A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR
I’m pretty excited about getting to do Les Misérables. It’s massive – huge set, tons of costumes,
lots of people, complicated music, impossible vocals, a timeless classic. I’m also freaking out
about doing Les Misérables. I mean, this show is massive – huge set, tons of costumes, lots of
people, complicated music, impossible vocals, a timeless classic. But I think the scariest thing
about doing this show is just how popular it is. I mean, people really, really, really love this show.
Of course, TCR has done massive and complicated and impossible before. We’ve even done
timeless classic and wildly popular. But none of these things are a reason to do theatre. If you
know me (and many of you do), you know that I need a larger reason to do something in order for
it to be worth the volunteers’ time, worth the audiences’ time, worth anyone’s time.
Les Misérables, the musical, is based on Les Misérables, the epic novel written by Victor Hugo
and published in 1862. It spans the years between 1815 and 1832, ending around the time of the
June Rebellion in Paris. The copy of the book I have is a whopping 1, 232 pages.
The appearance of the novel was highly anticipated and advertised. Critical reactions were
diverse, but most of them were negative. Commercially, the work was a great success globally.
The book, like the musical, was a critical flop but outrageously popular. In fact, if it weren’t for the
French people in 1862 buying Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, there would be no musical of Les
Misérables. And if it weren’t for people flocking to buy tickets to the musical Les Misérables, it
would not be the classic piece of musical theatre that it is.
At the opening of the London production, critical reviews were negative. The Sunday Telegraph
described the show as “a lurid Victorian melodrama produced with Victorian lavishness” and the
Observer dubbed the show “a witless and synthetic entertainment.” Literary scholars condemned
the project for converting classic literature into a musical. Public opinion differed: the box office
received record orders. The three-month engagement sold out.
AHA! There is the bigger reason, I thought, as I came across these interesting facts. This story is
for the people, in whatever form it comes, whether it’s in a dauntingly dense novel written more
than 100 years ago or a gigantic musical theatre production that opened nearly 30 years ago.
This story is for the people.
But why? Why do people respond to this story so strongly? And then I put it up against our current
situations. The global conversations lately have been about equality and level playing fields and
opportunities for all. There has been unrest all over the world because of the inequities between
governments and their people or the imbalance that governments create and/or perpetuate
among its people. Think the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party Movements in the United States,
the Zapatistas in Mexico, and the Arab Spring, to name a few. Over the centuries, there has
always been conflict between the people and their governments. Sometimes our voices are loud
and sometimes our voices can barely be heard, but there is always a conversation going on,
reasonable or not, between the people at large and those men and women who govern them.
And while I know that the main characters of the story are Valjean and Javert, I believe that they
are the catalysts for this conversation, the representatives of each side, as people navigate the
gray area between right and wrong. Valjean stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s child. Was it
a crime? Yes. Should he have spent 19 years in jail for that crime? No. And so it goes throughout
history. I think that’s why people love Les Misérables. And I think that’s why I’m most excited to
do this show. Yes, I’m freaked out by the sheer magnitude of it and by the responsibility of doing
this show in the way in which this story was intended, but I am also honored to be a part of the
legacy that asks the question, do you hear the people sing? I think that’s the reason to do this
show. It’s for the people.
-Leslie Charipar, TCR Artistic Director