Theater Review: “Les Misérables” at The Fabulous Fox Still Emotionally Charged After All These Years
–by Ashley Cox
November 18, 2025
Never has a musical left me crying so hard that a total stranger asked me if I was doing alright but that is exactly what happened Tuesday night in St. Louis for the premier of “Les Misérables” at the Fox. Having read the book and watched the 2012 movie, I thought I was prepared for the musical based on the sizable Victor Hugo novel… but I was not. I was overwhelmed not only by the journey of these characters but the pure talent of the cast. The decibel monitor on my phone monitored audience applause as over 100 multiple times throughout the show and the cast deserved each deafening roar.
Swelling brass filled the theatre as Thomas Beeker’s voice rang out as a convict at the very beginning of Prologue on a set that looked tailor made for the stage. Cheers to the crew for the grand task of packing and setting that stage at so many locations in addition to the moving the costuming and coordinating such a large cast. Nick Cartell brought Jean Valjean to life, morphing through the decades. His moving falsetto in “Bring Him Home” erupted applause from the audience.
Preston Truman Boyd as the famous Valjean antagonist, the mononymous Javert fully embodied the single-minded zealot to the law. Not many would spend a lifetime hunting a man who jumped parole after stealing bread. I stared in awe, hand clapped over my mouth, as he wrestled with losing his sole tenant in life which led to his undoing. A chilling reminder to not let one thing define your entire being without sway. Valjean could have remained bitter and self-centered his entire life but after seeing how his actions had doomed Fantine, he changed to focus on Cosette and additionally Marius. St. Louis theatre-goers may have recognized Marius as Peter Neureuther. He returned to the role he played at the Muny in 2024. The most prominent of the a few Muny alums in the touring cast, he shifts from a rich-boy student, a naive man in love, to a shaken survivor. His rich voice and acting takes what can be an oblivious and somewhat unlikable character (I did not care for him in the book) to a deeper place.
Though only onstage for a short time, Lindsay Heather Pearce’s Fantine maintained a ghost- like presence, the catalyst for all events, until the final song where she was literally a ghost-like presence. The textbook definition of an angelic voice, she had the audience audibly crying all around me during “I Dreamed a Dream.” If Valjean and Javert are mirrors of each other, the same is true of Cosette and Eponine played respectively by Alexa Lopez and Jaedynn Latter. Both started life together with the scheming Thenardiers, Cosette as the neglected ward and Eponine as the doted-upon daughter. Fortune shifts after the demise of Fantine and the arrival of Valjean. Eponine is forced into a grungy life of crime while Cosette lives a grand though lonely life and being dearly loved. Like Cartell, Lopez has an amazing falsetto. Latter’s Eponine is gut wrenching. A person changed by an unrequited love, her “On My Own” and the duet with Neureuther “A Little Fall of Rain” had me weeping.
While Les Miserables focuses upon this small group of people, it does capture larger themes. It reminds us to “Look Down” and not forget the poor and the hungry. While Enjolras and students may have ultimately fallen, they fought against the current oligarchy. A system they had first seen overthrown in the French Revolution that ended in 1799, 16 years before the first act of the musical. In a mere thirty years, the July Monarchy had reestablished the wealth divide in France. We must continue to view art with a critical lens to see the lesson and not just the sumptuous sets and talented performers.
Les Mis runs through Sunday, November 23rd before moving on to the Benedum Center in my former home of Pittsburgh. Next at the Fox will be “The Wiz” opening on Tuesday, November 27th and running through December 7th. December will bring a plethora of holiday offerings including “A Christmas Story: The Musical” and “A Magical Cirque Christmas” which was reviewed by Midwest Rewind last year.