Voices of Valjean – three legendary Valjeans in concert

John Owen-Jones is a record-breaking West End and Broadway actor and singer best known for his performances as “Jean Valjean” in Les Misérables and as “The Phantom” in The Phantom of the Opera. John remains the youngest actor in West End history to have played Jean Valjean in Les Misérables (a role he also played twice on Broadway) and has performed as The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera nearly 2,000 times.

He made his West End debut at the Palace Theatre in 1995 when he first joined the cast of Les Misérables and has been closely associated with the show ever since, appearing in every London theatre in which the show has played, including the show’s original London home, the Barbican Theatre. In an online poll, John was voted the “Best Ever Valjean” and “Best Ever Performer in Les Misérables” by fans of the show and has appeared in special finales for the Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary performances at the O2 and Royal Albert Hall — both of which were screened to millions of people in cinemas worldwide. His re-interpretation of the character on the re-imagined version of the show in 2010 on the Les Misérables 25th Anniversary International Tour (which included a brief run at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris) earned him a Manchester Evening News Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a WhatsOnStage Award Best Actor in a Musical nomination. John can be heard singing the role of Jean Valjean on the 2010 Les Misérables Live! Album and in 2019 he returned to play “Jean Valjean” in the Les Misérables All Star Concert at the Gielgud Theatre London.

John was named one of the Top 10 musical theatre actors in Britain by The Stage newspaper and in a poll of BBC Radio Wales listeners to find the “Greatest Living Welsh Voice”, he came third — beating legendary Welsh singers Bryn Terfel, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones. This led to John realising a lifelong dream when he sang the Wales and England national anthems on the pitch for the Wales v England Six Nations Rugby game.

In 2022, John created leading roles in three brand new musicals: “Uncle Jack” in a concept musical recording of Kisses on a Postcard by Terence and Dominic Frisby; “Lorenzo” in a fully staged concert version of new Australian musical Mimma at Cadogan Hall London; and “Phil Hollinghurst”, in Great British Bake Off — The Musical by Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, which earned him another WhatsOnStage Award Best Actor in a Musical nomination. In early 2023, Bake Off transferred to the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End for a limited run and released an official cast recording. That summer, John returned to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre to appear as “Deputy Eduard Dindon” in a critically acclaimed revival of La Cage Aux Folles. This was immediately followed by a limited run at the Lido2 Theatre in Paris of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as vainglorious Roman soldier “Miles Gloriosus” which ran until early 2024. 2024 saw him do more concert work which included an appearance with Katherine Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli in Hyde Park, D-Day 80 at The Royal Albert Hall and Defying Gravity with Stephen Schwartz and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and two sold out solo tours of China.

In 2025, he returned to the West End stage and appeared in the UK premieres of musicals If/Then (playing Stephen) and The Great Gatsby (playing Meyer Wolfsheim).

In early 2026 he presented a segment for The One Show on BBC One before returning to China, with a brand-new solo tour called Unmasked which travelled to 5 cities and played to 25,000 people. During this trip he filmed two songs (in Chinese) for The 2026 Lantern Festival for Dragon TV that attracted an estimated 100 million viewers across China. On his return to London, he joined the cast of the multi award winning production of Into The Woods at the Bridge Theatre for an exclusive limited run. Most recently, John appeared in a very special 40th anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera in which he performed alongside the original Phantom Michael Crawford; the show was filmed and will be released globally by Universal Studios in early 2027.

Elsewhere, John has performed extensively in theatre in the West End, around the UK and overseas in shows such as Sweeney Todd for the English National Opera, Showboat at the Royal Albert Hall, A Little Night Music at the National Theatre, The Pirates of Penzance and Much Ado About Nothing at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, The Phantom of the Opera at Orb Theatre, Tokyo and appeared in the world premiere of brand-new musical Tiger Bay (in a role written especially for him) at Cape Town Opera.

He has appeared as an actor on television in shows such as Scott and Bailey, The Bill and Toast of Tinseltown and has appeared as himself many times on television and radio in shows such as This Morning, The Royal Variety Show, The National Lottery Big Night of Musicals and has guested many times on Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2. He is an accomplished concert performer, playing many solo headline shows around the UK and abroad and has appeared in concert globally in legendary venues such as The Royal Albert Hall in London, Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Sydney Opera House and New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has appeared twice at the BBC Proms in the Park concerts, twice on The Royal Variety Show, toured the UK in concert with Katherine Jenkins and has been a special guest in concert with Collabro, Michael Ball, Alfie Boe and Bryn Terfel, and in 2022, he completed his first full UK solo concert tour culminating with a sellout show in the West End at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London. He has performed leading roles in staged concert versions of The Hired Man, Sweeney Todd, South Pacific, and new musical The Clockmaker’s Daughter. He has also worked as a director, radio presenter and voiceover artist.

John hosts a popular theatrical podcast with fellow performer Alistair Brammer called “The Last Show on Earth” which asks celebrity guests that all important question — “if you only had one day left to live what show would you like to see?” A third season is in the works and the first two seasons can be heard now on all podcast providers.

John runs his own production company JAR Productions (Worldwide) Ltd and his own record label JOJ Music and has released seven solo albums which he also produced: ‘Hallelujah’ EP (2006), ‘John Owen-Jones’ (2009), ‘Unmasked’ (2011), ‘Rise’ (2015), ‘Bring Him Home’ — a compilation album (2017), ‘Spotlight’ — featuring The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (2019), and ‘The Christmas Album’ (2021). He is currently working on his next album due for release in 2027.