Concert style “Les Mis” featuring Broadway star Ivan Rutherford as Jean Valjean
Article by Alejandra Enciso Guzmán
The SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film and SDSU School of Music and Dance combine talents this December to present Les Misérables in Concert.
A seasoned cast of MFAs, 100-voice choir, 50-piece orchestra, and innovative lighting will take place the first weekend of December (4, 5, 6 and 7) at the Don Powell Theatre located at San Diego State University.
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s world-famous musical creation based on the novel by Victor Hugo, will be directed by Paula Kalustian and conducted by Robert Meffe, Assistant Professor and Director of Music for the MFA Musical Theatre program at SDSU. “It’s like you’ve never seen it before. It is produced on an epic scale; there’s going to be 180 people on stage in a spectacularly lit version of the show. Our production will give audiences a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear the score in a robust massive scale. It is not to be missed”. Shared Meffe in an interview for Vanguard Culture and who better? With an impressive resume as a professional music director and Associate Conductor for six years of Les Misérables in New York City, Robert is in San Diego to stay and keep proposing collaborative projects like these. “We are bringing in a very prominent Broadway performer by the name of Ivan Rutherford, he has done the role of Jean Valjean over 2000 times on Broadway, National Tours, and internationally…we did the [Les Mis] show together. San Diego is a great theatrical city, it is a lot of fun and there is great work to do” he added.
Rutherford, a seasonal Broadway performer has portrayed other memorable roles like ‘Tony’ in West Side Story and ‘Lt. Joe Cable’ in South Pacific which earned him a Drama League award. And, for Les Misérables in Concert he will be joined by SDSU’s MFA Musical Theatre program. The principal roles in the concert ‘Eponine’, ‘Cosette’, ‘Thernardier’ and so on, will be comprised by these grad students. “SDSU has one of the only MFA degrees in the country in Musical Theatre and it is certainly the most established, it is over 20 years old and our students haven been in Broadway, national tours and teaching at universities. It is a really unique program and a lot of people do not know about it”.
To complete the 28 people cast, there will also be undergraduate students and graduate students from The School of Theatre, Television and Film as well as the School of Music and Dance. Cast names include: Liv Stevns Paterson as Fantine, Jacob Brent as Thenardier, Julia Cuppy as Madame Thenardier, Courtney Kattengell as Eponine, Jessica Humphrey as Cosette, Matt Gibson as Marius, William Peltzer as Enjoras, Lindsay Van Winkle as Little Cosette (Thu/Sat), Cassidy Smith as Little Cosette (Fri/Sun), C.J. Rabine as Gavroche (Thu/Sat), Carson Smith as Gavroche (Fri/Sun), Nicholas Newton as The Bishop of Digne/Montparnasse, Randall Eames as The Foreman/Combferre, Kikau Alvaro as Bamatabois/Grantaire, Bradley Behrmann as Joly, Aiden Munoz-Wenff as Fauchelevant/Jean Provaire, Connor Boyd as Babet, Charlie Gange as Brujon /Army Officer, Vincent Fung as Claquesous, Ivan Ochoa as Feuilly, Jacob Sloane as Courfeyrac, Jordan Takeuchi as Lesgles, Alexis Park as Madeline, Kelli Plaisted as Anniversary Lady, Allison Lorenz as Brown Urchin, Jilliann Giacalone as Red Urchin, Belle Adams as Factory Girl, Chanel Lucia as Locket Crone, Kirstie Newman as Head Whore, and Emily Zobel as Hair Hag.
The kids (Gavroche, Cosette) are from The San Diego Junior Theatre and The Christian Youth Theatre. “We’ve created a program where we will both promote each other’s work. We are really trying to reach out into the community and make sure that everybody knows about Les Mis and how really great this program is and how you can get a professional caliber of entertainment in what seems to be like a student production. We have real live professionals up there who have been on Broadway and it’s a bargain”. Added Meffe.
The orchestra is being prepared by Michael Gerdes who is Director of Orchestras and also ‘new’ at –State. The choirs are being prepared by Dr. Patrick Walders. Walders will also play the role of ‘Javert’. “It is great when students get to see their professors do something that is in their wheelhouse but it’s something that they are not used to them seeing”.
Rehearsals with the kids and Robert started in spring and the cast was completed the first week of September. Last week rehearsals started with all 28 cast members and next Monday the kids will join the full cast in rehearsals. “It’s going to look spectacular. The lighting design is being done by one of our MFA lighting design students, the graphic design was done by one of our art design students. They are all in a high professional level. It is not like you are going to see a production of the show, there are no props, costumes or set; but, you are seeing a spectacular, massive concert production of the show, it will be very exciting”.
Les Misérables in Concert will run for four performances only, December 4, 5 and 6, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., and December 7, 2014 at 2:00 p.m., in SDSU’s Don Powell Theatre. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors, and are available through the online box office.
