What do Les Mis and Star Wars have in common? Lasers. Believe it or not, the self-proclaimed Spectacular (now at Radio City Music Hall) subs swooshy red neon light beams for booming muskets in pivotal barricade battle scenes. The story may take place in the early 19th century, but this Les Mis is definitely made for the 21st.
This concert-style rendition of everyone’s favorite French Revolution–adjacent megamusical dispenses with nearly all the usual props, save for the most memorable: the silver candlesticks gifted to ex-con Jean Valjean (Alfie Boe) by the kindly Bishop of Digne (Australian leading man and three-time Olivier Award winner Philip Quast, receiving a hearty round of applause upon entrance); the yellow parole paper that Valjean defiantly tears into pieces when he decides that “another story must begin”; the giant red flag flown during the last few bars of the rousing Act 1 ender, “One Day More.” And apart from a few staircases, there’s no real set to speak of—leaving room for the cast of 41 (!) to remain onstage for the show’s entirety, and to literally platform the 26-piece orchestra.
So don’t expect a turntable. The runaway cart is also excised; that quickie scene happens on one of the massive video screens atop the Radio City stage. There’s not even a song list in the program. But if you’re here, you probably know every Boublil-Schönberg-Kretzmer number by heart. Perhaps you’ve seen the show in London, where it’s been running since 1985; during its 16-year Broadway run, or in one of the two Broadway revivals; on one of the national or international tours. And then there are the West End anniversary concerts that, thankfully for fans, end up airing over and over on PBS, where you might have caught any number of famous faces in a variety of roles: Boe as Valjean; original London and Broadway star Colm Wilkinson as Valjean; Nick Jonas as lovestruck student insurrectionist Marius; Lea Salonga as starry-eyed street urchin Éponine, and later as Fantine, a factory worker fallen on hard times; Quast as Javert, the policeman who’s singularly obsessed with Valjean; Samantha Barks as Éponine (she’d also play the role in Tom Hooper’s zoom-heavy 2012 film); Bradley Jaden as the anti-monarchist rebel leader Enjolras.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Now, Boe is back—alternating with Killian Donnelly and Gerónimo Rauch—in what’s become his signature role, breaking hearts as the bread thief–turned–do-gooder Jean Valjean; his soaring second-act ballad “Bring Him Home” is almost something sacred. Like Salonga before her, Barks has moved on to playing Fantine, who sells everything she owns—her jewelry, her hair, and then her body—to pay for her daughter’s care…but not before belting out one of the show’s standalone hits, “I Dreamed a Dream,” which Barks does flawlessly. (Side note: She’s wearing perhaps the best short choppy wig I’ve ever seen on any Fantine.) And Jaden, alternating with Jeremy Secomb, is now starring as Javert, imbuing the role of the hard-hearted inspector with a heretofore unseen intensity—and earning two standing ovations along the way.
If you’re worried about seeing Les Mis in the ludicrously capacious Radio City, well, remember those video screens? There are a number of them, and they move in from multiple angles—very valuable during Jaden’s triumphant “Stars,” or when Christian Mark Gibbs, as Enjolras, rallies his fellow revolutionaries in the now-celebrated anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?” (They’re less effective during Éponine’s famous “On My Own,” when Shan Ako adopts a look of deep concern throughout the entire weepy power ballad.)
Visually, the show was bound to get swallowed up in a 6,000-seat house. But acoustically? You couldn’t ask for a better way to hear this glorious score. The sound is, well, as the production says, Spectacular.
Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular opened July 28, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall and runs through Aug. 9. Tickets and information: nyc.lesmis.com
