Sydney show enters second year Heart-soul yields in ‘Les Miserables’

Press, 29 December 1988, Page 17

Sydney show enters second year Heart-soul yields in ‘Les Miserables’

By

ROY SINCLAIR

The Australian production of “Les Miserables” has completed its first year. Throughout the year, Sydney’s Theatre Royal has been almost full for every performance, and each week, 600 to 1000 tickets have been sold in New Zealand. Before the show opened, “Les Miserables” and the author of the original story, Victor Hugo, were hardly known in New Zealand. Why has the show become so popular, and why are so many New Zealanders prepared to make a trip to Sydney just to see it?

"Les Miserables” is Victor Hugo’s most impressive novel, completed in 1862, 30 years after it was started. The book has more than 1200 pages, and providing you have a good English translation, it is compelling reading.

The stage performance captures the spirit of Hugo’s story. The musical is being performed in cities round the world. Many critics say that the Australian production compares more than favourably with any other. In fact, the Australian performance has been said to be better, over-all, than its London counterpart.

Hugo’s story involves every possible human emotion and condition, although it was intended as a social document for France in the 1860 s. “Les Miserables” is a title with no English equivalent. Hugo’s miserables are the result of grouping together the unfortunate and infamous who then become the outcasts and underdogs. Robyn Arthur, who plays Madam Thenardier, says the production is a highlight in the careers of the Australian cast.

“It is not a glamorous show, however. We have to put on dirt and blacken our teeth before going on stage.” At 35, she feels right about her role as a wife and mother with several children. “People were much younger than they looked and they died earlier in the 1830 s. Times were really rough.” She has been in successful television and stage productions, including “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which toured all capital cities in Australia and New Zealand in the 19705. Last year, she played Sister Robert Anne in “Nunsense.” “It’s good being a baddie in

‘Les Miserables’ after being a nun last year.”

Most of the cast have read Hugo’s novel. Robyn Arthur was delightful to discover that the stage production follows the original story as much as it is possible with a three-hour performance.

“This makes us try to be truthful to Hugo’s characters. Before we started, we were told that we were not performing ’Oklahoma.’ ‘Les Miserables’ was

going to cost us something. “For the show to be any good, it has to be convincing. At the barricade, for example, wives and lovers leaving their men know they are unlikely to see them alive again. Such scenes require an actor’s heart and soul if they are to be believed.” According to the musical director, Peter Casey, “Les Miserables” has to be musically' perfect. But the pieces are difficult to sing. There is a lot of

screaming and shouting, a trial for any singer. Most songs are sung at full volume. “The Australian voice is possibly more suitable than the more refined English voice for some of the show’s more raucous moments,” Robyn Arthur says. “In fact, when director Trevor Nunn came to Australia he said he loved the larrikinism about us.”

While there are many sad moments in the musical there are also many laughs. “Just when you think you can’t cry anymore, the Thenardiers arrive at Marius and Cosette’s wedding and steal the silver,” she says.

She admits that there are not many dry eyes at the end. At one performance, she noticed a big, tough-looking man sitting near the front and wondered how the show would affect him.

During the final scenes, when Fantine’s ghost appears to Jean Valjean along with the ghosts of all the students who fell at the barricade, she noticed that the big man was sobbing. “It’s rewarding to see the show having such a great effect on people who are tough footballer types,” she says. “Throughout the year there have been fantastic houses and numerous standing ovations. It is really exciting to know that thousands of overseas people have gone to all that effort to see the show.”

Jean Valjean is played by Normie Rowe, who at 17 (in the 19605) was Australia’s first major pop star. “I can’t think of anyone more suitable for the part. He is going from strength to strength and making a deserving comeback,” Robyn Arthur says. “Javert has been played by Philip Quast, who is not nearly so forbidding in real life, and he balances Normie Rowe.”

The present Australian performance closed on November 26, but reopened two days later with a reformed cast. Robyn Arthur is remaining with the show along with five of the other former principals. “This will keep the show’s original flavour even though there will be 13 new people involved,” she says. Robyn Arthur thinks that the new Sydney performance will go on until Easter at least. It will then probably go to Melbourne.