• For a lead role - Preparation of a song that demonstrates your vocal capabilities. Provide a backing track or sheet music. (A pianist will be available at the audition). You don't have to sing a song from Les Miserables.
• The entire show is sung, with one exception in the first act
  Foreman: “Right my girl, on your way”
  Consequently there will be no script reading at the audition.
• There are no dance numbers as such, so there will be no dance audition.
• We would prefer potential Ensemble members to book an audition so vocal capabilities can be assessed (a prepared song is not necessary). There are many other singing parts besides the leads listed below that we have to cast. If you are nervous about an audition, please contact one of the production team to discuss what is involved. If you are a newcomer to BMSI we could arrange group auditions or something similar.
• There are roles for three children, the street urchin Gavroche, the young Cossette and the young Eponine. Gavroche and Cossette have solo songs to sing. It's possible we may have Cossette and Eponine share the roles.

The stage is of a finite size so if we are oversubscribed we may have to limit numbers.

Please contact Andrew or Sally Cousins to book an audition.

Audition Dates

Here are the audition dates. You should allow about 10 minutes for an audition.

Thursday 11 December Balcony Room 7.30pm – 10.00pm
Saturday 13 December Auditorium 11am - 5pm
Sunday 14 December Auditorium 11am - 5pm

As mentioned above, Les Miserables is all sung and there are many solo lines to cast so we would like to hear everyone's voices even if you are only interested in the chorus. Please talk to one of the production team if you are apprehensive about auditions.

Les Miserables – The Characters

These are most of the named characters. There are many more un-named characters, both male and female, that have as much, or more, solo singing to do than the named characters.

eg: Chain Gang, Warders, Constables, The Poor, Factory Workers, Sailors, Whores, Pimps, Drinkers, Wedding Guests etc.

Jean Valjean: (Tenor) He is the hero of the show. It is his life journey that we follow. Valjean is supposed to be stronger than other men, and so physically should appear robust. He should reasonably carry himself as mature and paternal. The key to his character is his great humility and compassion.

Javert: (Baritone) He is the inspector who serves as antagonist to Valjean. Javert is unswerving in his belief that men cannot change for the good. “Once a thief, always a thief” is his mantra. At first glance Javert might appear to be the villain of the story, but on closer examination it is clear that he is not an evil man. He is aware that in society some people achieve control through evil and others through the power of the law. He is a dedicated policeman, with a profound sense of duty. Unlike Valjean he cannot change. His attitudes are rigid and unmovable. He is stern, forbidding and lacking in compassion.

Bishop of Digne: (Baritone) The Bishop is a good man who saves Valjean with his compassion. He literally buys Valjean’s soul for God. The Bishop only appears in the prologue so he would then become one of the ensemble for the remainder of the show.

Fantine: (Mezzo) She is the beautiful young girl who, abandoned by her lover, is left to fend for herself and her daughter Cosette. She is rejected by society and forced though circumstances to become a prostitute. She is a brave woman defeated by life, sustained by her love for her daughter and clinging to her dignity. Sick with consumption, we witness her descent through poverty, hunger, cold, loneliness and destitution to death. She is a noble character, whose life becomes a series of terrible events that rob her of her pride, character and ultimately her life.

Foreman: (Baritone) He starts Fantine on her downward spiral of desperation. He should be virile, commanding and a bit sleazy around the edges.

Bamatabois: (Baritone) He is the “customer” who taunts Fantine into violence. He is dressed in expensive clothes. He is a wealthy dissolute young man who thinks of himself as a gentleman. He is drunk and in a sadistic mood and chauvinistically feels it is his right to buy anything, even Fantine.

Young Cosette: (Mezzo) She is the child of Fantine. She is also the ward of the Thenardiers forced into child labour. She is a trembling little creature, underfed, beaten by Madame Thenardier and bullied by Eponine.

Madame Thenardier: (Mezzo) She is the wife of Thenardier. Together they con the world as partners in crime. She is course and vulgar, unhappy in her existence without knowing why. She is romantic, greedy, stupid, evil and larger than life. She is mean and nasty to Cosette and able to improvise in nearly any situation.

Thenardier: (Baritone) He is the true villain of the show. He is the embodiment of evil. He should also possess a wicked sense of humour. He delights in cheating, robbing, fraud and blackmail, relishing every aspect of them with glee. He is tough, greedy, brutal, stupid and crafty yet irresistible. He hates society and blames it and everyone else for all his misfortune. He is also the opportunist and realist of the show. He is a thief, a liar; a cheat steals valuables from the dead with no remorse. He is also the comic relief of the show however his comedy is based in reality and shouldn’t be too exaggerated.

Young Eponine: Little Eponine is the pampered daughter of the Thenardiers. She does little except enter the stage and taunt Little Cosette.

Gavroche: (Treble) A young street urchin. He is left to fend for himself and lives by his wits in the streets of Paris. He is brave and witty.

Eponine: (Mezzo) She is a young girl who is streetwise and tough, but also sensitive and lonely. She is in love with Marius, knowing that he will never love her. She bravely follows Marius to the Barricades in hope that they will die there together. Once grown up, Eponine moves with her family to Paris where they fall on hard times. Now poor, living hand to mouth, she survives by helping her father break the law. She is a tragic character.

