Broadway's Newest Jean Valjean Is the Reimagined Les Misérables Revival's First

Along with musical-theater mainstays like Ramin Karimloo, Anthony Warlow, and Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones is part of a fraternity of actors who have spent much of their careers alternating between starring roles in The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables both on Broadway and in the West End. In Owen-Jones' case, the two roles have kept him busy since 1998 when, at the age of 26, he became the youngest actor ever to play the role of Jean Valjean, taking over in the London production.

With his starring role in Les Misérables, Owen-Jones has said he fulfilled a longtime dream to take on Valjean, and it would seem that his passion for the role was well placed. His Les Miz career led him to the 2006 Broadway revival, taking part in the "Valjean Quartet" at the show's milestone event Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary, and originating the role of Jean Valjean in Laurence Connor and James Powell's reimagined revival.

The show has even proved important in Owen-Jones personal life. Not only did he meet his wife, who was working backstage as a dresser, during that first London run, but Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's classic musical has also afforded opportunities for Owen-Jones to take his two children around the world. This coming spring and summer, for instance, the whole family will have the opportunity to take an educational trip to New York City, where Owen-Jones will reprise his role in the 25th-anniversary Les Misérables, where he will help to close the Broadway production.

TheaterMania caught up with Owen-Jones shortly after his return to New York City to discuss how he became a go-to Valjean and what he looks forward to about going back to the role.

Why is it important to you to bring your family with you?
It's a choice you make really…I'm not one of those guys that's gonna go after something and pursue it to the cost of everything else, because I'd have no one to share it with at the end of the day. So it's very important to me that my family travel with me, share my successes and obviously, some of my failures. Because when I was a kid growing up in a small town in Wales, I knew I wanted to see the world, but I also didn't want to see it on my own.

Was performing in Les Miz always a dream for you?
When I was growing up, I was part of a youth theater, and we did all sorts of different things…but I knew what I enjoyed most was singing and acting through song. And one of the most satisfying ways of doing that is playing one of the greatest lead roles in musical theater, and that's Jean Valjean…it's an iconic role in an iconic show…So I guess I want to do that because it's the biggest and the best.

Did you grow up knowing you wanted to be a performer?
No, not at all. My father is a butcher, and I was gonna go into the family business and become a butcher and then I thought maybe I'll be a doctor. And I kind of fell into performing…I remember when I said to my dad, I said, "I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna give it a go." He said, "Well, you've got to have something to fall back on," of course. And I said, "Well look, why don't I try it for five years, and if I've not made any kind of success of myself, then I'll come back and be a butcher." And within a year of leaving drama school I was working in the West End. So I haven't really looked back.

How have you made your mark as Jean Valjean?
I guess it's just committing to quality of work. I've been to see shows where actors haven't given one hundred percent, and I felt cheated because I paid a lot of money for that ticket. And I vowed a long, long time ago never to be like that. So every time I step onstage, I give everything I can. And I think maybe that's the key. It is so much more exciting when you see somebody act something and connect with a story.

What are you looking forward to singing?
I love singing "Bring Him Home." I never get bored of that. But in this production particularly, I really enjoy the simplicity and the acting challenge of "Who am I?"…That's the one I really look forward to doing. In fact I'll be rehearsing that this afternoon.

Is it easy to fall back into the role?
I sang through the whole score yesterday, and what's amazing is, having not sung the show for five years, it all came flooding back.
I've just finished playing Phantom on the West End, which is a very different singing role. Your voice has to drop like an octave…and suddenly I've got to kind of push everything back up again for Les Miz…so it takes a while…But when I sang it yesterday…[and it] poured out and I'm like, "[sigh of relief] Oh great." So I'm even more excited now that I know I can still sing it.

What are you most looking forward to about Les Miz?
I watched some of the show last night and the audiences were going crazy, so I'm really looking forward to feeling the Les Miz love. There's got to be reason why it's run for so long, and I guess it's one of…those [shows] that no matter where you are in your life, there's something in that story that will touch you and resonate with you.