Empty Chairs At Empty Tables Lyrics
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
(The ghosts of those who died on the barricade appear)
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.
(The ghosts fade away)
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friend will sing no more.
Song Overview
Song Credits
- Featured: Michael Ball (Marius) – Les Misérables: The Complete Symphonic Recording
- Producer: David Caddick
- Composer: Claude-Michel Schönberg
- Lyricists: Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer, Jean-Marc Natel
- Orchestrator / Conductor: John Cameron; Martin Koch
- Release Date: December 2, 1988 (album)
- Genre: Symphonic musical-theatre ballad
- Key & Meter: A-minor; slow 3/4
- Length: 2 min 48 s
- Label: Exallshow Ltd / Relativity Records
- Instruments: Solo tenor, orchestral strings divisi, cor anglais, French horns, harp, timpani, subtle synth pad
- Mood: Survivor’s guilt, spectral mourning
- Language: English (French revival title “Seul devant ces tables vides”)
- Poetic meter: Predominantly iambic heptameter
- Copyrights ©: 1980 & 1985 Alain Boublil Music Ltd / Schönberg Music Ltd
Song Meaning and Annotations
Schönberg writes silence as skillfully as sound, and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” proves it. One lone A-minor chord hovers over a heartbeat pizzicato, giving Marius nothing to lean on but remorse. Kretzmer’s lyrics trade revolution’s big promises for kitchen-table objects—chairs, corners, phantom faces—showing how grief miniaturises the world. The Symphonic Recording sweeps in a 70-piece string section, yet the arrangement still feels hollow, as though the orchestra itself is missing comrades.
Michael Ball back in 2014 told a story about this song. Right after the 4-hour-long preview of Les Misérables in 1985, the creative team was considering to cut some songs. "Empty Chairs" was one of the songs planned to be removed. Michael heard about it and rushed to find Cameron, told him that he would quit for good if this song was cut. It was the only solo of Marius, and he didn't want to lose this opportunity to perform. They finally kept the song.The number is staged as a séance: ghostly chorus lines appear, then dissolve, leaving Marius with more echoes than answers. In Tom Hooper’s 2012 film, Eddie Redmayne insisted the first verse be sung a cappella so the camera could “hear the room breathe” before the orchestra slips beneath him . The take we see was reportedly shot twenty-one times; Redmayne kept begging for another until his voice cracked into the hurt the scene demanded .
Verse-by-Verse Glimpse
Opening Lamento
There's a grief that can't be spoken / There's a pain goes on and on
The melody descends a fourth, literally falling under its own emotional weight.
Revolution Recalled
Here they talked of revolution / Here it was they lit the flame
A sudden modulation to C-major—a glimpse of yesterday’s optimism—before the harmony darkens back to minor.
Communion at Dawn
The very words that they had sung / Became their last communion
Schönberg stacks unresolved sevenths so the line never quite lands, mirroring Marius’s unanswered question: was it worth it?
Ghost Refrain
Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me...
Pizzicato stops, giving parchment-thin room for the tenor to break; a suspended horn note enters like a funerary bugle.
Similar Songs
- “Bring Him Home” – Les Misérables
Valjean’s prayer and Marius’s elegy share an almost hymn-like simplicity; both sit in 3/4, both hover at mezzopiano until a desperate high G pierces the texture. Where Valjean pleads for one life, Marius mourns many. - “I Won’t Send Roses” – Mack & Mabel (1974)
Jerry Herman’s ballad likewise uses empty imagery—roses, letters—as stand-ins for absent love. Both tunes melt from minor into major for a single bar before retreating, emphasising regret. - “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” – Alan Jackson (2001)
A country anthem rather than show-tune, yet it echoes Marius’s survivor’s-guilt narrative: the singer survives catastrophe and questions the meaning of sacrifice, set to a gentle 3/4 to disarm the listener.
Questions and Answers
- Did “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” chart as a single?
- Eddie Redmayne’s film version entered the UK Download chart in January 2013, peaking at No. 66 and briefly reaching No. 110 on the Billboard Hot Digital Songs tally.
- Has the song won—or been nominated for—awards?
- Yes. The Online Film & Television Association nominated it for “Best Adapted Song” in 2013 after the film’s release.
- What notable covers exist outside theatre?
- Recordings by Josh Groban (2015) , Collabro (2017) , and a duet by Alfie Boe with Nick Jonas (2011 re-issue) have all charted on UK classical-crossover lists.
- Is the melody recycled from another part of the score?
- Parts echo “The Bishop of Digne” motif, tying Marius’s lament to Valjean’s earlier salvation arc . It’s Schönberg’s musical way of asking whether redemption scales from one life to many.
- Why do some productions stage “phantom chairs” on set?
- The original London blocking used invisible props so that only Marius “sees” his friends, forcing audiences to imagine the dead—turning absence into its own visual effect, a concept many directors still honour.
Awards and Chart Positions
- 33rd Grammy Awards – Best Musical Cast Show Album (1991) for The Complete Symphonic Recording
- Online Film & Television Association nomination (2013) – Best Adapted Song (Eddie Redmayne version)
- UK Download Chart: Eddie Redmayne single peak #66 (January 2013)
Fan and Media Reactions
“Ball’s final high A cracks just enough to sound human—devastating.” – CastAlbums forum user
“Redmayne’s live-on-set take had me sobbing; never thought a blockbuster would dare so much silence.” – New York Theater review
“Josh Groban covers it, but nothing beats Michael Ball’s raw 1988 vibrato.” – Twitter thread @BroadwayNerd
“Our dance team used the track in competition; judges called it ‘the most cinematic two minutes of the night.’” – Industry Dance Awards nominee announcement
“Twenty-one takes? Worth every tear, Eddie.” – Film Experience interview