Les Misérables (theatre)/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This troper saw it in London's West End and was still sobbing like a hungry, angry baby when getting off the tube at Stonebridge Park.
  • This troper actually doesn't start crying until the instrumental version of "Bring Him Home", where the revolving platform barricade rotates to show all the dead students . . . and then Enjolras on the other side, body draped over the French flag.
    • And Gavroche. Dear God in Heaven, Gavroche...* sob*
  • The "Little People" reprise with Gavroche SCREAMING IN PAIN as he's singing on the Complete Symphonic Recording made This Troper bawl like a baby. He's a 10-year-old boy, for chrissakes!
    • Oh, God, you're not kidding either. This troper uses that when she needs to get all weepy for a show she's in. It never fails to get her bawling.
  • "On My Own." Enough said.
    • That's the one that's best at getting me crying, since I've been in the same love triangle, albeit gender-bent.
  • And its musical partner, "And tell Cosette I love her - and I'll see her when I wake..."
    • Oh my God THAT SCENE. "Your child shall want for nothing..." The actor playing Valjean in the 25th anniversary concert at the o2 brought me to tears with his performance in that scene.
  • Four words: "Little Fall of Rain"
    • "You would live a hundred years if I could show you how: I won't desert you now..."
    • The french lyrics: Mais tu vas vivre, 'Ponine, regarde-moi!: But you are going to live, 'Ponine, look at me! Somehow "look at me" is more poignant than "dear god above," as if she's slipping away before his very eyes
      • And the ending of that song:

Éponine: "And rain..."
Marius: "And rain..."
Éponine: "Will make the flowers..."
Marius: "Will make the flowers..."
<Beat>
Marius: "... grow."

    • In the revival, the ending is so heartbreaking, because Éponine goes in for a kiss, and dies just before she reaches Marius' lips.
  • And four more: "My friends, my friends..."
    • "Here they sang about tomorrow... and tomorrow never came..." ...* sob*
    • This song is often performed as a tribute to AIDS victims. Which makes it even more wrenching.
    • When the ghosts of Enjolras and the other students come out to stand around Marius as he sings "Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me...", and when they leave and Enjolras gives Marius (and the audience) one last look before departing.
    • "Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me/What your sacrifice was for..." and the accompanying crescendo... *weeps*
  • Oddly enough this troper made it through the full stage version without a tear drop and then lost it completely when, years later, she saw a musical review that included "Do you hear the people sing" combined with barricades splitting apart to show people marching up from a bottom-lit, fog-enshrouded trap door. Beautiful.
  • "To love another person is to see the face of God." * snif*
  • This Troper hasn't even seen it yet, and listening to the soundtrack brings tears.
  • This Troper worked on the crew at a production and cried every night through a two week run.
  • "Did you see them lying where they died? Someone used to cradle them and kiss them when they cried. Did you see them lying side by side?"
    • "Where's that new world, now the fighting's done?"
    • "Nothing changes, nothing ever will."
    • "What's the use of praying when there's nobody who'll hear?"
    • "Same old story, what's the use of tears?" The worst part is that almost all of those women are old enough to be the student's mothers.
  • "Yes, Cosette, forbid me now to die...I'll obey...I will try..."
    • On that note, Cosette's desperate plea for Valjean to live just before that. Poor thing...

Cosette: You will live, papa you're going to live! It's too soon...too soon to say goodbye...

  • This Troper was in the cast of a school production, and cried on stage every night for two weeks at Gavroche's death, out of genuine sadness, not acting. The Finale was also particularly emotional for the majority of the cast.
  • "My place is here. I fight with you!" "ONE DAY MORE!" The musical beauty of that moment gets me every time.
  • Apart from being my favourite musical, it is the only one that makes me cry by the end, every. damn. time. Especially the line after to love another person is to see the face of God.

