BRATTLEBORO-Les Misérables High School Edition will grace the Brattleboro Union High School stage Thursday, Feb. 19 through Saturday, Feb. 21.
Based on Victor Hugo’s epic 1862 novel Les Misérables, the musical of the same name by Alain Boublil (librettist) and Claude-Michel Schönberg (composer) spans the period in French history from 1815 to 1833.
The story centers on Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who was imprisoned for 19 years after stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving children. His nemesis Javert, the police inspector, pursues Valjean relentlessly for breaking parole.
“Valjean at first acts from his primal instincts, stealing from the bishop, who has taken him in and fed him,” said Alex Aither, a junior, who plays Valjean. “After the bishop protects Valjean by lying to the arresting officers, Valjean seeks to atone for his sins. It’s the main reason he strives for goodness.
“This powerful show feels very relevant,” Aither continued. “It is a reminder that everyone is trying to survive under the conditions they’re in. Everyone has a story. It’s important to understand all sides, even when it feels impossible.”
Aither plans on going to school for acting because “it’s a form of self-expression that allows you to experience so much. I learn from every show I’m in.”
Mariam Diallo, a senior, portrays Javert. “His idea of justice is that the law is like God’s law, and going against it is irredeemable,” she said.
“He cannot get past his ideas of right and wrong,” Diallo continued. “It’s how he justifies his actions. When events cause him to question his faith in the law, he can’t handle it. His song, ‘This I Swear by the Stars,’ gives glimpses into his character.”
Diallo said she decided to try out this year because “it’s my last year. I’ve been ‘theater adjacent’ because so many of my friends are involved in theater. I decided to seize the chance, dipping my toe into their world.”
“Now I get to hang out with them more,” she said. “It’s super fun.”
Lotte Gannon-Kurowski, a junior, portrays Fantine, the mother of Cosette. “I like this musical and tried out for this part,” Gannon-Kurowsi said. “Fantine is a mother working in a factory to provide for her daughter, who is living with an innkeeper and his wife. They keep extorting money from Fantine, money she doesn’t have.
“The factory foreman harasses Fantine,” Gannon-Kurowski continued. “He wants to get something out of her that she doesn’t want to give. After she rejects his advances, he fires her. Still the innkeeper demands money.”
Gannon-Kurowski likes her character.
“I wanted to get an understanding of her,” she said. “It’s a lot emotionally. People, especially women, can relate to the feelings Fantine has.”
Gannon-Kurowski said that in many ways, “acting is a form of therapy. You get to express big feelings that you can’t express otherwise.”
Preparing for a musical presents some challenges different from preparing for a play, she said. “In musicals, there is much more focus on the blocking and singing and not as much time to work with the director on developing character.”
Taylor Chase, BUHS French teacher, provided the cast with historical background about the French Revolution (1789) and the June Rebellion in Paris (1832).
“It was a time of huge upheaval,” Gannon-Kurowski said. “A lot of people in the musical are deeply affected by poverty. The wealth gap is large and still growing.”
She observed that “young people decide to take the initiative, to stand up for what they believe in.”
“Just because [their effort] seems to have failed at first doesn’t mean it was worthless,” Gannon-Kurowski said. “Standing up for people who can’t stand up for themselves has a real impact.”
The comedic villains of the story are the married couple Madame and Monsieur Thénardier, the innkeepers. They constantly demand money from Fantine for the care of her daughter, but they use the money for themselves.
“She is a horrible person,” said Rei Carpenter-Ranquist, a senior, who plays Madame Thénardier. “She has no good in her and is horrible to everyone involved. She talks loud and acts loud and believes she wears the boots. She and her husband have a game to see who can steal more.”
Carpenter-Ranquist said she is as likely to do tech for a show as to act. “Truly, I love all the parts involved [in a production],” she said. “The feeling of trust is the best feeling ever.”
Naveen Lalanne, a junior, portrays Monsieur Thénardier. “He’s proud of himself,” Lalanne said. “He believes he is the smartest. He and his wife provide the comedic relief.
“We don’t die,” Lalanne said of the couple. “We scam and mock and rob. We love our game, but not each other.”
