Les Misérables
Prologue: 1815, Digne: Jean Valjean, released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang, finds that the yellow ticket-of-leave he must display, condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by the police, and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him, also giving him two precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew.
1823, Montrueil-Sur-Mer: Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeline, has risen to become both a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantinue has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this they demand her dismissal. The foreman whose advances Fantine has rejected, throws her out.
Desparate for money to pay for medicine for her daughter, Fantine sells her hair and then joins the whores in selling herself. Degraded by her new trade, she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert when the Mayor arrives and demands taht she be taken to the hospital instead.
The Mayor rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of the convict 24601. Jean Valjean, a parole breaker whom he has been tracking for years, but whom he thinks, has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison in his place, confesses to the court that he is prisoner 24601.
At the hospital, Valjean promises the dying Fantine to find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.
1823, Monfermeil: Cosette has been lodged for give years with the Thenardiers who run an inn, horribly abusing the little girl who they use as a slave while indulging their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching water in the dark. He pays the Thenardiers to let him take Cosette away and takes her to Paris... with Javert still searching for him.
1832, Paris: Nine years later, there is a great unreset in the city becasue of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque, the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor. The urchin Gavroche is in his element, mixing with the whores and beggars of the capital. The street-gangs led by Thenardier adn his wife set upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognize Valjean, until he has made his escape. Eponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.
At a political meeting in a small cafe, a group of idealistic students prepare for the revolution they are sure will erupt on teh death of Lamarque. When Gavroche brings news of the General's death, the students, led by Enjolras, stream out into the streets to gather popular support. Only Marius is distracted by thoughts of the mysterious Cosette.
Cosette is consumed by thought of Marius, with whom she has fallen in love. Valjean realizes that his :"daughter" is changing very quickly but refuses to tell her anything of her past. In spite of her own feelings for Marius, Eponine sadly brings him to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father's gang to rob Valjean's house. Valjean, convinced it was Javert lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country. On the even of the revolution, the students and Javert see the situation from different viewpoints; Cosette and Marius part in despair, afraid they will never meet again; Eponine mourns the loss of Marius; and Valjean looks forward to the security of exile. The Thenardiers dream of rich pickings underground from the chaos to come. The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that Eponine has joined the insurrection, sends her with a letter to Cosette, which is intercepted at the Rue Plumet by Valjean. Eponine decides, despite what he has said to her, to rejoin Marius at the barricades.
The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning that they must give up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade, Eponine is shot and killed. Valjean arrives at the barricade in search of Marius and is given the chance to kill Javert but lets him go instead.
The students settle down for a night on the barricade and in the quiet of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius from the onslaught to come. Teh next day, with ammunition running low, Gavroche runs out to collect more and is shot. The rebels are all killed including their leader Enjolras.
Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting Thenardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels in the sewers, he emerges into the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to the hospital and Javert decides to let him go, with Valjean's promise to return. Javert struggling with living in the debt of Valjean, the man who has spared his life and after realizing his life has no meaning, jumps to his death.
The women of Paris mourn the dead students while Marius begs forgiveness for the fact that he survived. Marius recovers in Cosette's care. Valjean confesses teh truth of his past to Marius and insists that after they are married, he must go away rather than further risk the safety of their union.
At Marius and Cosette's wedding the Thenardiers try to blackmail Marius with the information about Cosette's "father". With their proof Marius realizes it was Valjean who rescued him. He and Cosette go to Valjean where she learns her own history. Valjean lays dying, with visions of Fantine and Eponine. As he dies, Valjean and his vision remind Cosette of the everlasting power of love telling her "to love another person is to see the face of God."
The entire company sings of "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."
