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Les Misérables (musical)

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Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring — When tomorrow comes...

Les Misérables (1980, French; 1985, English) is a musical play based on the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, with an English-language libretto by Herbert Kretzmer. The show was an immediate hit and went on to became one of the most successful and popular of modern plays in many productions around the world.

Prologue

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The day begins...
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!
  • Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave.
    Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.
    • Chain Gang
  • Never forget the years, the waste.
    Nor forgive them, for what they've done.
    They are the guilty, everyone.

    The day begins...
    And now lets see
    What this new world
    Will do for me!

    • Jean Valjean

Valjean Arrested, Valjean Forgiven

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By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!
Why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?

What Have I Done (Valjean's Soliloquy)

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  • Yet why did I allow that man
    To touch my soul and teach me love?

    He treated me like any other
    He gave me his trust
    He called me brother.
    • Jean Valjean
  • He told me that I have a soul,
    How does he know?
    • Jean Valjean

At The End of The Day

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  • At the end of the day you're another day older
    And that's all you can say for the life of the poor.
    • Workers

I Dreamed A Dream

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And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather.
  • He slept a summer by my side
    He filled my days with endless wonder
    He took my childhood in his stride
    But he was gone when autumn came.
  • And still I dream he'll come to me
    That we will live the years together
    But there are dreams that cannot be
    And there are storms we cannot weather.
    • Fantine

Lovely Ladies

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Who laid hands on this good man here? What's the substance of this brawl?
  • Easy money
    Lying on a bed
    Just as well they never see
    The hate that's in your head

    Don't they know they're making love
    To one already dead!
    • Fantine
  • Tell me quickly what's the story
    Who saw what and why and where
    Let him give a full description
    Let him answer to Javert!
    In this nest of whores and vipers
    Let one speak who saw it all
    Who laid hands on this good man here?
    What's the substance of this brawl?
    • Javert

Who Am I? — The Trial

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If I speak, I am condemned.
If I stay silent, I am damned!
I will sing you lullabyes and wake you in the morning.
  • You have only done your duty.
    It's a minor sin at most.
    All of us have made misjudgments
    You will return Sir to your post.
    • Jean Valjean to Javert
  • If I speak, I am condemned.
    If I stay silent, I am damned!
    • Jean Valjean
  • My soul belongs to God, I know
    I made that bargain long ago
    He gave me hope when hope was gone
    He gave me strength to journey on!
    • Jean Valjean
  • Who am I? Who am I? I'm Jean Valjean! And so, Javert, you see it's true! This man bears no more guilt than you! Who am I? 2 4 6 0 1!
    • Jean Valjean

Fantine's Death

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Valjean, at last
We see each-other plain…
  • Hurry near, another day is dying
    Don't you hear the winter wind is crying
    There's a darkness which comes without a warning
    But I will sing you lullabies and wake you in the morning.
    • Fantine, imagining that she is speaking to Cosette

The Confrontation

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  • Valjean, at last
    We see each-other plain
    M'sieur L'Mayor
    You'll wear a different chain
  • I am warning you, Javert!
    I'm the stronger man by far.
    There is power in me yet.
    My race is not yet run!
  • Valjean
  • You know nothing of Javert
    I was born inside a jail
    I was born with scum like you
    I am from the gutter too!
    • Javert

Castle On A Cloud

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I know a place where no one's lost,
I know a place where no one cries…
  • I know a place where no one's lost,
    I know a place where no one cries,
    Crying at all is not allowed,
    Not in my castle on a cloud.
    • Cosette
  • Madam Thadenier: Still there, Cosette? Your tears will do you no good. I told you fetch some water from the well in the wood.
    Cosette: Please do not send me out alone, not in the darkness on my own —
    Madam Thadenier: (cuts her off) Enough of that! Or I'll forget to be nice! You heard me ask for something and I never ask twice!!

Look Down

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How long before the judgment day?
  • With all the anger in the land
    How long before the judgment day?
    Before we cut the fat ones down to size?
    Before the barricades arise?

Stars

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  • You know your place in the sky
    You hold your course and your aim

    And each in your season
    Returns and returns
    And is always the same
    And if you fall as Lucifer fell
    You fall in flame!
    • Javert

The ABC Cafe — Red And Black

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Red — the blood of angry men! Black — the dark of ages past! Red — a world about to dawn! Black — the night that ends at last!
  • Red — the blood of angry men!
    Black — the dark of ages past!
    Red — a world about to dawn!
    Black — the night that ends at last!
    • Student revolutionaries
  • Who cares about your lonely soul
    We strive toward a larger goal!
    Our little lives don't count at all!

Do You Hear The People Sing

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  • Do you hear the people sing?
    Singing a song of angry men?
    It is the music of a people
    Who will not be slaves again!
    • Enjolras
  • Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance?
    Some will fall and some will live, will you stand up and take your chance?
    The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France!
    • Feuilly

Rue Plumet — In My Life

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  • Valjean: Dear Cosette
    You’re such a lonely child!
    How pensive, how sad you seem to be.
    Believe me, if it were in my power
    I’d fill each passing hour.
    How quiet it must be, I can see,
    With only me for company.