Levi Healey, a junior, plays Marius, a student revolutionary embroiled in the plans for the June Rebellion. “He leads the students,” Healey said. “He’s wealthy, but he tries not to be. I like how he is complicated. He’s all for the revolution. He wants a better world, but he’s also human and wants to be with the girl he loves. The show displays a lot of different ways to be good in a troubling world.”
Lila Armour-Jones, a senior, plays the part of Éponine, one of the street urchins, who is the daughter of the Thénardiers.
“She lives a tragic life,” Armour-Jones said. “She has grown up in poverty. Her only joy is her best friend Marius, with whom she has been secretly in [unrequited] love for many years.
“Because of her closeness to him, she wants to help the students in their revolution. She assists at the barricades, willingly putting herself at risk for his cause.
“Seeing Marius fall in love with Cosette, who is everything Éponine is not, is even more heartbreaking,” Armour-Jones continued. “Éponine sees everything slipping away from her. I put myself in her shoes. She does have her moments of joy — any interactions with Marius. Her song, ‘On My Own,’ shows her peace in the solitude, one of the only times she can escape from the tragedy of her life.”
Armour-Jones, who played Hodel in the 2023 BUHS production of Fiddler on the Roof, sees similarities between that character and Éponine.
“They are both sharp, witty, young women who are trying to live in adolescence,” she said. “They deserved a life which gave them freedom and education and space to grow up. There’s a melancholy in stepping into the past for a moment in my day and living the life of these young women who didn’t get these opportunities.”
One of the messages of the show is the power of using your voice, Armour-Jones said.
“Especially in times of profound darkness,” she said, “it’s even more important to advocate for yourself and others.”
Genevieve Schneski, a senior, is a member of the ensemble. “I play a revolutionary, a constable, and an old woman,” she said. “I don’t have many lines, but it’s fun to do all of them. And I’m a chorus member.”
Like many of the cast members, Schneski has acted in numerous BUHS productions. “I was in Oliver! when I was 11,” she said. “I’ve also acted in Fiddler on the Roof, Radium Girls, Mamma Mia!, and then Hadestown last year.”
She said she loves “doing the musical, being able to put so much physical expression into the music, wearing costumes.”
“Hearing a chord and feeling the emotion that goes with it,” Schneski said. “Thinking of the story and imagining myself in it, seeing what somebody else is going through, and sympathizing with them.”
‘The story that wouldn’t let us go’
Director Rebekah Kersten, BUHS teacher of English and theater, is a BUHS graduate herself, class of 2000. She joined the faculty for the 2019-20 school year.
“I’ve wanted to direct this show for quite some time,” she said. “Of all the shows we considered for this year, this is the one that we kept coming back to.”
The musical is known for having excellent male characters, Kersten said, “but we emphasized to actors during auditions that the actors who could sing and act the roles in a way that worked for the character and the score would be considered, regardless of whether the gender of the role matched their gender identity or not.”
“We wound up having significantly more female-identifying actors audition than expected, so that gave us a unique opportunity to experiment with gender-neutral casting,” she said.
This is a sung-through show, meaning there are no scenes without music, Kersten said.
“Every moment of the show is sung, either to a recognizable melody or the lyrics are delivered in a ‘recitative,’ words sung-spoken in a rhythmic manner,” she said. “With its sweeping melodies, epic themes, and huge cast, this show feels far more like an opera in English.”
The set is minimal rather than explicitly realistic, with different locations and time periods being created through lighting, costumes, and easily moveable furniture, such as tables, chairs, benches, and trunks. David Tournoux is vocal director and Alex Brady is pit orchestra director.
Kersten described Les Misérables as “the story that wouldn’t let us go because it’s still so relevant to life today.”
“This show is all about who has the power, who wants it, and the decisions we make to get the power we crave,” she said.
“The irony is, no matter how much any of the characters seek power, they only truly find it through accepting themselves and loving others,” she said.
Performances of Les Misérables High School Edition will take place on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 19 and 20 at 7 p.m., and on Saturday Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. General admission is $10, $5 for students/seniors. All BUHS students get one free ticket. Tickets can be purchased in advance at bit.ly/853-lesmis. For more information, email mpage@wsesdvt.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.