From a vision to reality, the theatre department presented their very own rendition of Les Misérables with a musical lasting a little over two and a half hours, taking place between Nov. 7 and Nov 10.
With Les Misérables being known as one of the hardest musicals to perform, this was no walk in the park for students in theatre. Theatre director Brooke Phillips dedicated most of her days towards getting this performance just how she wanted it to be.
“We selected the musical about a year ago, so planning started about a year in advance,” Phillips said. “Over the summer, I met with some of the team about set ideas and then we had auditions right after Labor Day and we were able to make progress quickly with the cast and crew after that.”
With so much time and effort dedicated to this musical, the audience, cast and crew alike knew this was something special from the very beginning.
“It’s a hard one to pull off, but we lucked out in getting the best of the best students to come perform it — and that also made it special,” Phillips said. “When a cast just really gels together, and hits every mark, that is something to celebrate.”
To make for the most immersive storytelling experience possible, the cast had to dedicate a vast amount of time into becoming their very character, and some felt like their character on a personal level.
“I could really relate with the idea of having to move on from something now that I’m about to graduate, like how Jean Valjean died,” Senior Caleb Houser (Jean Valjean) said. “It was nice to connect with that character.”
With so much time spent on stage with one another, the cast and crew had plenty of rehearsals to form a bond and connection.
“I think the community that we built up was pretty fun,” Houser said. “While having a lot of fun, we were also very focused on learning our parts, which made a really cool environment.”
A very special dynamic was built between Hauser’s character Jean Valjean and his inevitable rival, Javert, played by Junior Killian Cusick.
“Ironically offstage, we would often mess around and make jokes, despite being enemies onstage,” Cusick said. “My cast mates were awesome to work with, especially Caleb Houser. I built a closer connection with all of the main characters and we built a rapport.”
While the final musical turned out as perfect as could be, Cusick struggled to hold out hope through his rigorous practices and his character’s need for thorough understanding to portray.
“The constant rehearsals were both extremely fun and a little bit stressful, and sometimes it felt as if the show wouldn’t ever come together, But eventually, it did,” Cusick said. “Expressing myself in an interesting way on stage while still maintaining the stone faced personality of the character was one of the most challenging parts.”
Despite setbacks in character development, grueling rehearsals that felt like they just weren’t getting any better, and a year of meticulous planning for Les Misérables—known to be one of the hardest plays in existence, the musical became a resounding success, drawing an outstanding attendance and earning an unofficial decree among students naming it as “Millard West’s best performance ever.”