    Cosette: There’s so little I know that I’m longing to know
    Of the child that I was and the time long ago!
    There’s so little you say of the life you have known,
    Why you keep to yourself, why we’re always alone!
    So dark, so dark and deep,
    The secrets that you keep.

    In my life
    I have all that I want
    You are loving and gentle and good.
    But Papa, dear Papa, in your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in a wood.

    Valjean: No more words!
    No more words,
    it’s a time that is dead!
    There are words, that are better unheard, better unsaid!

    Cosette: In my life
    I’m no longer a child
    And I yearn for the truth that you know
    Of the years
    Years ago.

    Valjean: You will learn
    Truth is given by God to us all in our time.
    In our turn.

  • In my life
    She has burst like the music of angels
    The light of the sun
    And my life seems to stop
    As if something is over
    And something has scarcely begun.
    • Marius

One Day More

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We'll be ready for these schoolboys, They will wet themselves with blood!
  • One Day More.
    Another day another destiny.
    This neverending road to Calvary.
    These men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time
    One Day More!
    • Jean Valjean
  • One day more to revolution. We will nip it in the bud!
    We'll be ready for these schoolboys,
    They will wet themselves with blood!
    • Javert
  • Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in Heaven has in store! One more dawn! One more day! One day more!
    • Whole Cast

On My Own

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Without me his world will go on turning
A world that's full of happiness
That I have never known!
  • In the rain
    The pavement shines like silver
    All the lights are misty in the river
    In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
    And all I see is him and me forever and forever
  • I love him
    But every day I'm learning
    All my life I've only been pretending
    Without me his world will go on turning
    A world that's full of happiness
    That I have never known!
    • Éponine

Little People

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We'll fight like twenty armies
And we won't give up
So you'd better run for cover
When the pup grows up!
  • So never kick a dog
    Because he's just a pup
    We'll fight like twenty armies
    And we won't give up
    So you'd better run for cover
    When the pup grows up!

A Little Fall Of Rain

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A little fall of rain
Can hardly hurt me now…
  • Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius
    I don't feel any pain
    A little fall of rain
    Can hardly hurt me now

    You're here, that's all I need to know
    And you will keep me safe
    And you will keep me close
    And rain will make the flowers grow.
    • Éponine

Night Of Anguish

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  • You are wrong, and always have been wrong.
    I'm a man, no worse than any man.
    You are free, and there are no conditions,
    No bargains or petitions.
    There's nothing that I blame you for.
    You've done your duty, nothing more.
    • Valjean to Javert

The Night / Drink With Me

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  • Drink with me to days gone by
    Can it be, you fear to die?
    Will the world remember you when you fall?
    Could it be your death means nothing at all?
    Is your life just one more lie?
    • Grantaire
  • Drink with me to days gone by
    To the life that used to be
    At the shrine of friendship, never say die
    Let the wine of friendship never run dry
    Here's to you and here's to me.
    • Revolutionaries

Bring Him Home

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If I die, let me die
Let him live
Bring him home.
  • You can take
    You can give
    Let him be
    Let him live
    If I die, let me die
    Let him live
    Bring him home.
    • Valjean, of Marius

The Final Battle

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  • Let us die facing our foes, make them bleed while we can!
    • Enjolras
  • Make them pay through the nose, make them pay for every man!
    • Revolutionaries
  • Let others rise to take our place until the earth is FREE!!!!
    • Enjolras

Javert's Suicide

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  • I am the law and the law is not mocked.
  • It is either Valjean or Javert!
  • How can I now allow this man
    To hold dominion over me?
    This desperate man whom I have hunted
    He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.
    I should have perished by his hand
    It was his right.
    It was my right to die as well
    Instead I live... but live in hell.
    • Javert

Turning

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They were schoolboys
Never held a gun...
Fighting for a new world
That would rise up like the sun
Where's that new world now the fighting's done?
  • They were schoolboys
    Never held a gun...
    Fighting for a new world
    That would rise up like the sun.
    Where's that new world now the fighting's done?
    • Crowds

Empty Chairs At Empty Tables

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  • Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me,
    What your sacrifice was for!
    Empty chairs at empty tables
    Where my friends will drink no more...
    • Marius

Valjean's Death

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Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.

Finale

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Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
  • Do you hear the people sing
    Lost in the valley of the night?
    It is 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!

    • Whole Cast
  • They will live again in freedom in the Garden of the Lord!
    They will walk behind the ploughshare. They will push away the sword!
    The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!
    • Whole Cast
  • Will you join in our crusade?
    Who will be strong and stand with me?
    Somewhere beyond the barricade
    Is there a world you long to see?

    Do you hear the people sing?
    Say, do you hear the distant drums?
    It is the future that they bring
    When tomorrow comes...
    Tomorrow comes!
    • Whole Cast
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