'Do You Hear the People Sing?' Ever-popular 'Les Miserables' returns to OKC with U.S. tour
In 2014, Victoria Huston-Elem took on the inviting and exciting opportunity to come to Oklahoma City and star in the “I Dreamed a Dream” role of the tragic Fantine in Lyric Theatre’s production of “Les Misérables.”
“I still kind of can't believe I got to do it, especially under those circumstances, because they hired like … 45 onstage-at-all-times cast members. But they also hired something like a 60-person choir. So, it was 100-plus voices,” recalled Huston-Elem, who also performed in the ensemble of the 2013 production of “Les Misérables” staged by the Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, Florida. “You barely get to be in a show of that scope on even the grandest scales.”
A decade later, Huston-Elem is returning to that same OKC stage — Civic Center Music Hall — to again perform “Les Misérables.” This time, she’s playing the unscrupulous innkeeper’s wife Madame Thénardier in the U.S. tour of the perennially popular musical.
When is ‘Les Misérables’ returning to Oklahoma City?
OKC Broadway will ring in 2024 Jan. 16-21 by hosting the U.S. tour of " Les Misérables” as a special add-on title to its 2023-2024 six-show subscription season. “Les Miz,” as the show is affectionately known, previously played Oklahoma City as an add-on to OKC Broadway’s 2018-2019 season.
Legendary producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh is again presenting Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg's eight-time Tony-winning musical, which is one of the longest-running shows in the history of both Broadway and London’s West End.
The famed adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel is set in tumultuous 19th-century France, as Jean Valjean, aka Prisoner 24601 (Nick Cartell), is released from prison after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and subsequently trying to escape.
After receiving a profound act of mercy, he decides to break his parole, change his identity and create a new life as an honest man. But Valjean is relentlessly hunted by tenacious police Inspector Javert (Preston Truman Boyd).
Valjean comes to the aid of Fantine (Haley Dortch), a downtrodden single mother whose dire circumstances force her into prostitution, and agrees to protect and raise her daughter, Cosette. First, he must rescue the girl from the thieving innkeeper Thenardier and his wife (Matt Crowle and Huston-Elem).
Eventually, Valjean and Cosette (Delaney Guyer) cross paths with a group of revolutionary students led by Enjolras (Devin Archer) that includes Marius (Jake David Smith), who falls in love with Cosette, while Thenardier's daughter Eponine (Phoenix Best) falls into unrequited love with him.
What songs have helped make ‘Les Misérables’ famous?
Seen by more than 130 million people worldwide in 53 countries and 22 languages, the three-hour sung-through musical features iconic songs like "I Dreamed a Dream," “Bring Him Home,” “One Day More," "Do You Hear People Sing?" and "On My Own.”
In a recent phone interview with The Oklahoman, Huston-Elem talked about her third turn in “Les Miz” as well as her upcoming return to OKC:
Q: What keeps you coming back to the barricade with ‘Les Misérables?’
Honestly, this score. This is one of my favorite musical scores ever. The music is just so beautiful and fun to sing — and I get to listen to what I don't sing every night. I get to listen to Nick Cartell sing ‘Bring Him Home’ every single day, and that's such a treat. He's incredible. And Hayley Dortch, who plays Fantine, she's outrageous. She's so young, and yet she has such gravitas.
Q: When did you join this tour, and what has it been like so far?
I started performances Oct. 3 … and it was a quick process getting into the show, just a couple of weeks of rehearsal … with costumes and sets and lights and everything. Then, the next week I was on stage with everybody.
So, it was a little scary. I've never been a replacement before. I've only ever been in a show where I did the whole rehearsal process with the cast, so that was a new adventure.
Q: When you step into a role as a replacement on a tour, does it help if you have a pretty deep background with the show?
I would say it can't hurt to walk in and have some knowledge of what the show is, what the history is, what the — I guess for lack of a better term — brand is, what the overarching emotional feel of it is. So, you know what you want to aim for.
But at the same time there, you still get a rehearsal process, even though it's not as long as, say, the people who've been in it from the beginning. … I still got to work with our dance captain, our musical director, who's brilliant. I got plenty of time to make sure that I was doing what I needed to do to fit into the world of this play.
Q: Do you have a favorite moment in the show?
Man, I really feel like such a little rube saying this, but I really love my job. I really do. (laughs) I look forward to pretty much every part of it every night.
I love my first entrance as Madame T, coming out with a bucket and yelling at children. Like, they're paying me to come out there and be funny and yell at kids and throw around a lot of funny props.
But I would be lying if I said I didn't have a real special place in my heart for that Act 2 wedding, because the costume is just so over the top and wonderful. In the hair and the makeup, I just feel so big. I feel like I get to sort of match the energy of the moment, and it's so much fun every night.
And Matt Crowle, who plays my husband, you couldn't ask for a better scene partner. He's so consistent, he's so funny, and his costume in Act 2 in that scene, it's brilliant. He's got this big poofy wig and these fake hips that he's wearing that are huge. We both just stick out like a sore thumb in the best way— and I love it. I love hearing the audience respond to it.
Q: Is it fun to play one of the villains?
Oh, yeah. I mean, I don’t know that she would call herself a villain. I think that this is a woman living in desperate times, who's doing whatever is necessary to survive, when you have very little privilege to go off of. So, if that means lie, cheat and steal, that means lie, cheat and steal. And that's what it comes down to for her and her husband. …
That’s the way I have to look at it, because I have to give her humanity. … But on the lighter side of that, I also get to do it while being really funny. She’s funny, she's smart, she's sarcastic. She suffers no fools, and I love it.
This is not a small show, not a quick 90-minute family musical. This has depth; it’s epic. You’ve got a lot of characters and a lot going on. So, it's fun to get to come out and know that you're going to make people smile, that you're going to bring a little levity into the room and give everybody a nice breath after a couple of scenes of pretty serious exposition.
Q: It seems like you made some good memories in OKC working with Lyric on ‘Les Miz?’
I love Oklahoma City. This tour will be my fourth time coming through Oklahoma City, because I did ‘The Addams Family’ (musical first national tour) through there. I did (the first national tour of the musical) ‘Finding Neverland’ through the same Civic Center. So, I've had quite a bit of time in that neck of the woods, and I've loved it.
When I was there with Lyric, I actually got to spend more than a week living there and getting to try all the restaurants and walking around. And I'm really excited to be coming back. I'm looking forward to going to Braum’s and getting a cherry limeade. I can't wait.
‘LES MISERABLES’
When: Jan. 16-21.
Where: Civic Center, 201 N Walker.
Tickets: https://okcbroadway.com/lesmis.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Iconic show 'Les Miserables' returns to OKC on U.S. tour: What to know
