Les Misérables Tickets at the Sondheim Theatre

About Les Misérables

A man steals a loaf of bread and serves nineteen years for it as prisoner 24601. His name is Jean Valjean, and he spends the rest of his life doing good, but being hunted by the policeman who will not let it go. Around him are a factory worker driven into prostitution to pay for her child, the daughter he raises as his own, and a group of students who build a barricade across a Paris street and hold it as long as they can.

The musical is sung from beginning to end, with no spoken dialogue, and the legendary score is why it has run for forty years. "I Dreamed a Dream", "On My Own", "Bring Him Home", "Do You Hear the People Sing". Most people arrive knowing three or four of them without even knowing they are from the show.

Adapted from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, who went on to write Miss Saigon, with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. It opened at the Barbican on 8 October 1985, moved to the Palace Theatre that December, and has been at this theatre since 2004.

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Who Is Les Misérables Best For?

• Anyone who wants the big one. If you are choosing a single West End musical and want scale, this is the one of few shows that define the West End.
• People who like a proper story. It is a chase, a redemption and a doomed rebellion, and it does not condescend.
• Families with children of 7 and up. Officially 7+, and plenty of younger teenagers count it as the show that got them into theatre.
• First-time theatregoers. The score is the most recognisable in musical theatre, and you will know more of it than you think.
• Not for you if you want jokes and light relief. There are light moments, mostly from the Thénardiers, but this is a show about poverty, prison and death.

Performance Schedule

Approximately 2 hours 50 minutes, including a 15-minute interval.

Les Misérables plays on Monday nights, which most West End musicals do not, and there is no Sunday performance. Matinees are on Thursday and Saturday.

Currently booking to 2 October 2027.

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Things People Get Wrong About Les Misérables

Four decades in and these still come up more than anything else.

Andrew Lloyd Webber did not write it. The music is Claude-Michel Schönberg's and the original French lyrics and concept are Alain Boublil's, with Herbert Kretzmer writing the English lyrics. It is an easy mistake because Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh worked together on other shows, but Mackintosh is the producer here, not the composer.

It is not about the French Revolution. The barricades are the June Rebellion of 1832, a failed anti-monarchist uprising, more than forty years after 1789. A poll taken during the original Broadway run found that most theatregoers thought they had watched the French Revolution.

It is sung-through. There is effectively no spoken dialogue from beginning to end. If you have only seen musicals where songs punctuate a script, this is a different experience.

Where to Sit

The Sondheim has three levels: Stalls, Dress Circle and Grand Circle.

• Central Stalls for the best of it. It is a big Stalls, so avoid going too far back if you can.
• Dress Circle, front and centre for the whole stage in one view.
• Grand Circle is the value, and the front rows of it are the ones to aim for.
• Ends of rows are cheaper on every level, and that is the simplest way to spend less here.

Full level-by-level detail, the stair counts and the restricted seats are in our Sondheim Theatre guide.

Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will talk you through it.