Happy Birthday, Ron!
Arkansas Rep / Phoenix Theatre
Les Misérables
Thursday, May 30th, 2013
Portland, Oregon
Dear Ron,
When I drove through Lincoln enroute home to Colorado with my Northwestern University master's degree in my car, I stopped in to visit as I always did. It was Spring of 1986. You were not home, but had left me a note and a record album to listen to. The record was the double album of the hit new show, Les Misérables you had picked-up in London the month before. The note read: "Listen to this. It is perfect for you!"
I sat on your green pile carpet and listened. I sat there feeling more and more in tune and in love with the music and the message. It felt like grabbing a suit off a rack and having it fit perfectly. Looking at the photo of Colm Wilkinson, I couldn't imagine myself playing the role of Valjean before it finally hit summer stock and regional theaters when I was in my forties. I was wrong on the dates. By 1989 I was on the tour that came through Lincoln and stayed with the show for two more years. I came back to it in 1993, joining the Broadway company when my son Nicola was born and I wanted a job in town.
Life ensued and I thought I was done with Les Miz.
Wrong again.
When Les Miz hit regional theaters in 2008, I was a disheartened opera professor eager to wash the sedentary dust off my 'academic' career. Portland, Coeur d'Alene, Little Rock and Phoenix all gave me another run at Valjean. I finally answered all of the questions I had as an actor in that role. I put it to rest and was content.
Content but not yet finished.
In February of this year, I received a Facebook message from Bob Hupp in Arkansas asking if I was interested in the remounting of their co-production with Phoenix Theatre in 2014. I was. I asked when the auditions were to be. Bob responded that an audition would not be necessary. In turn, I made Bob an offer:
By the first rehearsal in February, 2014, I would be ready for a 'shirts-off' staging of the opening scene. The last man everyone has seen in the role was Hugh Jackman and I was not going to show up forty pounds over-weight and out of shape. Returning to the role at 51, I will not return to the role at the level I left it.
Update: Today, the forty pounds are gone. I am at the same costume size I was in 1989. That will change a bit as the gym routine moves some bits back uphill to where they belong.
My Birthday offering to you is Two Seats to the opening night in either Little Rock or Phoenix. It will be a beautiful production. Arkansas Rep builds beautiful costumes. Except for the opening scene...
Thank you Ron. For that original note that said, "Listen to this. It's perfect for you!"
It was. And still is.
Happy Birthday!
Doug
Portland, Oregon
Dear Ron,
When I drove through Lincoln enroute home to Colorado with my Northwestern University master's degree in my car, I stopped in to visit as I always did. It was Spring of 1986. You were not home, but had left me a note and a record album to listen to. The record was the double album of the hit new show, Les Misérables you had picked-up in London the month before. The note read: "Listen to this. It is perfect for you!"
I sat on your green pile carpet and listened. I sat there feeling more and more in tune and in love with the music and the message. It felt like grabbing a suit off a rack and having it fit perfectly. Looking at the photo of Colm Wilkinson, I couldn't imagine myself playing the role of Valjean before it finally hit summer stock and regional theaters when I was in my forties. I was wrong on the dates. By 1989 I was on the tour that came through Lincoln and stayed with the show for two more years. I came back to it in 1993, joining the Broadway company when my son Nicola was born and I wanted a job in town.
Life ensued and I thought I was done with Les Miz.
Wrong again.
When Les Miz hit regional theaters in 2008, I was a disheartened opera professor eager to wash the sedentary dust off my 'academic' career. Portland, Coeur d'Alene, Little Rock and Phoenix all gave me another run at Valjean. I finally answered all of the questions I had as an actor in that role. I put it to rest and was content.
Content but not yet finished.
In February of this year, I received a Facebook message from Bob Hupp in Arkansas asking if I was interested in the remounting of their co-production with Phoenix Theatre in 2014. I was. I asked when the auditions were to be. Bob responded that an audition would not be necessary. In turn, I made Bob an offer:
By the first rehearsal in February, 2014, I would be ready for a 'shirts-off' staging of the opening scene. The last man everyone has seen in the role was Hugh Jackman and I was not going to show up forty pounds over-weight and out of shape. Returning to the role at 51, I will not return to the role at the level I left it.
Update: Today, the forty pounds are gone. I am at the same costume size I was in 1989. That will change a bit as the gym routine moves some bits back uphill to where they belong.
My Birthday offering to you is Two Seats to the opening night in either Little Rock or Phoenix. It will be a beautiful production. Arkansas Rep builds beautiful costumes. Except for the opening scene...
Thank you Ron. For that original note that said, "Listen to this. It's perfect for you!"
It was. And still is.
Happy Birthday!
Doug
