Les Miserables
North West Les Miserables - Amateur Premier

Les Miserables

03/07/25 - 05/07/25

Meet the companies flying the flag for amateur theatre across the North West! 

We’re excited to announce that Liverpool Empire Creative Learning will co-produce with Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust and collaborate with Romily Operatoc Society from Stockport and Tip Top Productions to bring an amateur production of worldwide phenomenon Les Misérables to the North West!
 
This is the first time in 40 years of Les Misérables that amateur companies have been invited to present their own staging of the show, which will perform across the UK, including right here in Liverpool in 2025!
 
“Tip Top Productions are thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside these prestigious companies on this landmark event. This is a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our members, and we are excited to build what we’re sure will be a strong and fruitful partnership between our organisations,” says Tip Top Chair, Steve Davies.

Review - Let The People Sing! Les Misérables – Liverpool Empire

In 2025, Les Misérables, the world-famous Cameron Mackintosh musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel, celebrates its 40th anniversary. To mark this Ruby Anniversary, eleven amateur theatre groups across the UK were invited to stage their own productions, bringing the musical to life in their local communities.

This is the first time in four decades that Les Misérables has been licensed for production by amateur theatre groups in the UK, and what a wonderful job they did for this project at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Alongside Liverpool Empire Creative Learning, BOST Musicals, Romily Operatic Society and Tip Top Productions put on a truly professional performance at the Empire Theatre. It was better than some of the touring theatre shows I’ve seen, and the talent on display would not be out of place on a West End stage. As soon as the orchestra struck up under the direction of Paul Lawton the audience knew they were in for something special.

Set in an early 1800s France, Les Misérables tells the story of an ex-convict Jean Valjean and his journey of redemption, whilst being hunted by the single-minded police inspector Javert. He eventually becomes wealthy and adopts an orphan child, and she then falls in love with the student Marius who is involved in an attempted revolution in Paris. Act One spans several decades, introducing all the characters and telling the story of Fantine’s downfall, that leaves her daughter Cosette in Valjean’s care.

The entire second act, which covers the attempted rebellion and the resulting deaths of several characters, was an emotional rollercoaster. It began with “On My Own” and “A Little Fall of Rain”, both of which brought tears to my eyes. The rest of the numbers produced a lump in the throat, and by the time the show finished, there was not a dry eye in the house. It is difficult to pick out one memorable song as most of them were simply terrific.

Gareth Smith’s portrayal of the lead character Jean Valjean was particularly impressive and worthy of a place in the West End especially when singing ‘Bring Him Home’, whilst Linzi Stefanov as Fantine rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ was simply perfect. Other standout performances included Gary Jones as Javert with the impressive ‘Stars’. Monsieur and Madame Thénardier played by Michael Pearson and Lou Steggals provided the cheeky comedy with Master of the House and star of the future Brodie Gene Robson was the perfect confident, cheeky French urchin, Gavroche.

The staging and lighting were expertly done and worthy of a professional performance, with versatile set pieces that transformed from one building to another. Of course, the infamous barricade made its appearance in the second act. The costumes were fantastic throughout the show, helping to beautifully illustrate Fantine’s fall from grace and Valjean’s rise from convict to wealthy gentleman.

Les Misérables is arguably one of the best musicals of all time. It’s filled with brilliant and emotional songs, including “One Day More,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “On My Own,” and “Bring Him Home.” Comedy was provided by the amusing “Master of the House.” The timeless story of love, redemption, and conflict never fails to touch audiences around the world. Following in the footsteps of some massive West End names the cast, Liverpool Empire Creative Learning, BOST Musicals, Romily Operatic Society and Tip Top Productions have truly done themselves proud in putting on such a notable show.

Reviewer: Kevin Eccleston

Reviewed: 4th July 2025

 

Review - Arts City, Liverpooll

September 1985. The wreck of the Titanic was discovered, England regained the Ashes, there was rioting in Handsworth and Brixton – and a new musical opened at London’s Barbican.