Enjolras: (High Baritone/Tenor) He is the student leader. He is handsome, brave and daring, although youthful. He combines his revolutionary ideals with strong charismatic leadership. He is a thinker and a man of action. He should ooze with charisma.

Marius: (High Baritone/Tenor) He is the handsome romantic hero of the story. He is impulsive, passionate, willful and headstrong. His moods change according to his circumstances. He is sweet and tender but also capable of great courage and compassion. He matures after the Café Song as a result of his experiences on the Barricade.

Cosette: (Soprano) She is the beautiful daughter of Fantine. She is strong willed and loving. She is an intelligent, inquiring, personable girl. Once “adopted” by Valjean, she lives a comfortable but secluded life. She is challenging towards Valjean, behaving always with imagination and dignity. She falls instantly in love with Marius, changing her world and her priorities.

Thenardier's Gang: (Baritone/Tenors) Would all be part of the ensemble when not attempting/planning to break into Valjeans house.
Brujon, Babet, Claquesous, Montparnasse

Students: (Baritones/Tenors)
Combeferre, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Joly, Prouvaire, Lesgles, Grantaire

Les Miserables – The Story

PROLOGUE: 1815, DIGNE

Jean Valjean, released on parole, by the policeman Javert, after 19 years on the chain gang, finds that the yellow ticket-of-leave he must by law display, condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean, embittered by years of hardship, repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by police, and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him, also giving him two precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew.

1823, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER

Eight years have passed and Valjean, having broken his parole and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, has risen to become both a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this, they demand her dismissal. The foreman, whose advances she has rejected, throws her out.

Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter, Fantine sells her locket, her hair, and then joins the whores in selling herself. Utterly degraded by her new trade she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be take to prison by Javert when "The Mayor" arrives and demands she be taken to a hospital instead.

The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601 (Jean Valjean), a parole-breaker whom he has been tracking for years, but who, he says has just been recaptured. Valjean, unable to see an innocent man go to prison in his place, confesses to the court that he is prisoner 24601.

At the hospital Valjean promises the dying Fantine to find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him, but Valjean escapes.

1823, MONTFERMEIL

Cosette has been lodged for five years with the Thénardiers who run an inn, horribly abusing the little girl whom they use as a skivvy while indulging their own daughter, Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching water in the dark. He pays the Thénardiers to let him take Cosette away and takes her to Paris. But Javert is still on his trail.

1832, PARIS

Nine years later there is great unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque, the only man left in the Government who shows any feeling for the poor. The urchin Gavroche is in his element mixing with the whores and the beggars of the capital. Among the street-gangs is one led by Thénardier and his wife, which sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert, who does not recognize Valjean until after he has made good his escape. The Thénardiers' daughter Eponine, who is secretly in love with the student Marius, reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette, with whom he has fallen in love.

At a political meeting in a small café, a group of idealistic students prepare for the revolution they are sure will erupt on the death of General Lamarque. When Gavroche brings the news of the General's death, the students, led by Enjolras, stream out into the streets to whip up popular support. Only Marius is distracted by the thoughts of the mysterious Cosette.

Cosette is consumed by the thoughts of Marius, with whom she has fallen in love. Valjean realizes that his 'daughter" is changing very quickly but refuses to tell her anything of her past. In spite of her own feelings for Marius, Eponine sadly brings him to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father's gang to rob Valjean's house. Valjean, convinced it was Javert who was lurking outside his house, tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country. On the eve of the revolution the students and Javert see the situation from their different viewpoints; Cosette and Marius part in despair of ever meeting again; Eponine mourns the loss of Marius; and Valjean looks forward to the security of exile. The Thénardiers, meanwhile, dream of rich pickings underground from the chaos to come.

The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius, noticing that Eponine has joined the insurrection, sends her with a letter to Cosette, which is intercepted at the Rue Plumet by Valjean. Eponine decides, despite what he has said to her, to rejoin Marius at the barricade.

The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning that they must give up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade Eponine is shot and killed. Valjean arrives at the barricade in search of Marius. He is given the chance to kill Javert, but instead lets him go.

The students settle down for a night on the barricade and, in the quiet of the night, Valjean prays to God to save Marius from the onslaught which is to come. The next day, with ammunition running low, Gavroche runs out to collect more and is shot. The rebels are all killed, including their leader, Enjolras.

Valjean escapes into the sewers with the unconscious Marius. After meeting Thénardier, who is robbing the corpses of the rebels, he emerges into the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to a hospital. Javert decides to let him go and, his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean's own mercy, he commots suicide by throwing himself into the swollen River Seine.

Unaware of the identity of his rescuer, Marius recovers in Cosette's care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius and insists that after the young couple are married, he must go away rather than taint the sanctity and safety of their union. At Marius and Cosette's wedding the Thénardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thénardier says Cosette's "father" is a murderer and, as proof, produces a ring which he stole from the corpse in the sewers the night the barricades fell. It is Marius' own ring, and he realizes it was Valjean who rescued him that night. He and Cosette go to Valjean, where Cosette learns for the first time of her own history before the old man dies, joining the spirits of Fantine, Eponine, and all those who died on the barricades.