that Valjean talks a lot. It sort of feels out of place with his character, JVJ is not an outwardly emotional man in that way, but how else do you to portray his internal struggles? I couldn’t always place whether his monologues were supposed to be internal or not, so I wasn’t sure it always fitted his character. But we did get his anger demonstrated (not in the bad BBC way), and a lot of focus on his grief of losing Cosette as she grows up (love that! – he brings out a doll and wants to reminisce over her childhood when she’s an adult 🥺) They are definitely the emotional core of the story
Javert: Probably my least favourite tbh (because of the directorial/character choices not the acting!). He felt very one-track JVJ focused, à la musical. But we did get the 'punish me, Monsieur le Maire' scene and a clear demonstration of his fixation with obeying his code even for himself. At one point, he comments he doesn't care about politics. And he protests at the idea of arrest of young student, because he’s young, i.e. that will ruin his life, which doesn’t feel Javert-like?
The police/National Guard were portrayed as comically foolish, which I can understand as a choice, but I’m not sure it works in the current moment. But the play also clearly demonstrated they were in the pockets of the political elite.
Cosette: She and Valjean were 100% the emotional core of the show. And Cosette actually got a personality! She gets angry at how both Valjean and Marius treat her at points and has political opinions. I don't mind this addition (& it’s better than nerfing her like so many do!). We got the bit with how she persuades Valjean to have his fire lit, which is a part I love in the original and how it shows her personality.
She briefly protests against Mother Superior saying her life's goal is to marry & have children…again I don't have an issue with this as an idea, but I think it could have been explored further (esp as she ends up on this path), even if how her relationship to Marius is somewhat less passive here (I hope I’m making sense here, I don’t know how to fully explain my feeling)…I don’t think this version had most in depth feminist critique, but I think they were trying to add something and I can appreciate that – especially as it came along with elevating Cosette’s character
Cosette had three songs and these just didn't work for me. I think because you inevitably end up comparing it to the musical. But I liked having the actors playing instruments live on stage, sometimes diegetic music, sometimes atmospheric (including a Prouvaire accordion solo). But, yeah, not sure about Cosette’s songs, and I mention her specifically because she had multiple throughout at random points, not like Thénardier’s pub music or the Amis’ political song
Marius: Marius sucked👍- as a Marius hater, I appreciated this. We didn't change his final treatment of Valjean, even if some of his stalkerish-ness was toned down. (Being serious, he wasn't a completely unsympathetic character, I thought he was very good and I liked that they included some of those aspects often sanded off by adaptations). At the end he's sat Gillenormand’s fancy chair with a footman delivering his letters for him.
That said, why is he leading the barricade??
After meeting, Marius and Cosette are discussing Hernani. When Cosette is about to arrange a date, Javert swoops in from nowhere and demands to see Marius’ identity papers. Cockblocked by Javert as JVJ watches. Iconic, 10/10 scene, no notes
(Also, I need someone else to watch this because did it imply they (Marius & Cosette that is) fucked at one point?? Or maybe I’ve just got that new terrible Wuthering Heights film on the brain)
Les Amis: Our Amis were Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Feuilly, Prouvaire, and Gavroche. Very blink and you miss him Enjolras (I think this was a practicality thing bc the actress was doubling as Cosette). He was given ‘Etre Libre’
Courfeyrac introduced via Blondeau speech – I knew it wasn’t going to be my beloved boy Lesgle before he got to his name, but I’m letting it go bc it’s a fun scene to include. As well as being quasi-Lesgle, Courfeyrac was also took on some of Combeferre’s traits.
Not a politics heavy adaptation, and I wasn’t getting any real comparison to modern political issues/sentiments. It did seem embedded in the time though, perhaps because they expect the audience to have a general level of familiarity with the post-French Revolution period. The actual barricades scenes were very short, but Les Amis had a decent amount of spoken dialogue beforehand. (I couldn't fully see, but I think we got Liberty Leading the People as a background – tbf Châtelet did this too for the Olympics’ opening – it’s just symbolically recognisable)
Even though I enjoy a politics-heavy LM, I’m not going to hold that over this adaptation because there were obviously time constraints and I think it was balanced as well as it could be
Other stuff...
Play opens with JVJ & Jeanne talking – thought that was nice, having that part acted out, haven't seen it portrayed before
Myriel is given the Sister Simplice’s ‘never told a lie’ bit
Having just rewatched the trailer, some of the staging was a bit different (filmed somewhere else maybe?)
Compared to the musical, it’s very dismissive with regards to religion apart from Myriel’s character (which of course does have a basis in the original novel, but I do wonder if that is in some way related to France’s general view of religion nowadays – or maybe I’m overthinking it, but it’s interesting to compare to how emphasised Christianity is in the musical).
A mention of Georges Sand! Idk, I thought that was a fun little addition
Victor Hugo name drops (jump scare)
Mme T. & Gillenormand are cynical as narrators, but I didn’t feel the as the audience are supposed to adopt that – like I found the Cosette & Valjean stuff quite emotional
Because the Gorbeau house plot is cut, Thénardier’s relation to Col. Pontmercy is mentioned once, then not really again until the end when he meets Marius, who acknowledges it's the only reason he lets him go. Was kind of surprised they explicitly mentioned the slavery part afterwards!
Courfeyrac came back at end alongside Fantine like how we get Eponine in the musical
Anyway, if you happen to be in Paris, I’d recommend you give it a go (it is French language only!): https://www.theatrehebertot.com/spectacle/les-miserables Also please, I would love to hear other’s impressions of it!
