West Hartford’s Conard High School will perform the musical ‘Les Misérables’ for two weekend, with shows on March 8, 9, 10, 15, and 16.

By Ronni Newton 

Conard students have stepped out of the box once more, and take the stage this March for a masterful production of “Les Misérables,” a show that is epic by any standards.

“We didn’t go smaller after ‘Frozen.’ If anything, we went bigger,” said theater teacher Hunter Parker, who is in her third year as director of Conard’s musical.

The all-student production – that includes 90 students among the cast, crew, and pit orchestra – is not a typical high school show and a challenge that few take on. The license for the full version isn’t even available and Conard is performing the slightly-abridged “school edition,” but it’s the same story with essentially just a few songs omitted so it runs just over two hours rather than nearly three hours.

“We’ve been trying to do a different style of musical every year,” said Parker, so that students can be exposed to a unique type of experience in a four-year cycle. Her first year was the dance-heavy “Footloose,” followed by the family-friendly Disney masterpiece “Frozen.”

“Les Misérables” – which literally translated means “the miserables” – is much more serious. “There’s much less dance, but the music is really hard,” said Parker. Having a cast of talented singers is paramount.

“The entire show is sung through,” said Marisa Barry, a Conard counselor who is co-producer of the show with Parker. “It’s not typically sung by high schoolers because it’s a very challenging score. … The show truly doesn’t stop.” Managing the costumes and props is also complicated, she added.

Parker said choosing the show each year is done in collaboration with the team, and when she suggested “Les Misérables,” Choir Director Sam Eurich was confident the students had the talent to do it. Michael Wyatt, who directs the pit orchestra, was also confident.

Because of the challenging nature of the show, Parker said, “We had to start early.” Auditions were at the end of November and rehearsals began in December.

“People know it,” she said of the show. “There are iconic songs, and you have to do them justice.”

Music Theatre International’s website provides the following synopsis of the show: “In nineteenth century France, Jean Valjean is released from years of unjust imprisonment, but finds nothing in store for him but mistrust and mistreatment. He breaks his parole in hopes of starting a new life, initiating a lifelong struggle for redemption as he is relentlessly pursued by police inspector Javert, who refuses to believe Valjean can change his ways. Finally, during the Paris student uprising of 1832, Javert must confront his ideals after Valjean spares his life and saves that of the student revolutionary who has captured the heart of Valjean’s adopted daughter.”

There is death and loss, and while it’s set in the days following the French Revolution, many of the themes are relevant today, Parker said. There’s the fight for the rights of the lower class and young people who are passionate about their ideals fighting for change.

“It’s really a musical about love, and redemption, and hope,” Parker said. Jean Valjean gets a second chance to carve out his path in life. “There is a hopefulness at the end,” she said, in this moment of history.

Ben Dollar, a Conard senior, takes on the lead role of Jean Valjean. “I was exhilarated because I like acting and I truly adore singing,” he said, when he learned that Conard would be doing Les Mis and when he got the part. “This is something of a caliber I’ve never done before.”

The audience first meets Valjean in the opening moments of the show when he is a bearded member of a chain gang, and the role is challenging physically as well as through the emotional transformations of his character.

“I’m singing low bass notes and high tenor notes – which I didn’t even know I could do,” said Dollar, who was familiar with the music but had not seen the show previously. There are no spoken lines, he said, and when he gets home, he feels like he has run a marathon.

Dollar played Hans in “Frozen” last spring and was also in “Footloose,” and is member of several choirs and co-leader of Conard’s BeS#arp a cappella group. Singing and acting is something that he said will always be part of his life.

Sirina Garba, a senior, knows that Cosette’s backstory needs to shine through in her performance. “It’s really important for me to embed those stories,” she said of her pivotal character – who is one of the leads but doesn’t appear on stage until late in the first act.

“Singing has always been my thing,” said Garba, a co-leader of Conard’s BeS#arp a cappella group.

“It’s a very high-status, very different character,” said James Thibault, a senior who plays the “strict and rigid” Javert. “It’s really a blessing of a role, very fun to sing,” he said.

Singing is something Thibault said he has been doing nearly his whole life, jokingly blaming his sister who is also a veteran musical theater performer.

Senior Evan Danyliw plays Thénardier – a villainous character that he said he plays with “comic relief.”

Danyliw is a veteran of Conard theatrical performances, both the musicals “Footloose” and “Frozen” as well as several plays, but he had not seen “Les Mis” before becoming part of the cast. He’s been acting for many years, but a couple of years ago he added singing to his repertoire. This role, he said, is the “most fun” of any he has played before. “I just get to mess around on stage.”

Solana Colón is Fantine, and the junior said the role is a difficult one. “It’s a very emotional role. She’s living a horrible life,” she said.

Spoiler alert for those not familiar with the show – Fantine doesn’t make it to the second act. But she does perform “I Dreamed a Dream,” one of the songs that will be recognizable even to those who have not previously seen Les Mis.

Colón, who is the daughter of Javier Colón, the singer-songwriter who was the winner of the first season of “The Voice,” has grown up surrounded by music and theater, started performing at age 5, and was in “Frozen” as well as “Footloose” at Conard. She said her dad introduced her to Les Mis at a young age.

“It’s definitely very different. It’s a very big show,” Colón said, and this is her first “sung-through” performance. Breath control, she said, is definitely a challenge.

While “Les Misérables,” is dark, it also definitely has themes of hope, she said.

“This is by far one of the finest productions I’ve been part of here,” said Eurich, Conard’s veteran director of choirs who is vocal music director and sound engineer for the performance of a show that he said in his bio he has been waiting his whole life to do.

While Conard’s performance is the school edition, “It still has the same characters, and the same content, which is mature at times,” said Parker, and includes some violence and death. She said the show may be appropriate for those in at least fifth or sixth grade, but not really for younger audiences.

Evening performances are at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, and Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16. A matinee will take place on Sunday, March 10, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available online.

Below is a PDF listing the entire cast, crew, orchestra, and production team.

A teaser is also available through YouTube below, courtesy of Craig Diamond, Educational Technology Specialist and Webmaster for West Hartford Public Schools.

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