Next weekend, Carle Place students will get to showcase their abilities in a venue worthy of their talents, as they put on their spring musical production of Les Misérables in the newly renovated Carle Place auditorium.
Since first being brought to the stage in 1985, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables has been seen as a powerful and exciting vehicle for musical productions. However, its tragic story and mature subject matter precluded it from being performed by schools for nearly 20 years. But this weekend, Carle Place High School is set to perform the play for the second time.
“We did Les Mis in 2004 when it was first released for schools. We were the first school to actually do it after the test run at Holy Trinity,” said Joni Russo, the play’s director.
Casting Les Misérables presented a unique challenge compared to other plays the school has done.
“Because the show is so voice-specific, I actually asked them to sing a song from the show of a character they thought they would be good for,” Russo said.
Senior Ryan Hopkins was chosen for the lead role of Jean Valjean.
“My character is a prisoner because he stole a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child. He served his jail time for 19 years, and after changing his identity, Valjean becomes mayor of a town and a wealthy manufacturer,” Hopkins said. “The rest of the story deals with Valjean changing identities as he tries to stay one step ahead of the law. At the same time, Valjean keeps his promise to his dying mother, and takes custody of a young girl named Cosette after rescuing her from an evil family of innkeepers.”
Junior Jean-Marie Neave plays the role of Cosette.
“I’m the girl that Jean Valjean adopts, and I meet this boy in town called Marius, and it’s love at first sight kind of, and we basically fall in love, but they don’t really know each other,” said Neave. “And we get married at the end. Eventually he dies, and I’m there at his deathbed.”
Russo is pleased with this cast of about 30 students and said that their maturity really shows.
“It’s a very talented group of kids,” she said. “They’re hard-working and they’re wonderful, really wonderful to work with.”
These sentiments were echoed by junior Sydney Perruzza.
“I think we have a really good cast. Everybody definitely brings their best,” she said.
Staging a production of such a complicated play takes many hours of hard work and dedication, and the students have rehearsed since early January for four days a week for about two to three hours a day.
Les Misérables takes the Carle Place stage Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m.
