We’re excited to announce auditions for 2027’s adult company production of Les Misérables. This classic masterpiece has been unavailable for full-length community productions for a decade, and we’re thrilled to provide an opportunity for our talented local performers to step into some of the most iconic (and difficult) roles in musical theatre history.
This production will be directed by Kristy Montgomery and music directed by Erin Karstensen. Additional production staff will be announced as we begin.
Below, please find information to aid in your audition preparation. If you have questions that are not answered here, please email Kristy at kristym@thegrandtheatre.org.
Show Details:
Set against the backdrop of 19th century France, Jean Valjean is released after 19 years of unjust imprisonment to find nothing in store for him but mistrust and mistreatment. He breaks his parole in hopes of starting a new life, initiating a lifelong struggle for redemption as he is relentlessly pursued by police inspector Javert, who refuses to believe that Valjean can change his ways.
Note: please be very familiar with the plot of this musical before auditioning. This production carries themes of imprisonment and guilt, prostitution, war and death, suicide, and some other darker content. All of these topics will be handled with care, but we ask that you do not blindly audition without understanding the show.
Rehearsals: Mondays and Thursdays between the week of Thanksgiving and when we break for the December holidays. We’ll add Saturdays in January. Not every actor will be called to every rehearsal.
Tech Week: March 1-4th, beginning at 6pm each night – tech week rehearsals are required for all who are cast
Performances: March 5th at 7pm and March 6th at 7pm. If these performances sell out, we’ll add a performance on March 7th.
This production is amateur in nature. No pay is offered.
AUDITIONS
For this show, we are primarily casting actors of any gender who are at least 18 years old. While many of the roles are written and will be played as male, we are open to casting female-identifying performers in some of them. This production is extremely music-heavy, so we will primarily be casting strong singers. However, there are some opportunities available for dancers as well; there will be a place on the audition form to list your dance experience. Since all cast members will still participate in the ensemble music, we will still ask that those mostly interested in dancing still complete a first-round video audition.
For this production, we will also be accepting auditions for actors who are at least 10 years old for the roles of Young Cosette, Young Eponine, and Gavroche. As a note, Eponine does not speak or sing as a soloist. All three will be included in the ensemble scenes as makes sense. Parents: please remember that this is an adult show with adult actors and adult themes before allowing your child to submit and audition. We will provide a safe environment for them, but this production will feel very different from others they likely have done before.
FIRST-ROUND VIDEO AUDITION:
- By midnight on November 9th, please submit the form at the bottom of this page and include a video.
- Your video must include a vocal performance of any length. No monologue is required.
- Please select something that ties closely with the style of this production and the type of role you are most interested in portraying. We encourage you to pick something that demonstrates as much of your range as possible. Please do not sing anything from Les Mis for this portion of the audition.
- We will be looking for compelling acting choices, strong vocals, and an indication of thoughtfulness in the preparation of your chosen song.
CALL-BACKS:
- Based on the submitted video auditions, we will begin scheduling call-backs for performers we’d like to see again, preferably in person.
- These call-backs will involve performing pieces from the show for specific characters. We will provide the music to you in advance of your call-back appointment.
- Not every role will require a call-back! Receiving or not receiving a call-back should not be treated as an indication of the direction casting is going.
- Actors who indicate that they are only interested in ensemble roles will not be called back.
CASTING: We intend to have casting done before the week of Thanksgiving.
AVAILABLE ROLES:
Jean Valjean
- Sings to B, high lyrics baritone or tenor, with both strong low notes and a strong falsetto. A poor peasant who rises to affluence, he has great natural nobility and dignity. A powerful figure, with a character of operatic size and passion. The voice needs to have a pop/rock sound or a classical sound of extraordinary textual clarity.
- Gender: male
- Played Age: 35 to 49 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: B4
- Vocal range bottom: G#2
- Baritone, sings to G. Must have a natural gravitas with ability to be expressive and dynamic. Policemen who relentlessly hunts Valjean. An imposing character. The ultimate ‘law and order’ figure. Obsessed, to the point of irrationality, with rigid and merciless moral code.
- Gender: male
- Played Age: 35 to 49 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: F#4
- Vocal range bottom: F2
- Must have a strong, rich lower register to a bottom A. Although capable of playing great age, the actor playing the Bishop is cast in a variety of roles and needs to flexibility to play a range of ages. A religious man who, despite Valjean’s theft of his valuable possessions, sees passed the convict and allows him to move on with his new life.