Do you hear the people sing? Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the Earth, there is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

  • It pretty much sums up the entire production.
  • "Now life has killed the dream...I dreamed" * sob*
    • When this troper saw the musical live, she started crying during "I Dreamed a Dream," managed to calm down during intermission, then continued crying until "Master of the House." It's nearly three hours long, she probably cried for two-and-a-half hours of it.
  • This Troper was a crew member on a youth theatre production of Les Misérables. It was by far the largest production the organization had done, and it had twice as many performances as a regular show. After the final show, the entire cast and crew gathered one last time on stage. After the directors had said all their goodbyes, everybody just stood, in one huge circle, just holding hands. Then the music director softly sang the words, "Do you hear the people sing?". The entire ensemble then sang the finale, completely a cappella. By the end, there was not a dry eye in the house.
  • Javert's death. This troper was stage crew in her school's version, and once during rehearsal forgot to put the tables in place because she and her partner were crying too hard. It's the Ironic Echo and Dark Reprise parts that do it, dammit.
    • "The world that I have known is lost in shadow..."
      • The worst part is hearing the orchestra during that final "Onnnnn!"- It's the only reprise "Stars" gets in the show.
    • If this scene does not reduce at least some audience members to noisy, glubby Inelegant Blubbering, the actor in question is probably doing it wrong. (This troper, needless to say, carries at least three packs of tissues to every performance.)
  • This troper recently saw a version of the revival tour, where they downplayed Gavroche being a Thénardier. Then "Little Fall of Rain" came, and after it ended, Gavroche ran across the stage like he was going after his sister's body. Poor kid.
  • The reprise of "Drink With Me," where all the students are now fully aware that none of them are gonna live to see the next day. They solemnly raise the bottles and have one last drink together, and then get ready to fight until the end.
    • In the original concept album, that song, "Souviens-Toi (Remember Me)," combines with a soft reprise of "Castle on a Cloud"'s predecessor. The connection to childhood and nostalgia and lost wishes is painful, and it's something I wish had been kept between the two shows.
    • Grantaire's verse of "Drink With Me" is especially heartbreaking. "Will the world remember you when you fall?/Can it be your death means nothing at all?," directed at Enjolras. Grantaire couldn't care less about his own life, or even the Revolution, really. It's the thought of Enjolras dying for no reason and no one remembering that he fears.
  • The whole damn thing was a tear jerker for this troper, who started bawling 10 MINUTES IN and didn't stop completely until back home.
    • And in the version this troper saw, a little friendship formed between Grantaire and Gavroche. The second Gavroche's little voice fades out, Grantaire lets out an anguished SCREAM of pain and falls to his knees, sobbing. Yeah.
      • This troper saw a similar production. The friendship was almost entirely conducted in the background, made up of little things like Grantaire putting his arm around Gavroche's shoulders when Éponine died, but it was incredibly lovely and made both of their eventual fates so much more upsetting.
        • For the curious, that's Joseph Spieldenner's Grantaire in the current US tour (circa 2012). And yep, it's just as heart-rending as the above tropers have indicated.
  • The little-known reprise of "Who Am I," also known as "Valjean's Confession," which appeared in the 25th Anniversary and several other productions, breaks this troper down, when Valjean decides he must leave Cosette behind. It was heart-wrenching enough in the book, but when set to beautiful music, oh God...
    • The version performed by John Owen-Jones legitimately makes this troper cry every time she hears it ...
  • I actually cried through the whole thing. It started with Fantine and continued with Éponine. It was a soft, little crying, actually more a "tears running down the cheeks and ruining my make-up without me noticing". ... and then the Finale. When Cosette and Marius arrived I was already shaking. When Éponine joined Fantine to fetch Valjean I people could hear me sobbing - and then came the reprise of "Do you hear the people sing?" and all bets were off. The first things were "simply" because it was heartwretching both in story and in acting - the Valjean actor cried at "I'll obey... I will try." "Do you hear the people sing?" took the cake because it not only it was such a beautiful, meaningful number topping it all but also because... well... it sums up Victor Hugo's complete with his Author Filibusters and Author Tracts pretty perfectly.
  • "I Dreamed a Dream" never fails to reduce this troper to tears. Fantine's life has gone to shit, her lover has left her 'and still I dream he'll come to me'.
  • Valjean's death at the very end, just as he gains everything he'd longed for.
  • "What Have I Done", in which Valjean has a slight mental breakdown over how low he has fallen (having just actually stole something for his own good (the Bishop's candlesticks) for the first time and then having experienced the Bishop's goodness). The song first chronicles Valjean's shame and self-loathing over his behavior and then continues on to show his transformation into the awesome, benevolent man we all know and love. When done right, lines like "He told me that I have a soul,/How does he know?" can move an audience to tears.
  • And then there's Bring Him Home... Actually, just put the entirety of Act 2 down here.
  • I was at the tender age of 8 when I saw this on Broadway, and by the end everyone around me was sobbing. I didn't know why, until he started singing "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" and I began bawling. My mom asked me why I was crying, and I said, "All his friends are dead, and they're never coming back!"
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