‘Les Miz’ at The Pantages: What we saw backstage on opening night
It’s 90 minutes before curtain on opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Hollywood Pantages Theater. The actors arrive, sign in through the stage door, and head to their dressing rooms. Crew members in baggy pants set the scene on stage, the costume department steams dresses and hairstylists comb wigs in the basement room backstage.
Ken Davis, the tour’s production stage manager, deals with the well-organized chaos with a smile, pointing out the massive props that occupy every possible nook and cranny of the wings.
Jennifer Thoele, assistant wardrobe supervisor, works behind the scenes with the wardrobe staff at Pantages. There are over 1,000 costumes in the show, which arrive on their tractor trailer during the show tours.
“We walked into an empty building two days ago,” he says. “We played a show in San Francisco on Sunday night, and then we came here and started loading, and now we’re playing a show for the good people of 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 team sent a celebratory video to the British cast to commemorate the huge event, and the mood backstage before the curtain was jubilant.
“Audiences are still clamoring to see this show so many years later – it’s absolutely incredible,” says Nick Cartel, who played ex-convict Jean Valjean for seven years and in more than 1,500 performances. “I am honored to be part of this legacy and to carry the message of resilience and the survival of the human spirit to the masses.”
Kartel applies makeup in his dressing room at the top of the show, which includes a black eye, bloody lip, and a lot of dirt from being on the prison ship. Nick Rehberger, who played the uncompromising Inspector Javert in last year’s run, soon joins Cartell.
The duo forms the backbone of the musical drama through the tension created by Javert’s relentless quest to catch Valjean, who has broken parole and – as a reformed man – taken custody of the orphaned Cosette. The adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel is a real tearjerker, which is a big part of its appeal to loyal fans.
“I’ve wanted to play this role since I was 13,” says Reberger. “So to do it now, with everything going on in the Les Miz world, is very special and exciting.”
Nick Reberger, who plays Javert, is putting the finishing touches on his hair and makeup backstage. Rehberger uses mascara to darken his beard and changes wigs several times as his character ages.
Stage manager Ken Davis points to the sign backstage at Thénardier’s Inn. A conniving waiter tricks customers by pretending to be a war hero at the Battle of Waterloo.
Rehberger takes a tube of mascara and begins combing his beard for color, smiling as he does so. He jokes that he adds more “crudely drawn crayon lines and mascara beard” to show his character’s aging throughout the show. However, the effect from the audience’s perspective is quite convincing.
The nearly century-old theater is stuffed to the rafters, quite literally, with set pieces hanging from ropes and pulleys attached to the upper deck above the stage and wings. Look up and you might see a cart full of bales of hay or a thick wooden staircase. Five of these stairs would eventually be fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle to form the famous parapet where the revolutionary students fight and die in the second act.
The barricade is also where the actress who plays Fantine, Lindsey Heather Pierce, sits for a time when she becomes part of the band after singing “I Dreamed a Dream.” Davis says the tradition dates back to the show’s original run in London in 1985, when Broadway legend Patti LuPone played the role.
Lindsay Heather Pierce, who plays Fantine, receives flowers before the show. Her dressing room is the same one she used when she came to the Pantages on tour with the “Mean Girls.”
Lindsay Heather Pearce signs in when she arrives at the stage door before opening night. Pierce lived in Los Angeles for 11 years, performing at Rockwell Table & Stage, before moving to New York.
Pierce is filled with joy and gratitude on this special night. After she checked in at the stage door, she was handed a bouquet of flowers sent by her agent and manager. In her dressing room, she notes that being at Pantages is a kind of homecoming 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 formative connection to the iconic production. Assistant Principal Laura Wren saw the show at Pantages in the early 1990s when she was on a high school field trip with her drama class. She has now been traveling with the show for years.
“My house is with Les Miz,” Ren says.
Laura Wren, assistant prop master, checks the shackles on the ship’s prop. Rin has been touring for years, but she holds a special place in her heart for the Pantages, where she first saw “Les Misérables” as a high school student in the 1990s.
The ledger is used as a backstage support. The crew tries to make all the props as authentic as possible, and has written entries in this book in French.
Rin says there are at least 100 items, but that number could reach into the thousands if you count small items like coins.
The show travels around the country with 11 tractor trailers filled with equipment — just one trailer is dedicated to costumes, of which there are more than 1,000. The backstage section is filled with racks of gowns, jackets, pants, corsets, skirts, stockings, shoes, hats and suits dating back to the early 19th century. Some ensemble members play multiple roles and may wear as many as 15 costumes throughout the show, says wardrobe head Carissa Tutloff.
Wig supervisor Maddie Guidroz says her team keeps 120 wigs, and uses about 30 of them during the show.
There are at least 120 wigs preserved for the show, and approximately 30 are used each night, says Maddy Guidroz, head of the hair department.
Wigs stand at the ready on a rack in the Pantages’ basement room. Les Misérables is set in the early 1800s, and wigs are a big part of defining that time period.
“The first 40 minutes of the show, especially for the band, it’s like you’ve been shot out of a cannon,” says resident director Kyle Timson of the actors who are constantly exiting the stage and returning in new costumes.
The magic of these quick changes is achieved by costume designers busily stacking costumes on chairs in reverse order, starting at the top of the first act.
One of the only lulls in the costume department comes in the second act when Valjean sings the sentimental “Bring Him Home.” Tutloff says she often stops to watch from the wings.
“You’ll finally be able to see what you’re working for here,” she says.
A variety of set pieces, including five staircases like this one, are put together like a jigsaw puzzle to form the iconostasis that the student revolutionaries use in their battle in Act 2.
Stage manager Ken Davis reviews the show’s 400-page score. During the performance, Davis recalls cues using musical notes as his guide.
Davis is a bit like a conductor backstage, making sure that all the individual teams — lighting, carpenters, stagehands and more — are working as a unified unit so that everything happening on stage sounds seamless. He is stationed at his desk throughout the three-hour runtime, calling out cues based on notes from a nearly 400-page piece of music.
“The choreography here is more intense in some ways than the choreography on stage,” Davis says. “Because we have 40 people on staff running around with another 25 or so people on crew — and also all these things happen — and it’s in the dark.”
Thirty minutes until curtain, the darkness buzzes with subtle, beehive-like activity. The orchestra is warming up – there’s a trumpet honking, and the strings sounding. The audience begins to stream in and the sound of excited chatter joins the stray notes. Soon, Cartel will take the stage and take his place on the convict’s boat, moving 40 years of theater history into the future.
Theatergoers gather in the Pantages foyer before opening night.