Rediscovering Jean Valjean in 'Les Misérables'

It was a miserable summer. And I mean that in the best way possible. Les Misérables reappeared in two very different forms, both compelling in their own ways. But what I can’t shake after seeing the musical probably half a dozen times over the years is a rediscovery of its central character, Jean Valjean.

Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular lived up to its name. The Radio City Music Hall vocal extravaganza featured the venue’s new Sphere Immersive Sound system. The upgrade captured everything from the intimate breathiness of Eponine’s death in Marius’s arms to the ground-shattering explosions of the 1832 June Rebellion.

But Hudson Valley Shakespeare‘s (HVS) production, staged in its new, intimate outdoor amphitheater, revealed another side of Jean Valjean. The tragic hero sits at the center of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s megamusical, with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

A loaf of bread, a runaway cart, and a Jean Valjean for the ages

Most are familiar with Les Mis’s story arc: Valjean, released after years of imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread for his nephew and subsequent escapes, rebuilds his life under a false identity, destroying the papers that brand him a criminal.

Victor Hugo’s novel and the musical adaptation that came over a century later give us a clear roadmap of Valjean’s character traits. As a respected mayor living under a new name, he rescues a man pinned under a runaway cart—revealing his brute strength to Javert, a police inspector familiar with Valjean’s longstanding arrest warrant. He later takes in Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of Fantine, a factory worker who is dismissed from her job and dies soon after.

The story rides on a singable score that’s been entertaining audiences for decades, but HVS’s production—particularly Josh Young as Jean Valjean—doesn’t sacrifice intellect for emotion.

To say that Young’s performance is transformative will make sense to others like myself, who spent many a late night in the 80s with our Walkmans and cassettes. Young finds his way into the lyrics with the fortitude of a man determined to claw his way out of the circumstances.

When Young’s Valjean sings “Who am I?… How can I ever face my fellow men? How can I ever face myself again?” it becomes an invitation to self-reflection. If you live long enough, you’re bound to have regrets. And that goes for a country as well as an individual.

Young holds that duality—the oppression of a society that thrives on an unjust class system and the sheer will of an individual to rise above it—in a singular voice, with no barricade to hide behind.

Hugo gave Valjean a number. Young gave him a conscience I could hear clear across a Hudson Valley hillside.

Josh Young and Madelyn Sue Merced in "Les Misérables." — Josh Young and Madelyn Sue Merced in “Les Misérables.” Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Editor’s note: Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular played Radio City Music Hall July 23 through Aug. 9, 2026. Hudson Valley Shakespeare’s Les Misérables, directed by Jenn Thompson, played the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center in Garrison, N.Y., Aug. 12 through Sept. 27, 2026.