LES MISÉRABLES (english).docx

LES MISÉRABLES

By Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
Based on the book by Victor Hugo

Prologue - WORK SONG

[1815, Toulon, France. The chain gang, overseen by brutal warders, works in the sun.

Prisoners
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye
Look down, look down,
You're here until you die
The sun is strong
It's hot as hell below
Look down, look down,
There's twenty years to go
I've done no wrong!
Sweet Jesus hear my prayer!
Look down, look down,
Sweet Jesus doesn't care
I know she'll wait,
I know that she'll be true!
Look down, look down,
They've all forgotten you
When I get free ya won't see me
Here for dust!
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye
How long O Lord
Before you let me die?
Look down, look down,
You'll always be a slave
Look down, look down,
You're standing in your grave

Javert
Now bring me prisoner 24601
Your time is up
And your parole's begun
You know what that means

Valjean
Yes, it means I'm free

Javert
NO!
It means you get
Your yellow ticket-of-leave
You are a theif

Valjean
I stole a loaf of bread!

Javert
You robbed a house!

Valjean
I broke a window pane!
My sister's child was close to death
And we were starving!

Javert
And you will starve again
Unless you learn the meaning of the law.

Valjean
I know the meaning of these 19 years
A slave of the law

Javert
Five years for what you did
The rest because you tried to run
Yes 24601

Valjean
My name is Jean Valjean

Javert
And I am Javert
Do not forget my name
Do not forget me
24601

Chorus
Look down, look down
You will always be a slave
Look down, look down
You're standing in your grave.

Valjean
Freedom is mine. The earth is still.
I feel the wind. I breathe again.
And the sky clears, the world is waiting.
Drink from the pool. How clean the taste
Never forget the years, the waste.
Nor forgive them, for what they've done.
They are the guilty, everyone.
The day begins...
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!

[He finds work on a farm.]

Farmer
You'll have to go
I'll pay you off for the day
Collect your bits and pieces there
And be on your way.

Valjean
You've given me half
What the other men get!
This handful of tin
Wouldn't buy my sweat!

Laborer
You broke the law
It's there for people to see
Why should you get the same
As honest men like me?

Valjean
Now every door is closed to me
Another jail, another key, another chain
For when I come to any town
They check my papers
And they find the mark of Cain
In their eyes, I see their fear:
`We do not want you here.'

[He comes to an inn.]

Innkeeper's Wife
My rooms are full
And I've no supper to spare
I'd like to help a stranger
All we want is to be fair

Valjean
I will pay in advance
I can sleep in a barn
You see how dark it is
I'm not some kind of dog!

Innkeeper
You leave my house
Or feel the weight of my rod
We're law-abiding people here
Thanks be to God.

[They throw him out.]

Valjean
And now I know how freedom feels
The jailer always at your heels
It is the law!
This piece of paper in my hand
That makes me cursed throughout the land
It is the law!
Like a cur
I walk the street
The dirt beneath my feet.

[He sits down despairingly outside a house from which emerges the Bishop of Digne.]

Bishop
Come in, Sir, for you are weary
And the night is cold out there.
Though our lives are very humble
What we have, we have to share.
There is wine here to revive you,
There is bread to make you strong,
There's a bed to rest till morning,
Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.

Valjean
He let me eat my fill
I had the lion's share
The silver in my hand
Cost twice what I had earned
In all those nineteen years
That lifetime of despair
And yet he trusted me.
The old fool trusted me -
He's done his bit of good
I played the grateful serf
And thanked him like I should
But when the house was still,
I got up in the night
Took the silver
Took my flight!

[Taking the silver cup, he runs off, but is brought back by two constables.]

VALJEAN ARRESTED/VALJEAN FORGIVEN

Constables
Tell his reverence your story
Let us see if he's impressed
You were lodging there last night
You were the honest Bishop's guest.
And then, out of Christian goodness
When he learned about your plight
You maintain he made a present of this silver--

Bishop
That is right.
But my friend you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind

[The bishop gives Valjean two silver candlesticks.]

