It’s 90 minutes earlier than curtain on the opening evening of “Les Misérables” on the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. Actors are arriving, signing in by the stage door and heading to their dressing rooms. Crew members in cargo pants put together surroundings on stage, the costume division steams attire and hairstylists comb wigs in a basement room backstage.
Ken Davis, the tour’s manufacturing stage supervisor, takes within the well-orchestrated chaos with a smile, gesturing on the large props that occupy each doable nook and cranny within the wings.
Jennifer Thoele, assistant wardrobe supervisor, works backstage with wardrobe workers on the Pantages. There are greater than 1,000 costumes within the present, which arrive on their very own tractor trailer when the present excursions.
“We walked into an empty constructing two days in the past,” he says. “We did a present in San Francisco on Sunday evening, after which we got here right here and began loading in, and now we’re doing a present for the nice people in L.A.”
However this isn’t simply any opening evening — it marks the fortieth anniversary of the musical’s premiere at London’s Barbican Theater, making it the longest-running musical within the West Finish and the second-longest-running musical on the planet. The L.A. forged has despatched a celebratory video to the British forged commemorating the monumental milestone, and the temper behind the scenes earlier than curtain is euphoric.
“Audiences are nonetheless clamoring to see this present after so a few years — it’s completely unimaginable,” says Nick Cartell, who has performed former convict Jean Valjean for seven years and in additional than 1,500 performances. “I’m simply honored to be part of this legacy and to convey this message of resilience and survival of the human spirit to audiences.”
Cartell is making use of make-up in his dressing room for the highest of the present, which features a black eye, a bloody lip and loads of filth from being on the jail ship. Nick Rehberger, who has performed the relentless Inspector Javert on tour for the previous yr, quickly joins Cartell.
The duo type the spine of the musical’s drama by way of the stress of Javert’s relentless quest to seize Valjean, who has damaged parole and — as a reformed man — taken custody of the orphan Cosette. The difference of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel is an actual tearjerker, which is a large a part of its attract for devoted followers.
“I’ve wished to play this half since I used to be 13 years previous,” Rehberger says. “So to get to do it now, with all that’s occurring within the ‘Les Miz’ universe, could be very particular and really thrilling.”
Nick Rehberger, who performs Javert, will get ultimate touches on his hair and make-up backstage. Rehberger makes use of mascara to darken his beard and adjustments wigs a number of instances as his character ages.
Stage supervisor Ken Davis factors out the signal from Thénardier’s Inn backstage. The conniving barman cheats clients by pretending he was a warfare hero within the Battle of Waterloo.
Rehberger takes out a tube of mascara and begins brushing it on his beard for coloration, smiling as he does so. He jokes that he simply provides extra “crudely drawn crayon strains and mascara beard” to indicate his character growing older all through the course of the present. The impact from the viewers’s vantage level, although, is totally convincing.
The almost century-old theater is stuffed to the rafters, fairly actually, with set items, which cling from ropes and pulleys connected to the fly loft above the stage and wings. Search for and also you would possibly see a wagon stuffed with hay bales or a thick picket staircase. 5 of these staircases will finally be fitted collectively like a jigsaw puzzle to type the present’s iconic barricade the place the coed revolutionaries struggle and die in Act 2.
The barricade can be the place the actor who performs Fantine, Lindsay Heather Pearce, sits for a time when she turns into a part of the ensemble after singing the heart-wrenching “I Dreamed a Dream.” The custom, says Davis, dates all the way in which again to the present’s unique 1985 London run, when Broadway legend Patti LuPone performed the function.
Lindsay Heather Pearce, who performs Fantine, receives flowers earlier than the present. Her dressing room is similar one she used when she got here to the Pantages on tour with “Imply Women.”
Lindsay Heather Pearce indicators in when she arrives on the stage door earlier than opening evening. Pearce lived in L.A. for 11 years, and carried out at Rockwell Desk & Stage, earlier than shifting to New York.
Pearce is stuffed with pleasure and gratitude on this particular evening. After she indicators in on the stage door, she’s handed a flower bouquet despatched by her agent and supervisor. In her dressing room, she notes that being on the Pantages is a type of homecoming as a result of she lived in L.A. for 11 years earlier than shifting to New York. She first noticed “Les Miz” on the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco in 2005 when she was 14.
Nearly all people appears to have a formative connection to the enduring manufacturing. Assistant prop grasp Laura Rin noticed the present on the Pantages within the early ’90s when she was a on a highschool subject journey along with her drama class. She’s now been touring with the present for years.
“My house is with ‘Les Miz,’ ” Rin says.
Laura Rin, an assistant prop grasp, checks the shackles on the ship prop. Rin has been touring for years, however holds a particular place in her coronary heart for the Pantages, the place she first noticed “Les Misérables” as a highschool scholar within the ’90s.
A ledger used as a prop backstage. The crew tries to make all of the props as genuine as doable, and has written entries on this e book in French.
Rin says there are no less than 100 props, however that quantity can run into the 1000’s in the event you depend small objects like items of forex.
The present travels the nation with 11 tractor trailers stuffed with gear — one trailer is reserved only for costumes, of which there are greater than 1,000. A bit backstage is stuffed with racks of elaborate early nineteenth century robes, jackets, trousers, corsets, petticoats, socks, sneakers, hats, fits and extra. Some members of the ensemble play a number of roles and would possibly don as much as 15 costumes all through the course of the present, says Karissa Toutloff, head of wardrobe.
Wig and hair supervisor Maddi Guidroz says her staff maintains 120 wigs, and makes use of about 30 through the present.
Maddi Guidroz, head of the hair division, says there are no less than 120 wigs maintained for the present and almost 30 are used every evening.
Wigs stand on the prepared on a shelf in a basement room on the Pantages. “Les Misérables” takes place in early nineteenth century and wigs are a giant a part of establishing that point interval.
“The primary 40 minutes of the present, particularly for the ensemble, it’s such as you’re shot out of a cannon,” says resident director Kyle Timson of the actors who’re continuously exiting the stage and reentering in new garb.
The magic of these fast adjustments is achieved by the dressers who’re busy stacking the costumes on chairs in reverse order, starting with the highest of Act 1.
One of many solely lulls within the costume division comes within the second act when Valjean sings the emotional “Carry Him Dwelling.” Toutloff says she usually stops to observe from the wings.
“You get to lastly see what you’re really working for again right here,” she says.
A wide range of set items, together with 5 staircases similar to this one, are put collectively like a jigsaw puzzle to type the enduring barricade that the scholar revolutionaries use for his or her battle in Act 2.
Stage supervisor Ken Davis opinions the present’s 400-page rating. Through the present, Davis calls cues utilizing musical notes as his information.
Davis is a bit like a backstage conductor, ensuring that the entire particular person groups — lighting, carpenters, stage palms and extra — work as a unified complete in order that every part that occurs onstage seems seamless. He’s stationed at his desk all through the three-hour run, calling cues based mostly on musical notes from an almost 400-page rating.
“The choreography again right here is extra intense in a manner than the choreography on stage,” Davis says. “As a result of we have now 40-some people within the forged working round with one other 25 or so people within the crew — and likewise all these things occurring — and it’s at nighttime.”
Thirty minutes till curtain, that darkness buzzes with exact, hive-like exercise. The orchestra warms up — there’s the toot of a horn, the sound of strings. The viewers begins to trickle in and the sound of excited chatter joins the errant notes. Quickly, Cartell will step onstage and take his place on the convict’s boat, and 40 years of theater historical past will transfer into the long run.
Theatergoers collect within the foyer of the Pantages earlier than opening evening.
