Javert needed an intervention—but overdosed on certainty
Les Miz's "star" inspector mistook justice for a Higher Power
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Shalom, Broadway lovers!
On this week’s marquee: A) a re-evaluation of the antagonist of Les Miz as an addict rather than a villain; B) a Broadway Blast about Sweeney Todd; C) a StageStreams trailer for the upcoming pro-shot of Merrily We Roll Along; D) a student review of London’s current production of Disney’s Hercules; E) a survey about Broadway shows we love to hate; and F) a Last Blast about The Phantom of the Opera.
ESSAY: For nearly two centuries, audiences have scorned Inspector Javert of Les Misérables as an unbending villain, a man so wedded to the law that he would rather die than admit wrong. Consider, perhaps, a more generous reading of the show’s antagonist. What Javert couldn’t live without wasn’t justice; it was certainty. That was his intoxicant, his identity, his idol.
In “Stars,” we hear him at his highest, exalting a universe where moral order never wavers: “Those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward.” Yet as reality intrudes—Valjean spares him and he spares Valjean—his supply of certainty runs thin. Javert clings harder, raising his tolerance, but the absolutes he depends on begin to dissolve. At rock bottom, the final dose fails: a forced withdrawal that leaves Javert unable to function without his drug. His suicide is not the punishment of a villain but the collapse of an addict, undone when certainty abandoned him.
Hugo’s novel grants Javert pages of inner turmoil, but onstage the music must carry it—and does. Boublil and Schönberg distill his crisis into sound, letting the audience feel what prose once described: the slow unraveling of a man whose moral clarity becomes his undoing.
For Javert, certainty was a kind of armor. Raised in the shadow of a prison, he fashioned identity from its opposite—discipline, clarity, control. Doubt threatened to pierce that armor, to expose the shame he’d buried beneath uniform and rank. To question the law wasn’t to lose a belief; it was to lose himself.
Valjean and Javert are mirrors, not opposites. Both face moral upheaval, but where Valjean learns to live within contradiction—to be both sinner and saint—Javert cannot. Mercy expands Valjean’s soul and undoes Javert’s. The same act that redeems one man ruins the other, because only one can survive in a world where right and wrong sometimes share a heartbeat.
Both men are transformed by the same encounter with mercy, but only one can live with its implications. Javert’s collapse shows that goodness, when stripped of grace, curdles into dogma. Les Miz reminds us that moral order without compassion is just another form of blindness.
In “Javert’s Suicide,” faint echoes of “Stars” return—distorted, destabilized—as if the moral order he once sang to has fallen out of tune.
Javert’s tragedy isn’t that he loved justice too much; it’s that he needed it to be absolute. When the world proved messier than his code allowed, he couldn’t live inside its grayness. We may not patrol the Seine, but most of us know what it means to cling to certainty—to need the comfort of being right. In Javert’s collapse, Les Miz offers less a villain’s downfall than a warning: righteousness without humility is its own kind of bondage.
NOTE: MARQUEE now delivers an interpretive essay about a Broadway show every Thursday. Next week’s issue will contain a lead essay about Next to Normal.
BROADWAY BLAST: In “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd sing a wickedly clever litany of English professions. The job titles they invoke come with puns, food references, and devious verbal trickery that weigh how they’d taste in meat pies. On that list are several clergy terms (priest, bishop, vicar) including “curate,” described as “bland.” Some British listeners may catch a delicious echo of “curate’s egg,” which comes from an 1895 Punch cartoon where a clergyman insists that his rotten egg is “good in parts.” The idiom has come to mean something that has a few good qualities but is spoiled overall—perfect for the themes of “A Little Priest.” But the slyest joke hides in plain sight: curate sounds like “cure it,” which is something you do with meat... to make it less bland! Leave it to Sondheim to slip in jokes that go beyond sophisticated laugh lines or insider references, relying instead on simple soundplay, right under our noses. Cure it, indeed.
StageStreams: On December 5, a pro-shot of 2023’s Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along will appear in theaters nationwide. Starring Tony winners Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez, the show dazzled the Great White Way and redeemed a production from the 1980s that underwhelmed audiences and devastated The Master. Here’s the lively, energetic, and tuneful trailer for that film:
STUDENT REVIEW: London’s West End recently welcomed the stage adaptation of the hit Disney movie Hercules. Its long-awaited arrival has excited audiences, inviting them to experience the Disney magic live. But will this production “Go the Distance” and become another staple in Disney’s stable of iconic stage musicals?
The musical communicates the Greek myth of Hercules, son of Zeus, who is cursed by Hades to be human and journeys back to Mount Olympus to become a god again. However, like Frozen and Aladdin, this adaptation targets families and a younger demographic, thus prioritizing the visual spectacle and audience experience.