You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
So Messieurs you may release him
For this man has spoken true
I commend you for your duty
May God's blessing go with you.
But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!

WHAT HAVE I DONE (Valjean's Soliloquy)

Valjean
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate this world
This world which had always hated me
Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!
One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom,
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit came to move my life? Is there another way to go?
I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

[He tears up his yellow ticket-of-leave.]

AT THE END OF THE DAY

[1823, Montreuil-sur-Mer. Outside the factory, owned by the Mayor, Monsieur Madeleine (Valjean in disguise).]

The Poor
At the end of the day you're another day older
And that's all you can say for the life of the poor
It's a struggle, it's a war
And there's nothing that anyone's giving
One more day, standing about, what is it for?
One day less to be living.
At the end of the day you're another day colder
And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill
And the righteous hurry past
They don't hear the little ones crying
And the winder is coming on fast, ready to kill
One day nearer to dying!
At the end of the day there's another day dawning
And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise
Like the waves crash on the sand
Like a storm that'll break any second
There's a hunger in the land
There's a reckoning still to be reckoned
And there's gonna be hell to pay
At the end of the day!

[The foreman and workers, including Fantine, emerge.]

Foreman
At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing
Sitting flat on your butt doesn't buy any bread

Workers
There are children back at home
And the children have got to be fed
And you're lucky to be in a job
And in a bed!
And we're counting our blessings!

Women
Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today?
With his terrible breath and his wandering hands?
It's because little Fantine won't give him his way
Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands!
And the boss, he never knows
That the foreman is always in heat
If Fantine doesn't look out
Watch how she goes
She'll be out on the street!

Workers
At the end of the day it's another day over
With enough in your pocket to last for a week
Pay the landlord pay the shop
Keep on grafting as long as you're able
Keep on grafting till you drop
Or it's back to the crumbs on the table
You've got to pay your way
At the end of the day!

Girl
What have we here, little innocent sister?
Come on Fantine, let's have all the news!

[She grabs the letter from Fantine.]

"Dear Fantine you must send us more money...
Your child needs a doctor...
There's no time to lose!"

Fantine
Give that letter to me
It is none of your business
With a husband at home
And a bit on the side
Is there anyone here
Who can swear before God
She has nothing to fear?
She has nothing to hide?

[They fight over the letter. Valjean rushes over to break up the squabble.]

Valjean (as M. Madeleine)
What is this fighting all about?
Will someone tear these two apart?
This is a factory, not a circus!
Now come on ladies, settle down
I run a business of repute
I am the Mayor of this town

[To the foreman...]

I look to you to sort this out
And be as patient as you can---

[He goes back into the factory.]

Foreman
Now someone say how this began!

Girl
At the end of the day she's the one who began it
There's a kid that she's hiding in some little town
There's a man she has to pay
You can guess how she picks up the extra
You can bet she's earning her keep sleeping around
And the boss wouldn't like it!

Fantine
Yes it's true there's a child
And the child is my daughter
And her father abandoned us leaving us flat
Now she lives with an innkeeper man and his wife
And I pay for the child
What's the matter with that??

Women
At the end of the day she'll be nothing but trouble
And there's trouble for all when there's trouble for one
While we're earning our daily bread
She's the one with her hands in the butter
You must send the slut away
Or we're all gonna end in the gutter
And it's us who'll have to pay
At the end of the day!

Foreman
I might have known the bitch could bite
I might have known the cat had claws
I might have guessed your little secret
Ah, yes, the virtuous Fantine
Who keeps herself so pure and clean
You'd be the cause I had no doubt
Of any trouble hereabout
You play a virgin in the light
But need no urgin' in the night.

Girl
She's been laughing at you
While she's having her men

Women
She'll be nothing but trouble again and again

Workers
You must sack her today
Sack the girl today!

Foreman
Right my girl!
On your way...

I DREAMED A DREAM

[Fantine is left alone, unemployed and destitute.]

Fantine
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we'll live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So much different from this hell I'm living
...