< Les Misérables (theatre)

Les Misérables (theatre)/YMMV


  • Accidental Innuendo: "Let's give them a screwing they'll never forget!"
  • Adaptation Displacement: The musical.
  • Awesome Music
  • Complete Monster: The Thénardiers are arguably more monsterous in the musical than in the book. In the musical, you get a deeper glimpse into Thénardier's mental state, as he loots Les Amis' bodies (in the book, he did not do this, but he looted his share of corpses, prior). Also, shortly after, despite their daughter's and (perhaps) their son's death, at the barricade, they are completely unphased, and laugh it off. The fact that most of their numbers are humorous might just make it worse.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Thénardier got an uptick in likability thanks to his comic relief song in the musical.
  • Ear Worm:
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Oodles of 'em.
    • A parody of Les Mis featured Éponine lampshading her extreme popularity by singing about how she's the true star.
  • Estrogen Brigade: Enjolras. Marius. Jean Valjean. Javert. Grantaire. In fact, pick a male character, and there is probably a sizeable group of fans who swoon at the mere mention of his name. Specific actors can also get this: notably, Michael Maguire (Enjolras) and Michael Ball (Marius) are probably responsible for quite a bit of the show's initial female fanbase.
  • Foe Yay: Javert's song about his obsession with finding Valjean and bringing him to justice sounds, well, almost exactly like a love song actually.
    • Some of Javert's lines in Confrontation ("There is no place for you to hide. Wherever you may hide away, I swear..") can come of as somewhat Stalker with a Crush-y, and the song ends with both Valjean and Javert singing "I swear to you - I will be there!". Valjean's line is actually directed at Fantine, since he is promising to save her daughter, but a lot of actors have him stare at Javert anyway.
    • And don't forget right before that, Javert's entering line is "Valjean, and last, we see each other plain..."
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • A twofer: Nick Jonas playing Marius instantly makes Éponine the original Jonas Brother fangirl. Nick Jonas playing Marius when he also originally played Gavroche means Éponine has the hots for her brother.
    • There are multiple cases of actors playing different roles in Les Mis so you get this a lot. For example, Hugh Panaro has played both Valjean and Marius, Hans Peter Janssens as Valjean and Javert, Lea Salonga as Éponine and Fantine etc.
    • Not to mention Drew Sarich, who managed to play Grantaire, Enjolras, Javert, AND Valjean... all in a single run of the musical!
    • This video after the casting for the 2012 film was finalized.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "You know NOTHING of Javert!!"
  • Moe:
    • Cosette. In the Anime at least.
    • Cosette is pretty much the definition of Moe in the original story. The animes just crank it Up to Eleven.
  • Painful Rhyme:
    • "Castle on a Cloud" has a painful non-rhyme (that is, the line isn't supposed to rhyme, but manages to sound as if it was supposed to and didn't):

There is a room that's full of toys,
There are a hundred boys and girls.

    • Also, depending on pronunciation, this rhyme can be quite painful:

Little dear, cost us dear
Medicines are expensive, M'sieur

  • Romantic Plot Tumour: "A Heart Full Of Love" is arguably the weakest song in the entire musical. This may be at least partly due to the weaker lyrics in English compared to the original French.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Look at any bad Les Mis fan fiction. There is a fifty fifty chance that it involves Marius realizing Cosette is a "preppy bitch" and dumping her for Éponine, who got better.
  • So Cool It's Awesome: Arm Joe: a game based on the musical. It features Enjolras attacking people by building a barricade on top of them, Cosette throwing Valjean as a weapon, an evil robot clone of Jean Valjean, and Javert shoots firebolts from his fingers.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: While Javert's belief that a criminal can never truly change is extreme, he does have valid reasons to not trust Valjean, who he knows has broken his parole before.
  • Tough Act to Follow: How do you ensure that this trope never applies to you? By writing a musical so good, so famous, and so beloved that its mere existence allows you to write whatever else you damn well please. This is that musical. (In Schonberg and Boublil's case, "whatever else you damn well please" was Miss Saigon, a critical and popular smash hit still known and beloved by most musical theatre fans. Go figure.)
  • The Woobie:
    • Éponine, Fantine, Marius, Cosette and Valjean all have moments.
    • Hell, the entire cast, bar Monsieur and Madame Thénardier. There's a reason you're sobbing by the end.
  • World of Woobie
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