Curtain is 90 minutes before the opening night of Les Miserables at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. The actors arrive, sign at the service entrance and head to their dressing rooms. Crew members in cargo pants prepare the stage set, the costume department steams dresses, and hairdressers comb wigs in a backstage basement room.
Ken Davis, the tour director, takes in the well-organized chaos with a smile, gesturing at the massive props occupying every possible nook and cranny backstage.
Jennifer Toele, assistant costumer, works behind the scenes with the Pantages costumers. The show features more than 1,000 costumes, which arrive on their own tractor trailer when on tour.
“Two days ago we walked into an empty building,” he says. “We did a show in San Francisco on Sunday night, and then we came here and started loading up, and now we’re doing a show for good people in Los Angeles.”
But this isn't just any opening night – it marks the 40th anniversary of the musical's premiere at London's Barbican Theatre, making it the longest running musical in the West End and the second longest running musical in the world. The Los Angeles cast sent the UK cast a celebratory video celebrating this monumental milestone, and the mood backstage before the curtain call is euphoric.
“After all these years, audiences are still hungry to see this show – it's incredible,” says Nick Cartell, who played ex-con Jean Valjean for seven years and performed in more than 1,500 performances. “I am honored to be a part of this legacy and bring to audiences the message of resilience and survival of the human spirit.”
-
Share via
Cartell applies makeup in his dressing room for the start of the show, sporting a black eye, a bloody lip and a lot of dirt from his time on the prison ship. Nick Rehberger, who played the tireless Inspector Javert on tour last year, is soon joining Cartell.
The duet forms the basis of the drama of the musical, despite the strain of Javert's relentless quest to capture Valjean, who has violated his parole and – as a reformed man – has taken custody of the orphan Cosette. The film adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel is tear-jerking, and that's largely what endears it to its devoted fans.
“I’ve wanted to play this role since I was 13,” Rehberger says. “So to do it now, with everything going on in the Les Miz universe, it’s very special and very exciting.”
Nick Rehberger, who plays Javert, is backstage putting the finishing touches on his hair and makeup. Rehberger uses mascara to darken his beard and changes wigs several times as his character ages.
Stage director Ken Davis points to the Thénardier Hotel sign backstage. A devious bartender tricks customers by pretending to be a war hero from the Battle of Waterloo.
Rehberger takes out a tube of mascara and begins applying it to his beard for color, smiling as he does so. He jokes that he simply adds more “roughly penciled lines and a mascaraed beard” to show his character's aging throughout the show. However, the effect from the audience's point of view is quite convincing.
The almost century-old theater is literally packed to the rafters with decorations that hang from ropes and pulleys attached to the attic above the stage and wings. Look up and you'll see a wagon filled with hay bales or a thick wooden ladder. Five of these stairs will eventually be pieced together like a puzzle to form the series' iconic barricade where the student revolutionaries fight and die in the second act.
Also sitting on the barricade is the actress who plays Fantine, Lindsay Heather Pierce, as she becomes part of the ensemble after performing the heartbreaking song “I Dreamed a Dream.” The tradition, Davis said, dates back to the show's first run in London in 1985, when Broadway legend Patti LuPone played the role.
Lindsay Heather Pierce, who plays Fantine, receives flowers before the performance. Her dressing room is the same one she used when she came to Pantages on tour with Mean Girls.
Lindsay Heather Pierce logs in as she approaches the stage entrance before opening night. Pierce lived in Los Angeles for 11 years and performed at Rockwell Table & Stage before moving to New York.
On this special evening, Pierce is full of joy and gratitude. After she checked in at the stage door, she was given a bouquet of flowers sent by her agent and manager. In her dressing room, she notes that visiting Pantages is a homecoming of sorts because she lived in Los Angeles for 11 years before moving to New York. She first saw Les Miz at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco in 2005, when she was 14 years old.
Almost everyone seems to have a defining connection to the iconic work. Assistant props manager Laura Reen saw the show at Pantages in the early '90s while she was on a school field trip with her drama class. She has now been traveling with the show for many years.
“My home is Les Miz,” says Rin.
Laura Rin, assistant props manager, checks the shackles on the ship's prop. Rin has been touring for many years, but has a special place in her heart for the band Pantages, where she first saw “Les Misérables” as a high school student in the 90s.
A ledger used as a backstage prop. The film crew tries to make all the props as authentic as possible and makes notes in this book in French.
Rin says there are at least 100 props, but the number could be in the thousands if you count small items like coins.
The show travels the country with 11 tractor trailers filled with equipment—one trailer is dedicated just to the costumes, of which there are more than 1,000. The backstage section is filled with racks of exquisite early 19th-century dresses, jackets, pants, corsets, petticoats, socks, shoes, hats, suits and more. “Some ensemble members play multiple roles and may wear up to 15 costumes throughout the show,” says Carissa Tutloff, wardrobe director.
Wig and hair supervisor Maddie Guidroz says her team maintains 120 wigs and uses about 30 during the show.
Muddy Guidroz, head of the hair department, says there are at least 120 wigs available for the show, and nearly 30 are used each night.
The wigs sit ready on a shelf in the Pantages basement. Les Misérables is set in the early 19th century, and wigs play an important role in establishing this time period.
“The first 40 minutes of the show, especially for the ensemble, it's like you've been shot out of a cannon,” says regular director Kyle Timson of the actors, who constantly leave the stage and return in new clothes.
The magic of these rapid changes is achieved by the costumers, who arrange the costumes on the chairs in reverse order, starting from the beginning of the first act.
One of the few lulls in the costume department comes in the second act, when Valjean sings the emotional song “Bring Him Home.” Tutloff says she often stops to watch from behind the scenes.
“You'll finally see what you're really working here for,” she says.
Various sets, including five staircases like this one, are pieced together like a puzzle to form the iconic barricade that the student revolutionaries use in their battle in the second act.
Stage director Ken Davis reviews the show's 400-page score. During the show, Davis gives signals using musical notes as a guide.
Davis is a bit like a conductor behind the scenes: he makes sure that all the individual teams—lighters, carpenters, stagehands, and more—are working as a cohesive unit to make everything that happens on stage look cohesive. He sits at his desk throughout the three-hour performance, prompting lines based on musical notes from the nearly 400-page score.
“The choreography here is more intense in some ways than the choreography on stage,” says Davis. “Because we have about 40 people in the cast running around and about 25 people in the crew – and then all this happens – and it's in the dark.”
Thirty minutes before curtain, the darkness buzzes with clear, beehive-like activity. The orchestra is warming up – the trumpet sounds, the strings sound. The audience begins to arrive, and the occasional note is joined by the sound of excited chatter. Soon the Cartel will take the stage and take its place in the convict's boat, and 40 years of theater history will be carried into the future.
Theatergoers gather in the Pantages lobby before opening night.
