![\"Les](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Les-Miserables-The-Arena-Concert-Spectacular-Matt-Lucas-as-Thenardier-credit_-l-Boud-1.jpg\" "\\"Les")
Matt Lucas in Les Mis\u00e9rables: The Arena Concert Spectacular
(\u00a9 Daniel Boud)<\/p>\n
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
What was your first experience with Les Mis\u00e9rables?
My mom went to see it at the Barbican Theatre when it opened. She got the cassettes and we used to listen to it in the car, so I got to know the songs. And then, for my 13th birthday outing, I took all my bemused, straight, 13-year-old friends to see it. I think the Valjean I saw was Dave Willetts; I don\u2019t remember who the Javert was. Weirdly, the Gavroche was played by a girl, which I think is kind of an emergency thing that happens.<\/p>\n
Your first time officially doing the show was the O2 concert for the 25th anniversary. How did that come about?
I was performing in a show that [producer] Cameron Mackintosh came to see, and we met, and I sort of audaciously said that I\u2019d love to be in Les Mis, not remotely imagining that it might ever happen. I can\u2019t really sing as well as you need to to be in a show like this. I was invited to his office and taught the songs, and then I was asked to do the concert at the O2, which was terrifying. But it started a long relationship with the show. I\u2019ve appeared in the Trevor Nunn\/John Caird production with the revolving stage, the James Powell\/Lawrence Connor current production with the projections, and the concert version. I feel very fortunate that the novelty never wears off. There\u2019s nothing like being on that stage singing \u201cOne Day More.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take me back to that first night at the O2.
We did a matinee and an evening, and the evening was filmed and released. The matinee, for me, was disastrous. I came on stage at the wrong times, I sang too early, made a litany of errors. I think if that had been the version that was released, my career would have gone in a very different direction. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Matt-Lucas.jpg\" "\\"Matt")
Matt Lucas
(\u00a9 Roy J. Baron)<\/p>\n
Is Th\u00e9nardier still a role that you can find new things in after all these years?
I\u2019ve been very fortunate, particularly in the concert version, where the Th\u00e9nardiers are allowed to be a little bolder and freer. You\u2019re there as the comic relief, but it\u2019s not the Th\u00e9nardier show. You have to fit into a complex jigsaw puzzle.<\/p>\n
The show has great directors. A lot of the resident directors have been in the show themselves, so there\u2019s a great support network. At the very top of it, you have Cameron and Alain [Boublil] and Claude-Michel [Sch\u00f6nberg,] and the three of them really care about the show. It\u2019s run as a serious business. Decisions are not made flippantly. The fourth wall is broken by virtue of it being a concert, in a way, so some of my indulgences are encouraged. But I always defer to the bosses. If they\u2019re not keen, it goes. I\u2019m not precious about that stuff.<\/p>\n
I would imagine the arena tour is just overwhelming in terms of experiencing the music.
One of the great pleasures\u2026where you are backstage decides what you hear, so one of the things I really like is, when I\u2019m changing from Th\u00e9nardier coming out of the sewers into the outfit for the wedding scene, Javert is doing his final soliloquy. Where I am positioned geographically means I am below the brass section in moment. I love how the brass is arranged in that section, so it\u2019s weird things like that.<\/p>\n