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Audiences will “hear the people sing” when the students of Honeoye Falls-Lima High School perform Les Miserables this month. It will be a welcome return for the students who have been unable to perform a spring musical for live audiences for the past two years due to Covid.
The students will be performing the school version of the pop opera musical, which is still running on Broadway and in London 35 years after it was first performed. Based on the sprawling 1,200 page novel by Victor Hugo, it relates the tale of Jean Valjean, a convict who is released after 19 years and breaks his parole, and Javert, the relentless police inspector determined to apprehend him. It takes Valjean from 1815, when he is released from prison, to 1832 during the student uprising in Paris where he saves the life of Marius, who is loved by Cosette, Valjean’s adopted daughter.
“We chose the show for a couple of reasons,” artistic director John Hennessey said in an interview last week. “It was important that, after the two-year absence that we do a well-known show and Les Mis definitely has that name. But, just as important, this year, we have a strong group of boys who have the vocal chops to carry a show like this. We also have a wonderful group of girls who have great music ability as well, but we don’t always have enough boys. We wanted to highlight the boys as it is not something that always happens. We also try to alternate between older shows and newer ones.”
With Covid the past two years, the students have not performed a musical since The Addams Family in 2019. The 2020 production of Bye Bye Birdie was only a week away from performances when Covid shuttered schools and initiated online learning only. In 2021, the students and directors put together a revue called Broadway Unmasked that was put up on YouTube.
The way Hennessey announces a show to the students is by giving them clues. As the kids began to put the clues together for this year’s show, their excitement grew.
“When they asked ‘is it Les Mis’ and we told them yes, their eyes just lit up,” Hennessey recalls. “They were very excited. The kids are having the time of their lives.”
With auditions held in December, rehearsals began in earnest after the New Year. However, rehearsing for a show during the January Covid wave presented its own set of challenges.
“The month of January was pretty much lost because of Covid being rampant in the schools,” Hennessey said. “I had Covid as well and our choreographer Marcella (the former Marcella Matey, an HF-L alum herself) also had Covid. And, there were a couple of snow days.”
Singing with masks on was also difficult for the students; it was hard to get the right emotions and tones. Now the masks are optional and most of the students at two recent rehearsals were foregoing the masks although Hennessey said that if any student is hesitant about removing the mask, they are encouraged to keep it on. The other wrinkle is that the high school musical is being performed a week earlier than normal due to the fact that the All County Music Jazz Festival is scheduled for the normal performance weekend.
Members of the cast are Seamus Gillis (Jean Valjean), Will Tomaszewski (Javert), Sydney Kreidler (Fantine), Molly Connors (Cosette), David Tuller (Marius), Jason Howard (Thenardier), Kendall Towner (Madame Thenardier), Ella Magee (Eponine), Aidan Goold (Enjolras), Ella Clark (Gavroche) and Noah Adams, Brodie Atkinson, Aubrey Bent, Brianna Bledsoe, Zach Boehm, Nick Boggio, Ellie Camp, Jailyn Clark, Owen Dack, Will Emerson, Colin Fanning, Logan Feszczyszyn, Madison Fleming, Maegan Frame, Abby Fraser, Kate Gabrielsen, Maia Gathercole, Tabor Gloor, Maggie Grann, Jorja Harvey, Kaylee Henshaw, Sophia Jacopille-Bornheimer, Piper Lind, Hannah Miller, Paige Moscicki, Rory Papietro, Ella Peters, Gina Piccirilli, Jenna Quinn, Mary Repass, Amelia Somers, Sophie Torres, MacKenna Weaver and Owen West (all in the ensemble and playing various parts). The stage crew members are Penelope Armes, Erinn Atkinson, Grace Bogart, Owen Boggio, Jenna Bovenzi, Sariah Clayton, Kaelyn Frame, Emily Fraser, Evie Ha, Samantha Healy, Olivia Henderson, Ava Jackson, Parker Kester, Owen Mallette, Seven Masek, Abigail Maylin, Eden Powell, Ginny Roth, Lily Shull, Bria Torpey, Katelyn Vukosic and Kayla Wells. The student directors are Leah Torregiano and Kaitlyn Yelencsics.
The school version of Les Miserables still contains all the beautiful and, at times, haunting music of the adult version with the songs I Dreamed A Dream, Stars, Do You Hear The People Sing, A Heart Full of Love, One Day More, and Bring Him Home. It also has the famous barricade scene. However, it has trimmed some of the lines leading into songs and runs about 2.5 hours instead of the usual three hours.
While the journey of getting to performing in front of a live audience has been difficult but important, Hennessey says the payoff is the kids getting to perform in front of a live audience.
“The kids were overwhelmingly in favor of the show, even if it needed to be the case that they still had to wear masks and now that has been dropped,” Hennessey said. “The kids have worked so hard and a full house would be icing on the cake. After everything the kids have been through, they need this.”
While the show is about human suffering and the malevolent ways humans treat each other, Les Miserables ultimately is also a show about the spiritual themes of salvation, grace, redemption and love. After all, before the singing of the final chorus of this masterpiece, the characters of Fantine, Valjean and Eponine proclaim in song:
Take my hand and lead me to salvation
Take my love, for love is everlasting
And remember the truth that once was spoken:
To love another person is to see the face of God..
“It’s also timely now with what is going on in Ukraine,” Hennessey said. “In Ukraine, they are building barricades. I think the kids realize the show is pertinent to what is going on in the world today.”
Molly Connors, who plays Cosette, echoed Hennessey’s comments.
“We haven’t discussed it at all among ourselves, but with the situation in Ukraine right now, this show definitely is more meaningful and emotional,” Connors said.
HF-L High’s production of Les Miserables is on March 17 and March 18 at 7:30 p.m. and March 19 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., all at the HF-L Middle School on Quaker Meeting House Road.
Although there is no senior citizen luncheon prior to it, there is also a free matinee performance for HF-L senior citizens only at 2 p.m. on March 16. Hennessey does caution parents that the show is for mature audiences only. Tickets are $12 adults and $10 for students. The online portal for the public to buy tickets opened on March 1st and is at www.seatyourself.biz.hflcsd or email the Box Office at hflboxoffice@gmail.com. If tickets are still available, they may also be purchased at the door.
In The Sentinel next week, we will talk with some of the students in the show.
