Les Miserables The musical Les Miserables plays today in the Imperial Theater on Broadway. The play is based on the book by Victor Hugo, in which the story of the French Revolution from the perspective of the lower class that would do anything to get their freedom. Cameron Mackintosh, produced the play, while Alain Boublil and Claude -Michel Schonberg directed it. The music was done by Schonberg and the lyrics were done by Herbert Kretzmer. The prologue of the play opens up in 1815, in Digne, France. In this scene we meet the antagonist and the main character, Jean Valjean. He has been kept in jail for nineteen years for stealing bre