No collection of my career highlights would be complete without a (brief) account of performing in the original Broadway production of Les Miserables.
In 1991, I was delighted to receive a call from my agent that Andy Zerman at Johnson-Liff wanted me to audition as a replacement for Thenardier, the Master of the House, in the production playing at the Imperial. I went in for a “work session” with Richard-Jay Alexander and was stunned to hear, later that same afternoon, that they were offering me a contract.
The cast had been playing the show for quite some time and for some it was just a job– but for me it was incredibly exciting. I found all of my fellow cast members friendly and supportive.
I rehearsed the show barely two weeks before I went on.
It was a terrifying evening. For one thing, I was on stage with many actors whom I’d never met; my “put-in” only involved a few of the cast. What is more, it was announced that so many actors had called out sick that night, there’d be two “combo” track– I didn’t know what that meant, and was informed that four actors would be covering the roles usually played by six (!)
I’d also never sung with the orchestra (or any full Broadway-size orchestra) until that first night, nor had I heard the sound effects (e.g., water dripping in the sewer), nor used a body mic, nor been on stage with clouds of chemical smoke and fog. Nor on a stage so deeply raked that Actors Equity later changed the rules to prohibit it.
The show at that time was 3 hours and ten minutes long. (Its length was, much later, reduced.) I would leave the theatre on weeknights at 11:30 and get home at midnight.
Getting that first Broadway show opened up the possibility for me to be taken seriously when other Broadway shows were casting, and I was fortunate to do seven more over the next twenty years.