Hercules uses high-budget set design and lighting/video effects to transport us into the ancient world, and British “panto”-like comedy ensures families enjoy their evening out. However, these elements also highlight the pacing issues and weaker book that I felt were taking me out of the developing narrative. This problem was anchored by questionable tempo choices in some of the most iconic songs that felt rushed and messy.
Luckily, Alan Menken’s iconic muse-ic saved the show, with every audience member dancing, smiling, or singing on the way out—his catchy gospel tunes never fail—not to mention the talented cast of West End performers and musicians who brought every song to life. The true standouts, however, were this musical’s narrators: “The Muses,” who showcased their outstanding ranges and technical ability every time they entered the stage, supported by their changing costumes, each more elegant than the last.
I would argue that The Muses had more control over the story than just passive retelling. A clear example would be whispering the name “Hercules” to his human mother, along with their contribution in “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” in helping push Meg to welcome her vulnerability and love for Hercules, complemented by pink costumes and blonde wigs. That gave The Muses the highest status in the musical.
And that’s the gospel truth!
Robyn Gray is a second-year student in musical theatre at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She was a Maven Scholar in 2024.
UPDATE FROM MATEO: Hi, MARQUEE readers! As you may know by now, I’m making my off-Broadway debut as a composer in January 2026 with a musical called The Opening. On Tuesday, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the show—and in less than 12 hours, we raised over seven thousand dollars. We are currently the fastest growing theatre project on all of Kickstarter! I am so shocked and so humbled by the response. If you want to contribute, or learn more about the show, you can check out https://theopeningoffbway.com. If a financial contribution isn’t in the cards for you, but you still want to help out, the best way to do that is to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and/or TikTok, and tell everyone you know! Just a quick message saying “Hey! This guy I know is doing this cool thing! Check it out!” goes a long way. Thanks everybody! See you at a Broadway Maven class soon!
(Mateo Chavez Lewis will be teaching a class on Kinky Boots on Monday, November 10 at Noon ET.)
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• Sunday, October 26 at Noon and 7 pm ET The Phantom of the Opera (Members only)
• Monday, October 27 at Noon and 7 pm ET Stephen Sondheim 101 with Broadway Maven David Benkof (Members only)
• Tuesday, October 28 at Noon ET George Gershwin’s Broadway with UW Prof. David Armstrong (Members only)
• Sunday, November 2 at 7 pm ET Kander & Ebb with Juilliard Prof. Edward Barnes (Members only)
• Monday, November 3 at Noon and 7 pm ET Mel Brooks 101 with Broadway Maven David Benkof (FREE, register here)
• Monday, November 10 at Noon ET Kinky Boots with music educator Mateo Chavez Lewis (Members only)
• Monday, November 17 at Noon ET Oklahoma! with Rodgers & Hammerstein expert Ted Chapin (Members only)
• Tuesday, November 18 at Noon ET Miss Saigon with the show’s lyricist (!) Richard Maltby, Jr. (Members only)
SAVE THE DATE: On Tuesday, January 27, The Broadway Maven will be convening an extraordinary all-star panel to celebrate the 50th anniverary of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures. Participants will include Weidman himself, the show’s orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, Broadway and Hollywood superstar BD Wong, and reigning Tony-winning Best Supporting Actor Francis Jue. They will join Broadway Maven faculty Gail Leondar-Wright and Edward Barnes to discuss the landmark musical about the opening of Japan to the West. This 90-minute MEMBERS ONLY event is without a doubt the most ambitious and promising class The Broadway Maven has ever offered. Don’t miss it!
LAST BLAST: In the title song from The Phantom of the Opera, the climactic command “Sing for me!” sounds like a request for a private performance. But it’s really a bid for ventriloquism, with Christine as the dummy. He isn’t asking her to sing to him; he’s asking her to sing as him. Too disfigured to reveal himself, he hides behind her voice, shaping her sound into his own. The organ’s echo chamber becomes his disguise: every note she releases carries his trapped identity. And when she finally stops singing, his illusion collapses—the silence exposes the man who could only exist through another’s breath.
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It's interesting to note that a multi-episode anime adaptation from the 2000s--Shoujo Cosette--gave two characters the Spared by the Adaptation treatment...Gavroche and Javert! Javert didn't go through with the suicide in the end, and the implication was that, going forward, Valjean's example would be to him what the Bishop's was to Valjean. Not a bad idea IMO.
(Then again, how many adaptations prior to the musical--including another anime adaptation, Toei's from 1979--spared Valjean's life? Even after the musical, the 1998 Neeson/Rush adaptation did that.)