In 1986, the Kennedy Center hosted the pre-Broadway debut of what would become the “world’s most popular musical,” seen by over 130 million people worldwide in 53 countries and 22 languages.
Starting Tuesday, “Les Misérables” returns to the Kennedy Center in D.C. for three weeks from April 11-29.
“It’s been running on the West End for 37 years, it’s played in every country imaginable, it’s been translated into practically every language imaginable and it is still the world’s most popular musical,” lead actor Nick Cartell told WTOP. “I think there is a connection that audiences have with this show because of what Victor Hugo wrote. He wrote about characters that people can relate to at all different points in their lives.”
Based on Hugo’s 1862 novel, the redemption story is set in early 19th century France where peasant Jean Valjean gets parole after 19 years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child. When he’s caught stealing again, a merciful bishop doesn’t report him but rather gives Valjean two silver candlesticks, insisting that he must now do good in the world. Valjean vows a new life, but the police inspector Javert is hot on his trail.
“It really sets his life on a different trajectory than it was originally supposed to be on,” Cartell said. “It really transforms Valjean and it makes him become compassionate to others. … When he meets Fantine, who passes away, he adopts her daughter, so it’s all this story of redemption, sacrifice, love and survival of the human spirit.”
It’s all set against the backdrop of young idealists overthrowing the government at a Paris street barricade.
“What the students are fighting for in the show is education for all,” Cartell said. “Regardless of when we set the show, regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on, there is something about this show that is people fighting to be heard, fighting for their place in this world. … Then you see the war that’s happening in Ukraine and that group of people fighting for their country, fighting to be heard. … It’s one of the staying powers of ‘Les Mis.'”
Cartell feels a deep personal connection to the character’s song “Bring Him Home,” having lost his own mom to ovarian cancer in 2017 after a five-year battle of undergoing chemotherapy before flying on plane to visit him.
“Such a strong force in my life, so to sit on that barricade as Valjean and think about the sacrifices that Valjean was going to make for his daughter and that he’s going to protect this boy, I was able to connect that to the sacrifices my mom made for me,” Cartell said. “My wife and I had a daughter during the pandemic, a little girl, so now me sitting on that barricade as Valjean thinking about my own daughter … it means so much to me.”
Rather than intermittent musical numbers broken up by scenes of dialogue, “Les Mis” is entirely sung-through for the three-hour duration, featuring timeless music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyrics by Alain Boublil.
“You have songs like ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ ‘Stars,’ ‘On My Own,’ ‘Bring Him Home’ and ‘One Day More’ … it’s hit after hit after hit,” Cartell said. “These songs have been recorded by pop stars, so it’s in the ether. You might not even know that you know this song until you start hearing the music. … You are transported with this music. There is something physically that happens every night to me when I hear the beginning of ‘One Day More.'”
The iconic music is paired with detailed period visuals recreating 19th century France. In fact, when “Les Misérables” premiered in the 1980s, its set design was equally revolutionary using a giant turntable on stage.
“People were walking on stage and the stage was moving underneath them, so you got that sense of movement,” Cartell said. “When they went back and were reimagining the show, they did away with the turntable but what they added were these beautiful projections. Many people don’t know that Victor Hugo was also an incredible artist. … When you walk in, you see this beautiful watercolor [back]drop of his version of what Paris looked like.”
Of course, millennials best remember the 2012 movie musical directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne and an Oscar-winning Anne Hathaway.
“Watching him do that role, you’ve got big shoes to fill,” Cartell said. “The fact that I am playing a role that Hugh Jackman played on film is not lost on me, that is a big undertaking, but it’s cool that we’re in a brotherhood now, that I’m in a brotherhood of actors that have played a role in a musical that has run the longest of any other show.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