- Gender: male
- Vocal range top: E4
- Vocal range bottom: A2
- Poor but beautiful and elegant factory girl, struggling to support her fatherless daughter. Later is a pauper, a prostitute, a consumptive and a ghost. Earthy and poignant. Although she is finally defeated by circumstances, she should appear to be strong and a survivor. She puts up a valiant fight against the horrors of her life.
- Gender: female
- Played Age: 20 to 30 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: E5
- Vocal range bottom: D3
- To form part of the ensemble, along with the featured ensemble part of Factory Foreman. An overbearing, sleazy man who runs the factory. Sacks Fantine, leaving her destitute.
- Gender: male
- Vocal range top: D4
- Vocal range bottom: D3
- To form part of the ensemble, along with the featured ensembles part of Bamatabois. A nasty and dangerous upper-class man who lecherously approaches Fantine for the night. When she declines and attacks him, he calls on Javert to arrest her.
- Gender: male
- Vocal range top: F4
- Vocal range bottom: D3
- Fauchelevant is the victim of the cart crash.
- Gender: male
- Vocal range top: Eb4
- Vocal range bottom: B3
- Young Cosette is Fantine’s daughter and the Thénardiers’ ward. She has been forced into child labor. She is underfed, beaten by Madame Thénardier, and bullied by Eponine.
- Gender: female
- Vocal range top: C5
- Vocal range bottom: A3
- Baritone. Strong comic character role. A crooked innkeeper, later a petty, amoral thief. Greedy, irrerent, selfish, boorish, vulgar.
- Gender: male
- Played Age: 35 to 49 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: G4
- Vocal range bottom: C3
- Belter. Tough, sharp, coarse, boorish, vulgar. Strong character comedienne role.
- Gender: female
- Played Age: 30 to 49 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: D5
- Vocal range bottom: G#3
- Gavroche is Thénardier’s son. He is left to fend for himself and lives by his wits in the streets of Paris. Gavroche is brave, witty, and arrogant, with a fantastic, unchanged voice.
-
Gender: male
-
Vocal range top: G5
-
Vocal range bottom: B3
- Daughter of the Thénardiers but in no way behaves like them. Fired by an unrequited love for Marius. Gamine. Hasn’t learned to disguise her emotions; wears her heart on her sleeve.
- Gender: female
- Played Age: 18 to 25 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: F5
- Vocal range bottom: F3
- Soprano to high C but a light, young ‘floating’ sound, without heavy vibrato. Fantine’s daughter (first seen as and played by a child) delicate, elegant, vulnerable and beautiful. Falls in love with and later marries Marius.
- Gender: female
- Played Age: 18 to 25 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: C6
- Vocal range bottom: Bb3
Thénardier’s Gang of Thieves
- Montparnasse
- Babet
- Brujon
- Claquesous
- High baritone/tenor. Very strong singer. Handsome, charismatic political figure, leader of the revolutionary movement.
- Gender: male
- Played Age: 20 to 29 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: G#4
- Vocal range bottom: A2
- High baritone. Member of the revolutionary student movement. Attractive and romantic but in a sensitive, 19th century ‘Byronic’ way.
- Gender: male
- Played Age: 18 to 25 (*While this is the official played age, actors are not required to actually fit within this range. They may be older or younger than this played age.)
- Vocal range top: Ab4
- Vocal range bottom: Bb2
ABC Society:
- Combeferre: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Combeferre is the philosopher and believer in peace. He is gentle, humane, strong, and brave.
-
Feuilly: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Feuilly is a worker who is a self-educated orphan. He is an affectionate, warm, and poetic believer in “nationality.”
-
Courfeyrac: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Courfeyrac is a youthful, passionate, and fearless student.
-
Joly: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Joly is an eccentric and light-hearted (although sometimes morbid) medical student. His name is derived from the English word “jolly.”
-
Grantaire: A cynical student who has little interest in the revolution but who holds much admiration for Enjolras. Witty and sarcastic.
-
Lesgles: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Lesgles is a cheerful, laughing-at-life (but unlucky) student. He is a close friend of Joly.
-
Jean Prouvaire: Member of the ABC society, a secret society of students and workers. Prouvaire is a kind, soft-spoken, and, at the right moments, strong and masterful poet and student of social studies.
Men must be able to sing to at least a G.
Women must belt to a D.