Les Misérables Features Under-18 Cast, Runs Through June 2 at Center for the Arts

Jordan Taylor and Journey Parton in Les Misérables

Center for the Arts presents the multi-award-winning musical Les Misérables School Edition through June 2.

Victor Hugo’s emotional, touching and uplifting story set to music follows an ex-convict through 19th-century France as he creates a new life for himself. This production features a cast of students who are 18 years old or younger.

Denise Parton, who previously directed Hairspray in 2018 and Legally Blonde in 2017 and was recently seen onstage in Calendar Girls in 2019, is sitting in the director’s chair once again.

“I have always been very selective with the stories I tell,” says Parton. “I will not direct just for the sake of directing. It must be a story I believe is worth telling. Is the story redemptive? Can the cast as well as the audience relate? Is it a life-changing aspect?”

Wil Hansen and Sam Downer

Les Misérables centers around Jean Valjean (Sam Downer), an ex-convict who is released from 19 years of unjust imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread. As the outcast faces a lifelong struggle for redemption, he is relentlessly pursued by police inspector Javert (Wil Hansen), who refuses to believe Valjean can change his ways.

Throughout his journey he encounters Fantine (Karisha Glover) and vows to find and raise her orphaned daughter, Cosette (Macey Rose). After years of solitude, Valjean risks his own life to save the man she loves in the Paris student uprising of 1812. It is then he is reunited with Javert and the rest of the story unfolds.

Featuring the well-known songs, “I Dreamed a Dream,” “On My Own” and “Bring Him Home,” Les Misérables is arguably one of the best-loved musicals of all time. It is a story of redemption and how one life can change the course of many.

Karisha Glover

Tickets start at $14 and are on sale at boroarts.org, by calling 615-904-ARTS (2787) or at the Center for the Arts Box Office, 110 W. College St., in downtown Murfreesboro.

This production is rated PG-13 for suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements.

Les Misérables runs through June 2 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m.

Les Misérables Cast List:

Jean Valjean – Sam Downer

Javert – Wil Hansen

Fantine – Karisha Glover

Eponine – Aurora Boe

Cosette – Macey Rose

Marius – Jonathan Hazen

Thenardier – Jordan Taylor

Madame Thenardier – Journey Parton

Young Cosette – Ashleigh Chambers