![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/31ea2818966aa15067a3afc32dcf113f53-lesmis-radiocity7.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n The New York cast of Les Mis\u00e9rables: The Arena Concert Spectacular takes their bows in what feels like a three-hour encore for the musical\u2019s unprecedented success.
\n Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel Hinton\n <\/p>\n
This article is featured in Stage Whisperer, Vulture\u2019s weekly newsletter for theater news, gossip, interviews, and more. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n There is probably someone at Radio City Music Hall who has seen Les Mis\u00e9rables more times than I have, but earlier this week, I couldn\u2019t find them. This is, by my soft count, my seventh time seeing the show: I saw Les Mis four times in Chicago (ages 8, 14, 17, and 27), twice in London (ages 20 and 33), and once in New York City at Radio City Music Hall on the opening night for Les Mis\u00e9rables: The Arena Concert Spectacular<\/a> (age REDACTED). While surveying the crowd, I talk to audience members who have mostly seen the show twice \u2014 usually one time Stateside and once on the West End. (One man named David has seen the show three times before but only on the West End.) By some accounts, this would make me some kind of superfan, which I guess is true, but only by the nature of the original Broadway cast recording being one of very few CDs everyone in my family could agree on listening to in the car. It was considered some feat when I was old enough to see the show and not fall asleep during it.<\/p>\n The Arena Concert Spectacular has been touring since 2024, with the Radio City stop serving as its epic conclusion. There is a modest mob of fans trying to get into Radio City at around 6:30 p.m., 30 minutes before the time that we were warned that the show would promptly start. I\u2019m ushered into line behind none other than Bernadette Peters, looking dainty in a short black dress. She ought not be herded around with the civilians taking off their jackets and purses, but she approaches the situation with bemused aplomb. By the time we make it into the venue, the bars are already closing off their lines, and the merch line is relatively wane. They are selling shirts with \u201c24601\u201d and \u201cMiz Rocks!\u201d and not one but three different types of costumed teddy bears, including one wearing Javert\u2019s uniform. Why someone would want a plush Javert, even in bear form, boggles the mind. Inside, I spot Death Becomes Her\u2019s Christopher Sieber a few rows ahead, wearing a very fun pair of pants<\/a>, waving to friends an aisle over. Two rows behind me, I spot a pair of kids \u2014 two tween boys. Their mother says they\u2019ve never seen it. \u201cI think they\u2019ll like the battle,\u201d she muses.<\/p>\n The lights dim, though before the menace of the musical\u2019s opening chord commences, we\u2019re treated to a video montage of Les Mis\u00e9rables across time and space, starting from the West End premiere of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Sch\u00f6nberg\u2019s show into its current worldwide success. There are clips from Family Guy and South Park. A pretaped Hugh Jackman, who played Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper\u2019s 2012 film adaptation, says he wishes he could be there but that he loves being part of the Les Miz family. When the booming brass of \u201cLook Down\u201d kicks in, the cheers are deafening. A woman a few rows ahead of us puts both her arms in the air like she\u2019s on a roller coaster.<\/p>\n What The Arena Concert Spectacular lacks in rotating stage, it more than makes up for in sheer energy, moving with passionate urgency through the show. Samantha Barks, a onetime Eponine of note, returns this time as Fantine, lending the first-act tragic heroine a righteous anger in \u201cI Dreamed a Dream.\u201d Matt Lucas and Marina Prior\u2019s Th\u00e9nardiers are boisterous and charming \u2014 more amiable sleazes than menacing scumbags, if that tracks. If there is a discovery to be had in this particular cast, it\u2019s Bradley Jaden\u2019s take on Javert. Whereas many Javerts opt for \u201ctortured rule-follower\u201d or \u201cconfused company man,\u201d Jaden plays him like a charming psychopath, eyes wide and frightening. During intermission, I heard not one but three different parties discussing Jaden\u2019s performance, put most succinctly as \u201cJavert is eating.\u201d Whereas Killian Donnelly\u2019s Jean Valjean is a portrait of honor, Jaden\u2019s Javert descends into full-blown madness when confronted with a moral code. His take on \u201cJavert\u2019s Suicide\u201d positions the cop as ranting and raving, spit cascading from his mouth. The applause after that particular song was the most raucous and rowdy of the night.<\/p>\n \n Clockwise from top left: Producer Mackintosh welcomed Patti LuPone, the West End\u2019s original Fantine. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonLook at these barricade boys. How could you dream of shooting down their hopes and dreams? Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonChristian Mark Gibbs\u2019s Enjolras was undoubtedly an audience favorite. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonFour Jean Valjeans and one Aaron Tveit, who may yet don \u201c24601\u201d himself. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel Hinton\n <\/p>\n \n Clockwise from top left: Producer Mackintosh welcomed Patti LuPone, the West End\u2019s original Fantine. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonLook at th… more The end of Les Mis\u00e9rables was not the end of the Arena Concert Spectacular, as was forecasted by an oddly score-less set of final bows from the cast. Producer Cameron Mackintosh jogged out onto the stage, thanking those onstage for being a part of the musical\u2019s generational legacy. \u201cGavroches become Enjolras become Javerts. Eponines become Fantines,\u201d he said, beaming, which is to say, this is a musical you grow with.<\/p>\n To prove his point, Mackintosh pointed to a doorway onstage, and out walked Patti LuPone, the West End\u2019s first-ever Fantine, for a rendition of \u201cI Dreamed a Dream\u201d alongside Debbie Gibson, Samantha Barks, Katie Hall, Shan Ako, and Emily Bautista. Mackintosh also then introduced a man he met as a young strapping Australian many years ago \u2014 panicked whispers throughout the crowd wondered if this would be Hugh Jackman, actually here \u2014 before Philip Quast, a legendary Javert, joined Jeremy Secomb and Jaden. There was a gaggle of Eponines doing \u201cOn My Own\u201d followed by a group of Jean Valjeans, and most curiously, Aaron Tveit \u2014 a onetime Enjolras who may yet be Jean Valjean in years to come.<\/p>\n For a grand finale, all the generations of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, innkeepers and students, and cops and robbers joined hands for one final \u201cOne Day More.\u201d It was overwhelming and thrilling \u2014 maybe Les Miz should always have 60 people onstage. Behind me, as we filed out, the younger of the two tween boys was half-asleep, slowly bringing himself up to standing. \u201cYou did good,\u201d his mom told him, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll do better next time.<\/p>\n Sign up for Stage Whisperer<\/p>\n Weekly theater news, delivered a little louder for the people in the back.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Clockwise from top left: Producer Mackintosh welcomed Patti LuPone, the West End\u2019s original Fantine. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonLook at these barricade boys. How could you dream of shooting down their hopes and dreams? Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonChristian Mark Gibbs\u2019s Enjolras was undoubtedly an audience favorite. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel HintonFour Jean Valjeans and one Aaron Tveit, who may yet don \u201c24601\u201d himself. Photo: Jenny Anderson and Laurel Hinton\n <\/p>\n