Les Misérables The Arena Concert Spectacular, Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean. Credit_ Danny Kaan.jpg

Radio City Music Hall to feature ‘Les Mis’ spectacular in limited run, July 23 through August 9, 2026. 

In late July, Radio City Music Hall — a venue better associated with the Rockettes and Christmas pageantry — will look a little more like the barricades of 19th‑century Paris.

Cameron Mackintosh has announced casting for the North American engagement of “Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular,” a supersized concert staging of the Boublil and Schönberg musical that will bring an onstage company of more than 65 performers and musicians to Radio City for a strictly limited run from July 23 through August 9, 2026. Billed as the world tour’s only North American stop, the engagement effectively turns the Art Deco hall into a temporary home for Victor Hugo’s revolutionaries — complete with alternating Jean Valjeans and Javerts, and a sound system designed to make the score feel newly thunderous.

The production will feature Alfie Boe, Killian Donnelly, and Gerónimo Rauch sharing the role of Jean Valjean; Bradley Jaden and Jeremy Secomb sharing Javert; Samantha Barks as Fantine; Matt Lucas as Thénardier; Marina Prior as Madame Thénardier; Jac Yarrow as Marius; Beatrice Penny‑Touré as Cosette; Shan Ako as Éponine; and Christian Mark Gibbs as Enjolras, leading that 65‑plus company. The run is presented at Radio City in association with Nick Grace Management and the Bowery Presents, and follows a two‑year arena tour that has played more than 30 cities and sold more than a million tickets worldwide since opening in Belfast in September 2024.

For longtime “Les Mis” devotees, the casting reads like a reunion special. Boe, who first took on Valjean in the 25th‑anniversary concerts before playing the role in London’s West End, on Broadway, and on the current world tour, returns to one of the parts with which he is most closely associated. Donnelly, who began as a swing in the London production and eventually became one of the show’s most in‑demand Valjeans in the West End, on tour, and on the world tour, joins him, as does Rauch, the Argentine actor who graduated from ensemble member to Valjean in Madrid (winning a Spanish Musical Theatre Award in the process), then to the West End and the arena tour. Jaden and Secomb, both veterans of recent London runs, will alternate as Javert.

Around them are other familiar names from various branches of the “Les Mis” family tree. Barks, who played Éponine in the film adaptation with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe and in the 25th‑anniversary concerts at the O2 Arena, here takes on Fantine. Lucas returns as Thénardier after playing the role at the 25th‑anniversary concert, in the West End, and on an Australian run. Prior, an Australian theater favorite who originated Cosette in that country and reprised Madame Thénardier in the 40th‑anniversary season in London, appears as Madame Thénardier. Yarrow, Penny‑Touré, and Ako — all associated with the 40th‑anniversary West End season and the world tour — reprise Marius, Cosette, and Éponine, respectively, with Christian Mark Gibbs coming in from the U.S. national tour as Enjolras.

Mackintosh, in his announcement, described the lineup as “a wonderful line up of international ‘Les Misérables’ stars” appearing during the “grand finale dates” of the arena world tour, which also includes engagements at Dublin’s 3Arena, Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, and London’s Royal Albert Hall. “‘Les Mis’ fans will have a brilliant choice of their favorite performers,” he said, noting that many performances are already sold out and the tour has broken box‑office records in Australia, Japan, and Shanghai.

The New York run is being pitched as something closer to an event than a simple tour stop. Radio City will be the only North American venue in 2026, and the production will make use of the hall’s Sphere Immersive Sound system, which promises clearer, more consistent audio from the front row of the orchestra to the back of the third mezzanine. 

Performances are scheduled for:

• Thursday, July 23, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, July 24, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, July 25, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sunday, July 26, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (the latter currently billed as “best availability”)
• Tuesday, July 28, 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, July 29, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, July 30, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, July 31, 8 p.m.
• Saturday, August 1, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sunday, August 2, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (best availability)
• Tuesday, August 4, 7:30 p.m. (best availability)
• Wednesday, August 5, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (both best availability)
• Thursday, August 6, 7:30 p.m. (best availability)
• Friday, August 7, 7:30 p.m. (best availability)
• Saturday, August 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. (best availability)
• Sunday, August 9, 2 p.m. (best availability).

The press materials go further, spelling out exactly which Valjean and Javert audiences will see at each performance: Donnelly and Jaden on July 23 and 24; Rauch and Jeremy Secomb at the July 25 matinee; Boe and Jaden on July 25 at 8 p.m.; and so on through August 9, when Donnelly and Jaden close the run. In a franchise where fans track their favorite Valjean the way sports fans track positions, transparency has become part of the sales pitch.

The arena concert itself was developed out of “Les Misérables: The Staged Concert,” which played more than 200 performances in the West End and at the 25th‑anniversary event at the O2 Arena. The current tour, produced by Mackintosh and Nick Grace Management, features a new design scaled for large venues, with set and lighting by Matt Kinley, Paule Constable, and Warren Letton; costumes by Andreane Neofitou, Christine Rowland, and Paul Wills; sound by Mick Potter; projections by Finn Ross; and music supervision by Stephen Brooker and Alfonso Casado Trigo. The creative credits otherwise preserve the familiar spine: a book by Alain Boublil and Claude‑Michel Schönberg based on Victor Hugo’s novel; music by Schönberg; lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer; original French text by Boublil and Jean‑Marc Natel; additional material by James Fenton; and adaptations by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. Direction is by James Powell and Jean‑Pierre van der Spuy.

Back in London, Mackintosh’s long‑running production at the Sondheim Theatre has just entered its 41st year, while new local‑language versions continue to open or be prepared around the world. The New York arena engagement is being framed as both a coda to the musical’s 40th‑anniversary celebrations and a kind of homecoming for a show that last played on Broadway in 2016, returning now in a form big enough to fill one of the city’s most cavernous rooms.

Tickets and further information are available at NYC.LesMis.com.