Les Misérables is the most famous of all French musicals and one of the most famous and most performed musicals worldwide. The musical, based on the novel by Victor Hugo (1802 -1885), was written by the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the librettist Alain Boublil and opened in September 1980 at the Palais des Sports in Paris.

In 1982, English producer Cameron Mackintosh began work on an English language version, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. The first English production opened on October 28, 1985, in London and is still playing at the Queen's Theatre.

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

(Marius, recovering from his wounds, imagines he is back at the ABC cafe)

MARIUS

There's a grief that can't be spoken.

There's a pain goes on and on.

Empty chairs at empty tables

Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.

Here it was they lit the flame.

Here they sang about `tomorrow'

And tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner

They could see a world reborn

And they rose with voices ringing

I can hear them now!

The very words that they had sung

Became their last communion

On the lonely barricade at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me

That I live and you are gone.

There's a grief that can't be spoken.

There's a pain goes on and on.

Phantom faces at the window.

Phantom shadows on the floor.

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will meet no more.

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me

What your sacrifice was for

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will sing no more.