The stage is set with the chaotic past few decades of French history - for now, calmed to an exhausted kind of stability
I'm so tired, Lord, of going through changes
Changes, Of going through changes, changes
Desperate, stigmatised ex-convict Jean Valjean steals from a humanitarian bishop who gives him shelter. The Bishop protects him - but gives him stern words about his soul.
Make peace with yourself before you can love another
Understand who and what you are before you can go any
You'll see that,
You can't hide from yourself
Everywhere you go there you are.
Fleeing the Bishop's house, on instinct Valjean robs a child. Overcome with remorse, the bishop's message hits home - and he realises what he must escape from is not prison, but what prison has made of him inside.
Gotta get out of here
your love has set me on fire
you lit a fire in my soul
Montreuil is a boom-town - but built off the backs of workers on the jet-factory production line. Fantine - a young woman - is introduced among her co-workers.
Get on up and do it again
You can do it one more time
Get on up and do it again
You can do it one more time
Fantine remembers her friends singing about their life as casual girlfriends for wealthier and more powerful men - including her former lover, who abandoned her with a child.
He'll wine you and he'll dine you
He'll say you're the only one
He'll take your heart, tear it apart
And he'll be on the run
Finally alone, Fantine sings of the loneliness and disappointment of the life she is trapped in.
Everybody loves a winner
So nobody loved me
'Lady Peaceful,' 'Lady Happy'
That's what I long to be
After losing her job, Fantine falls into sex work among the soldiers of the town barracks.
Hey, Mister, have you got a dime
Mister, do you want to spent some time
I got what you want, you got what I need
I'll be your baby, come and spend it on me
Valjean rescues a man being crushed under a cart in the street - but he is recognised by Inspector Javert
I've been lookin' for you (Haven't you heard?)
In the Thenardier's inn, the narrator and chorus sing about the mysteries of Providence to influence both great men of history and the little lives of ordinary people.
My, my - at Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender
Oh, yeah - and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
Valjean takes Cosette away from the Thenardiers - and, as she sleeps safely at last, he is overwhelmed by discovering something in him that is new...
Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain
Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain
The dark days are gone, and the bright days are here
My Sunny one shines so sincere
Sunny one so true, I love you
My life was torn like a windblown sand
And the rock was formed when you held my hand
And in her dreams, Cosette, forced to work as a servant by her cruel foster parents, sings about a place she could be safe with her real mother - and about what this new life with a mystery man might hold...
I'll fly with you
To the mystic hills of Katmandu
Pack my case
Gonna leave behind this human race
We can fly above the sky
Peace of mind, we're gonna find