Reviewers were, in the main, unimpressed with Les Misérables. In fact, so brutal were some that industry bible The Stage – itself hugely enthusiastic about the show - was prompted to pen a searching editorial under the headline ‘the unpopularity of popular shows among the critics’.
 
But on the ground, Les Mis enjoyed packed houses and standing ovations, soon transferring to the West End proper where, give or take a few months of pandemic shutdown, it has remained for the past 40 years while going on to conquer Broadway and the world.
 
And as the French would say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
 
Because four decades on, Les Mis still attracts full houses and standing ovations – including at the Liverpool Empire this week where the first ever full-length amateur production in the northwest of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s behemoth was staged as part of the musical’s wider ruby anniversary celebrations. With Cameron Macintosh’s blessing, and the backing of licensing agency Music Theatre International, 11 amateur productions are rolling out across the UK this summer.
 

Here in Liverpool, Les Mis has been brought to the stage by a four-way partnership of the Empire’s creative learning team, BOST, Romiley Operatic (based in Stockport) and Tip Top Productions from just across the border in Wrexham.

  

Photos by Brian Roberts. 

Quite the challenge, but quite the triumph too, and one they should all be extremely proud of.

With a 16-strong live orchestra in the pit and not one but two huge casts - drawn from across the production partners - alternating over the four-performance run, director James Lacey-Kiggins certainly had a lot of elements to marshal into a cohesive whole.
 

But he and the wider creative team achieved it in magnificent fashion, with Lacey-Kiggins (a force of nature) also seemingly finding time to have a hand in the set, wig and costume design.

 

The achievement is even more impressive when you consider the performers have other commitments – although some may want to ignore the adage ‘don’t give up the day job’.

 

One is Gareth Smith, dispensing optician in civvy street but a commanding presence – both physically and vocally – as Jean Valjean over all four performances at the Empire.

 

Smith channelled both power and real poignancy into a performance of Bring Him Home which reduced the Empire auditorium to pin-drop quietness.

 

He was perfectly matched by Liverpool Theatre School-trained Gary Jones (of Romiley Opera), also bestriding the four performances as Valjean’s dogged nemesis Javert. Being the baddie can be a bit of a thankless task, but Jones – apart from owning a beautifully resonant singing voice – also shone a light on the law enforcer’s fatal moral confusion.

 
 

In fact, there wasn’t a weak link in the cast I saw (Saturday matinee's Team Victor) with significant musical talent in evidence both from the soloists and in the work’s rich and rousing ensemble numbers, including Do You Hear the People Sing? and One Day More.

Les Mis is, perhaps inevitably, a testosterone heavy affair, its few female characters treading – in the grand traditions of Victorian literature - the path of noble poor, prostitute or paragon on a pedestal.
 

Happily, like the devil, they also get some of the best tunes, with Jennifer Swanepoel as the tragic Fantine delivering a bravura performance of I Dreamed a Dream and Isabel Cosgrove tugging at the heartstrings with On My Own and A Little Fall of Rain, while Liverpool Empire Youth Theatre alumnus Annie Howarth showcased the sweetest of singing voices as Cosette.

Back in the sweeping story’s wider landscape, there was much to savour in the bantering ensemble of the idealistic young student revolutionaries – led by Will Goodwin’s Enjolras and with a fine-voiced Connor J Ryan as Marius, the sparky confidence of young Brodie Gene Robson as Gavroche, and the joyful partnership of Tony Prince and Beverley Ann Ross as the Thénardiers.
 

They threatened to pickpocket the show with Master of the House, presented as a delicious Hogarthian tableaux of winking bon vivant-ism, and later as painted grotesques as Beggars at the Feast, but Prince (an erstwhile Fagin, Sweeney Todd and Pontius Pilate for BOST) can also do dark and sinister too as he showed lurking in the shadowy corners of Paris's streets and sewers.

Amateur in name but professional in all other respects, this stirring production of Les Mis highlights why Macintosh was right when he decided to 'Let the People Sing'. Even if they had to wait 40 years to do it.