Les Mis London Review | Going Strong at 41 Years

Worth it? This Les Mis London Review says, Absolutely!

This Les Mis London review comes from someone who has seen the show more than a dozen times, in San Francisco, New York and here in the West End. It has never once disappointed.

In October of 2026, my wife and I stood on Shaftesbury Avenue with the red flag blazing above the Sondheim Theatre’s marquee and the crowd spilling across the street.

Whenever I’m in London I make a point of coming back. It was a big theatre week for us: we’d seen Oliver!, Sinatra the Musical and Mamma Mia! a few nights earlier, but Les Mis is always the main event.

Before you go in, take a cue from the show’s opening number and look down. A bronze plaque set into the pavement reads “Opened 8 October 1985. The World’s Longest Running Musical.” That’s 41 years and counting.

The Sondheim Theatre Experience

We paid £110 per ticket for Row L, seats 5 and 6, in the stalls, and they were great seats for the price. We were just a couple of rows from the start of the overhang, but the view wasn’t blocked at all.

Security and Bag Checks

Security was very tight. Bags were gone through meticulously, and no outside drinks were allowed, so arrive with time to spare.

A London Tradition at Intermission

At the intermission, the ice cream sellers come down the aisles with their trays. Hot or cold outside, Brits love their theatre ice cream. Ours were £4 Marshfield Farm tubs: plant-based salted caramel with the little wooden spoon tucked under the lid.

Running Time and Staging

Curtain went up at 7:30pm, with the interval around 9pm and final bows at about 10:30pm. Three hours flew by, as they always do with this score. The projected backdrops, inspired by Victor Hugo’s own paintings, were great and added real atmosphere and realism to the story.

Why Valjean’s Story Still Hits Home

What gets me every time is how it all begins. Jean Valjean stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving child and he paid for it with 19 years in prison. Five years were for the bread and the rest were for trying to escape. That was France in the early 1800s: a country where the poor went hungry and the law showed them no mercy.

The barricade scenes are set during the June Rebellion of 1832, when young students rose up in a Paris struggling with poverty, hunger and a cholera epidemic. Nearly two centuries later, the story still feels close to home. In October 2026, hundreds of thousands of people marched across France over the rising cost of living, including in the streets of Paris. The details are different, but the feeling is familiar: when ordinary people can’t make ends meet and feel no one is listening, they make themselves heard. Victor Hugo understood that in 1862, and it’s a big part of why this show still lands so hard today.

My Favorite Les Mis Songs

Every fan has their favorites, and mine haven’t changed.

“Do You Hear the People Sing?” is the anthem of the whole show. The students call ordinary people to rise up and be heard. It has become a real-life protest song around the world and given everything happening in France right now, it hit differently this time.

“One Day More” closes Act One by weaving every character’s story into one huge, rising wave of sound: lovers parting, rebels preparing, Javert plotting, the Thénardiers scheming. It’s the moment the whole audience sits forward, and it’s the best Act One finale in musical theatre.

Both songs are driven by Enjolras, which is why a great Enjolras matters so much, and why Joe Griffiths-Brown impressed me.

Then there’s “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” After the barricade falls, Marius returns to the café where his friends once planned their revolution. The ghosts of the fallen students appear, and one by one each picks up a candle and fades away. Those flickering lights stand for young men who died far too young, fighting for a better life they never got to see. It gets me every time, and Thiago Phillip Felizardo sang it with real grief.

The Finale Still Gets Me

And yes, the tears flowed, as they always do. I know exactly how it ends, and the epilogue still undoes me every time.

Valjean, old and frail, waits for death in a convent. Fantine’s spirit comes to him with the promise of forgiveness he has spent his whole life chasing. Cosette and Marius arrive just in time to say goodbye, and he finally tells her the truth about his past and about her mother. Then Fantine and Éponine guide him home, and he dies at peace. The whole company returns for the reprise of “Do You Hear the People Sing?”, with the fallen students and the living standing together in a vision of hope.

It’s a man who was once prisoner 24601 being welcomed into grace, and it gets me every single time. The theatre was full of sniffles, and I wasn’t the only one reaching for a tissue.

Les Misérables London Cast

As far as we could tell, the full principal cast was on, and it showed.

Valjean and Javert

Ian McIntosh (Valjean) and Oliver Savile (Javert) were excellent. What more is there to say? They’re some of the best we’ve seen in these roles, and that’s high praise from someone who has seen Ramin Karimloo as Valjean.

Joe Griffiths-Brown as Enjolras

Joe Griffiths-Brown was superb as Enjolras. The last time I saw someone truly own both the singing and the presence this role demands was Kyle Scatliffe on Broadway more than ten years ago. Griffiths-Brown is right up there with him. He led “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and the barricade scenes with the kind of fire that makes you want to grab a flag and join them.

Breakout Newcomers

Marius and Cosette

The real story of the night was the newcomers. Thiago Phillip Felizardo may be new to the professional stage, but he knocked it out of the park as Marius. His acting and singing were exactly right for the part. Lucia McLaughlin was fantastic as Cosette. Big shoutouts to both of them; they’re names to watch.

Stefanie Jones as Fantine

For me, Anne Hathaway set the gold standard for “I Dreamed a Dream” in the 2012 film. It won her an Oscar, and I’ve measured every Fantine against it since. Stefanie Jones handled the song magnificently. She didn’t try to copy anyone. She made it her own, and it felt like she sang it straight from her heart. The theatre went completely still, and I felt every word. When the applause finally came, it came in a wave. It’s easy to see why she was a star in Australia and while not a newcomer to the stage, this is her West End debut.

There’s a nice full-circle story here too: her very first professional job, as a child, was Young Éponine in the Australian Les Mis tour. At the curtain call, she and this production’s Éponine turned to applaud each other.

The Thénardiers

The Thénardiers were good, as they always are, and they milked their curtain call shamelessly, which is exactly as it should be. But ever since we saw Cliff Saunders on Broadway, the bar for that role has been very high.

Where to Eat Before and After the Show

With a 10:30pm finish and a flight to catch the next day, we skipped a late dinner. Instead we had snacks and drinks at our hotel before the show. Afterwards, on the easy 20-minute walk back to the Sheraton, we stopped at a Tesco for sandwiches and Cadbury chocolate. If you have more time, there’s a Bella Italia nearby; we ate there after Oliver! and it’s an easy, relaxed post-show option.

Tips for Seeing Les Mis in London

• Book direct. Use the official show website, london.lesmis.com. Its “Book now” button takes you to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, which owns the Sondheim. Third-party sites that call themselves “official” can mark prices up significantly.
• Getting there. The Sondheim Theatre is at 51 Shaftesbury Avenue. Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square Tube stations are a few minutes’ walk away.
• Showtimes. Monday to Saturday at 7:30pm, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2:30pm.
• Running time. The official figure is 2 hours 50 minutes including a 15-minute interval. Allow for bows and plan on about 10:30pm for an evening show.
• Age guidance. The show is recommended for ages 7 and up, and children under 5 aren’t admitted.
• Arrive early. Bag checks are thorough, and no outside drinks are allowed.
• Bring tissues. Trust me.

The Verdict

If you’re in London, go. After more than a dozen viewings, my Les Mis London review comes down to one line: it remains the gold standard of the West End.