NORWICH – This year’s Norwich High School musical, Les Misérables – School Edition is shaping up to be another great production. Director Mark Sands and Vocal Director Mary Mayo have been quite impressed with how well the students are coming along with their individual parts. Les Misérables is a great story and the audience will recognize the many well-known songs which include, I Dreamed a Dream, Castle on a Cloud, Master of the House, The People’s Song, One Day More and On My Own.
As there are no spoken lines in this show it is actually classified as an opera. Because the show is an opera, there are three vocal coaches on staff this year. Mary Mayo at the High School, Jamie Carrier at the Middle School and local voice teacher Meena Conant.
Les Misérables was composed in 1980 by the French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg with a libretto by Alain Boublil, and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. It is one of the most well-known and performed musicals worldwide. On Oct. 8, 2006, the show celebrated its 21st anniversary on London’s West End and became the longest-running West End musical in history, reaching 9,500 performances. The Broadway production ran 16 plus years and over 7,000 performances before closing. It is the second longest running musical in Broadway history behind Cats.
Based on the 1862 Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, it is set in early 19th-century France and follows the intertwining stories of a cast of characters as they struggle for redemption and revolution. The main characters are joined by an ensemble that includes student revolutionaries, factory workers and others.
The production is set to be performed in the NHS Auditorium on Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday, April 11 matinee at 2:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $5 and are now on sale at both The First Edition Book Store and Service Pharmacy-Norwich. Tickets are also available at the door before each performance.
For information contact 334-1600 ext.1343.