New cast members announced for West End’s Les Misérables

[top] Dean Chisnall, Josh Piterman; [middle] Stewart Clarke, Lucie Jones; [bottom] Claire Machin, Harry Chandler

Currently reprising his acclaimed performance as The Phantom in his home country, Australian musical theatre star and classical cross-over artist Josh Piterman (The Phantom of the Opera, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Hairspray, UK tour) will return to the West End to take on the role of Jean Valjean. The new Javert will be Stewart Clarke, an Olivier Award-nominee for Fiddler on the Roof at the Playhouse Theatre. Clarke recently played Ernst Ludwig in the original cast of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.

Following on from her WhatsOnStage award-winning stint as Elphaba in Wicked at the Victoria Palace, Lucie Jones (Waitress, Adelphi Theatre) will return as Fantine, the part she previously played in the Les Misérables Staged Concert. Jones also played Cosette in the original production of Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre.

Olivier Award nominee Claire Machin (Girls The Musical, Phoenix Theatre, Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre) will take over as Madame Thénardier while Harry Chandler will make his West End debut as Enjoiras after playing Feuilly in the UK and Ireland touring production.

The newcomers will join Gerard Carey as Thénardier, Robert Tripolino as Marius, Nathania Ong Nathania Ong as Éponine and Lulu-Mae Pears as Cosette.

Prior to the arrival of the new principals, Dean Chisnall will return to London to play the role of Jean Valjean for a strictly limited season fom 28 February to 25 March, following the completion of the UK and Ireland tour.

The company also includes Hazel Baldwin, Brad Barnley, Emma Barr, Will Barratt, Cameron Burt, Natalie Chua, Matthew Dale, Matt Dempsey, Bryony Duncan, Louis Emmanuel, Sophie-May Feek, Melad Hamidi, Harry Jack, Christopher Jacobsen, Will Jennings, Benjamin Karran, Yazmin King, Bart Lambert, Sarah Lark, Adam Robert Lewis, Georgie Lovatt, Ellie Ann Lowe, Donald Craig Manuel, Jodie Nolan, Sam Peggs, Jo Stephenson, Phoebe Williams and Ollie Wray.

First conceived by Mackintosh in 2009 to celebrate the musical’s 25th anniversary, the acclaimed production is currently booking up to 30 September. The UK and Ireland tour recently concluded its acclaimed run and the record-breaking tour of North America relaunched in 2022. A new tour of The Netherlands and Belgium opens in March at the Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam.

The original 1985 production of Les Misérables took its final bow at the Queen’s Theatre (now the Sondheim Theatre) on 13 July 2019 when the theatre closed to allow for major refurbishing work including the restoration of architect W.G. Sprague’s original boxes and loges, which were destroyed, along with the entire front of house, by a bomb in 1940.

The star-studded concert version of Les Misérables initially played to packed houses at the Gielgud Theatre in 2019 while the much-loved show’s original home next door, the Queen’s Theatre, was closed for refurbishment ahead of its reopening as the Sondheim Theatre.

Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Misérables is written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and original French text by Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel with additional material by James Fenton and adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

Orchestrations are by Stephen Metcalfe, Christopher Jahnke and Stephen Brooker with original orchestrations by John Cameron. The production is directed by James Powell and Laurence Connor, designed by Matt Kinley (inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo) with costumes by Andreane Neofitou and Christine Rowland, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter, projections realised by Finn Ross and Fifty Nine Productions, musical staging by Geoffrey Garratt, and music supervision by Stephen Brooker and Alfonso Casado Trigo.

Angela Thomas