Les Misérables (West End) — My Review

Date: 31 October 2025
Theatre: Sondheim Theatre (West End) — ~1,100 seats
Seat / Price: Stalls, Row V, Seat 17 — £57
Time: 7:30pm-10:20pm

I’ve seen Les Misérables twice in Japan, so I was keen to experience how the West End version feels on its home turf. It’s the same story, of course, but the house, staging, and performance style change the texture of the evening.

Good Points

🏛 A compact stage that changes the feel

The Sondheim seats around eleven hundred, yet the playing space is compact and the seats feel close. In Japan I often felt the show as a large-scale spectacle; here the proximity nudged it towards straight drama — clearer faces, smaller choices, and a tighter emotional net.

🎭 Acting with real pressure

Across principals, ensemble, and the children, characters felt lived-in. Relationships read cleanly — who wants what, who blocks whom — and that clarity pulled me deeper into the story rather than just the set-pieces.

🎙 Singers who act through the line

Because Les Mis moves on music and dialogue alone, singers must carry weight. Valjean, Javert, and Fantine were standouts: not just volume, but layered feeling — conflict, grief, resolve — inside the tone. That’s what makes the score land as drama, not just melody.

Summary

This performance reminded me how much I enjoy smaller playing distances. With less real estate, the work grows denser: closer eyelines, quicker give-and-take, sharper focus. It made me want to keep refining my craft in London, and to seek out rooms where intimacy is a feature, not a limitation.

That’s it for this one — on to the next.

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