‘Les’ Monumental

‘Revolutionary” is the best word to describe the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s production of the epic musical “Les Miserables.”

Here’s why:

• The theater has never done a show of this magnitude. It requires a cast of 40 and a daunting man-the-barricades set. Until the rights were released this year, “Les Miz” had rarely been produced by regional theaters, much less summer-stock theaters.

• This story, based on the Victor Hugo novel, is a sprawling epic about revolutionary times in France (no, not the French Revolution, but a later uprising in 1832).

• The stage has been fitted with a 24-foot-diameter turntable which spins in, yes, revolutions.

To accommodate it, the entire stage has been built up 8 inches above its normal height.

“This is perhaps the largest physical structure that we have ever assembled,” said Michael McGiveney, the CdA Summer Theatre’s set designer and production manager.

“We brought in some extra union people and we had 16 people just to assemble it. And it took us more than 10 hours.”

The turntable is crucial to any production of “Les Miz,” since the original staging and sets were designed with it in mind. The CdA Summer Theatre’s turntable was rented from a Portland theater, which just finished one of the other rare regional productions.

The turntable creates a sense of movement, but it also helps to move people and sets on and off the stage.

“There are something like 17 separate locations in the first act,” said McGiveney. “If there were a set change for each one, the audience would be spending a lot of time in the dark.”

Then there’s the massive barricade structure, which must be built on top of the turntable.

“It’s really big – 20 feet wide and 9 feet tall,” said McGiveney.

By the time a 6-foot person stands on top of it, you’ve just about filled up the entire proscenium.

For these and many other reasons, artistic director Roger Welch and McGiveney had similar reactions when they learned they had won the rights to produce “Les Miz.”

“Oh my God, what did we do?” Welch remembers saying.

“Oh my God, this is going to be a very heavy summer,” was McGiveney’s first thought.

Yet he is convinced that “the end result will make it all worthwhile.”

The public is already responding, even before the first curtain. An extra show (Aug. 20) has already been added due to what the theater is calling “huge demand.”

Ticketholders will see almost all of the spectacular effects that have helped make “Les Miz” one of the most popular and critically revered musicals of all time: the down-the-manhole scene in the Paris sewers, the bridge scene, the smokey battle sequences.

Even more crucial, you’ll see a battle-hardened cast with extensive “Les Miz” experience.

Jean Valjean, the show’s flawed hero, will be played by Douglas Webster, who portrayed Valjean on Broadway and on national tour. This is a role that requires a rare combination of a brawny, commanding stage presence and a singing voice in an almost-impossibly high range.

Valjean’s relentless nemesis, Javert, is played by Geoffrey Blaisdell, who is also a veteran of the national tour, as well as the national tours of “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

“There’s a cool thing that’s happening here,” said Welch. “We’ve had people that have come through our theater and gone on to Broadway; this year we’re bringing people with Broadway experience here.”

Other major roles will be filled by veterans of the CdA Summer Theatre, including Krista Kubicek as Fantine, Darcy Wright as Eponine, Matthew Wade as Marius and Leslie Rhodes as Mme. Thenardier. Welch will play Monsieur Thenardier.

The theater also has brought in a director, Kirk Mouser, who knows the show inside and out. Mouser, the artistic director of Stumptown Stages in Portland, has played Marius, a crucial role, on national tour.

The CdA Summer Theatre will use the show’s full orchestration, with an 18-piece orchestra in the pit directed by Steven Dahlke.

Many of these songs, by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, have become classics of musical theater: “Castle on a Cloud,” “Bring Him Home,” “Master of the House,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and “On My Own.”

Costumes are yet another monumental undertaking. Nearly 400 separate costumes are necessary, or about eight each for all 40 actors. Fortunately for costume designer Judith McGiveney, a lot of them are variations on rags; the show is about the downtrodden and the oppressed.

It is also about social justice, freedom from tyranny and basic human dignity.

Those are big themes for any musical to tackle; “Les Miz” is revolutionary enough to do it.