Musical about leaders of early English rebels looks like Les Misérables ? (9)
I believe the answer is:
cheerless
'like les miserables ?' is the definition.
(cheerless can mean miserable)
'musical about leaders of early english rebels looks' is the wordplay.
'musical' becomes 'chess' (Benny Andersson and Bjrn Ulvaeus musical).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'leaders of' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'early english rebels looks' is 'eerl'.
'chess' enclosing 'eerl' is 'CHEERLESS'.
(Other definitions for cheerless that I've seen before include "Gloomy, depressing" , "not hip?" , "Miserable" , "Bleak" , "Dreary" .)