Les Misérables On Tour

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables, wrote that “The realities of life do not allow themselves to be forgotten.” The cast and crew of the musical, half way through a national tour, know that all too well. David Spicer discovered that families are crucial to keeping them marching to the beat of the drum. He spoke with Simon Gleeson, playing Jean Valjean, and ten year old Harry Herbert, playing Gavroche.

Simon Gleeson started heavy duty training for his role six months before the production opened.

“It is a monster. It is incredibly daunting. I started singing the show once a day. They sent me to a gym and I put on eight kilograms. I was often getting up at five am to train then I’d have rehearsals. It was a big undertaking but I knew unless I was fully prepared, the role would eat you up. 

“The first time I sang the first twenty minutes of the show, I thought my goodness I will never be able to do that again. It is amazing that we are 250 shows in. There are days I feel like an elite athlete. Other days are so much harder than others.”

But no matter how much he trained, nothing could fully prepare him for what he describes as the level of the attack needed in the first twenty minutes.

“You can’t replicate show conditions in your lounge room or rehearsal. You can’t replicate the pressure of 2000 eyes watching you.”

With more than six months of ‘match fitness’ under his belt he is in the groove.

“It is a lot more manageable. I can bounce off the energy of the cast around me.”

The realities of life for Simon Gleeson that he cannot forget are his young family. He has an eight-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son and his wife Natalie O’Donnell is also a musical theatre star. She left for Sydney for six weeks to star in Next to Normal,leaving him holding the babies in Perth.

“Just doing eight performances a week without kids is a lot of work. There is no childcare for people who work our hours. We are learning to juggle all the commitments. We are (also) home schooling our daughter (in Perth).”

Whilst mum was away her parents were flown in to look after the grandchildren as dad was manning the barricades.

Relying on family and friends is crucial. Simon and Natalie are based in Geelong and often call on them at short notice.

“Especially when you are out of work. You might be told there is an audition and it is today at 2 o’clock. A lot of actors live (in Geelong) and they say yes I will take your kids when something has just thrown your life into turmoil.”

With such a heavy workload it is crucial that Simon looks after himself.

“I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I try to sleep and always warm up and down.”

He also avoids raising his voice with his children.

“I use the silent but deadly approach. I do it with looks and gestures. I was very adamant at the start of this process to avoid, ‘Daddy has to have a whole day of not talking.’ This is not helpful for them. But they are lucky I don’t go around screaming at them.”

At the other end of the spectrum is ten-year-old Harry Herbert, a primary school student from Sydney who is one of the four Gavroches for the Perth and Sydney seasons.

Like Simon he has to look after himself.

“I can play a lot of stuff. But not things that get me hurt such as soccer and skateboarding.”

He admits it is “pretty cool” having his own apartment during the season.

Not so cool is that the tutor gives him school work that is “a bit harder” than he is used to.

For every week that he is away from home a chaperone has to live with him. When I called his mother Carina Herbert was on duty. His dad and grandparents had other multiple week ‘shifts’.

She says he loves being in the show, especially the finale.

(Spoiler alert next two paragraphs.)

“He climbs up the barricades while he is singing ‘Little People’, and then he gets shot in the back and falls off the barricades. It is very dramatic.

“He practises by standing on the back of the sofa and falling off it.”

Does it bring tears to her yes? “Yes. I am quite happy not to watch it for a few months.”

Overall she says it’s a big difference from the Engadine Musical Society in Sydney where he last performed in the ensemble of The Little Mermaid.

“Unlike amateur theatre there is no place for stage parenting. Your job is to just make sure they arrive on time.

“They rehearse for two weeks instead of six months. The kids are given homework and they have to get on with it.”

She has noticed that he has improved out of sight during the season.

Harry Herbert was encouraged to audition by his singing teacher and his parents agreed only so he could learn from the experience.

“It has been a pleasant disruption. We just wanted him to experience a different sort of audition.”

By contrast Simon Gleeson had no training as a child.

He was born in a small town in the NSW Riverina called The Rock. Population 300.

“I did a couple of amateur shows as a kid but my parents said no to singing lessons. I went to boarding school in Melbourne and did not study drama but always wanted to do it.”

He would sing to himself for his own pleasure.

“I had pretty good marks and to please my Mum, I did a list of all the things I could get into. In front of her I closed my eyes and with a pen went up and down the list. It stopped at Business (Banking and Finance) at Monash University.

“So I enrolled in that. I just wanted to prove it was inconsequential to me. Having said that I would have had much more financial security had I gone down that route.”

At the end of first year he was at his uncle’s place during the shearing season when he received a phone call from his friend Matthew Newton. They were in the same year at high school “dreaming the same dreams”.

“Matt said I have forged your signature. I have paid the money (for me to audition for WAAPA). You can pay me back by getting a monologue and a song prepared and getting to Melbourne at this date and time.

“I remember learning my monologue in the car as I was driving myself to the audition. You could not get away with it these days.”

He thinks he got in because he “could hold a tune”.

At WAAPA he thrived on the “43 hours a week” face-to-face teaching and also no doubt enjoyed the face-to-face meetings with his future wife.

He was thrilled to be cast with her in 1998 in the ensemble of the previous professional season of Les Misérables in Perth and New Zealand.

“Les Mis was arguably the reason I wanted (to be a performer). I have always loved the show.”

When it came around again he was bursting for a second bite. Cameron Mackintosh himself attended the sixth and final call back.

“He is very hands on, which is a real buzz. He ran the audition and was very vocal. This is what I want. He was very clear and lovely and offered me the job that day.”

Despite numerous recordings to draw upon Simon Gleeson believes it is important to put his own stamp on the role.

“My decision very early on was not to listen to other versions. I have to not be influenced by others.”

If he does hear another voice singing it in his head it is that of Rob Guest.

“I was very fond of him.”

He only broke his embargo to watch the movie on a plane. He describes Hugh Jackman’s performance as “brilliant” but in the context of a different medium.

Young Harry Herbert also had a daunting audition, which he described as ‘scary’. Luckily Cameron Mackintosh wasn’t there to frighten the pants off him.

Now he’s settled nicely into a lifestyle which his mother likens to being a rock star.

All four boys who play Gavroche are on stage two times a week and fill in as the official stand-by two other times.

Harry says he is getting a little homesick but the fun he’s having on stage makes up for it.

Going back to normal life will take some adjusting.

“I think I will miss Les Mis when it is finished. Hopefully I get to do something else.”

Images: Simon Gleeson as Jean Valjean, photographer: Matt Murphy; Simon Gleeson, reading this story in the March / April edition of Stage Whispers - image Lightbox Photography, and Harry Herbert.

Originally published in the March / April 2015 edition of Stage Whispers.

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