Les Miserables: Thenardier or Inkeeper?

We recently watched the 2012 movie and saw the Broadway show, and my kids really enjoyed both of them. After we saw the show one of them was looking in the Playbill and there is a bio for the actor who played Thenardier, who owns an inn with his wife and they’re the comic relief characters. But there’s also a separate bio in the Playbill for “Innkeeper”; I can’t remember if there’s a bio for “Innkeeper’s wife”. I was puzzled that there’d be a separate character with that title since the Thenardiers are informally known as the Innkeepers, and some of their songs even refer to them as such.

So I looked on the IMDB listing for the movie and there as well is a separate character listing for “Innkeeper”. Who is this innkeeper in the show- where do we meet him, or is he just one of many townspeople?

Probably at the beginning, where Valjean is trying to find a place to stay while on parole and everyone tells him to get out.

I guess that would make sense, thanks.

I’d hate to be the guy who was cast as the Innkeeper. “No, not that one. The one you see for a few seconds in the beginning then never hear from again. Yeah, I know.”

He probably plays about six or eight parts in the course of the play.

Yes. Even the principals end up in the chorus. There’s a story about Patti Lupone’s actually being in another production while she was also in Les Miz being the reason that the actress who plays Fantine doesn’t show up in the chorus until the 2nd Act.

I get that. My point was given the potential for people to assume his role as the “Innkeeper” was the Thernadier role, he’d probably have to keep explaining the distinction.