1996 phantom incident

Where did you hear this? Surely if you can figure out how to register an account here and start a post, you can copy and paste. What do you know about this other than "an incident"?

We're not psychics, here. At least I think.

There's a NYTimes article linked on that discussion, so I'm going to venture a guess that it's true. But it's not a Phantom incident. There's hardly any mention of Phantom anywhere in either the discussion or the article. It's a Les Miz incident. Your post is just as obnoxious as Lizzie pointed out, but I didn't know this piece of theater history - so thank you. :)

Here's an idea.....why don't you ask them for more details.

As is all too often the case with this production company, the situation was handled badly and for maximum publicity and glorification of the boss.

It's inconceivable that the show got stale overnight, so where had the producers/ creative team been in the 10 years since those child actors were cast?

The show could have been kept in shape by resident director etc but Cameron wanted to throw the toys out of the pram to show he was a tough boss and not to be messed with.

Florence Lacey, who was playing Fantine, was fired. She had only joined the cast a few weeks before she was fired. Ivan Rutherford was playing Valjean and was demoted to a chorus role. I believe that every actor in a leading role was fired except for Chris Innvar, who was playing Javert. There were other cast members (like the aforementioned Christeena Michelle Riggs) who were told they could remain in the show by re-auditioning.

Updated On: 3/15/17 at 08:27 AM

I wish the Big Wigs would pay a visit to The Majestic for a look at Kyle Barisich's performance of Raoul. I'm told he's a lovely person, but he is without question the weakest Raoul I've ever seen (and I've seen quite a few). He shout-sings his lines in a monotone, his posture and bearing suggest a modern day kid loitering on a sidewalk, and nothing about him says "sophisticated, handsome aristocrat". He is just completely lacking in credibility. When Jordan Donica was still playing Raoul (a quite excellent Raoul, for the record), I saw Mr. Barisch play Monsieur Reyer, a role for which he was much better suited. I wish they would either move him back there or dismiss him.

Updated On: 3/15/17 at 08:50 AM

I knew many folks on both sides of the Les Miz "house cleaning". Some of them were good solid performers who were victims of a few lazy performers (mostly longtime ensemble members) who marked the entire show, and they were actually caught lip-syncing from recordings form the sound board, and not singing. Lip syncing. On Broadway. In Les Miz. It was unacceptable, and the firings were valid. But unfortunately, there was a lot of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater," and some good performers were unfairly sacked. I think it's a good thing for the original creatives to come in and maintain the quality of a long-running hit. These creatives get very big royalty checks every week (if the show is a hit) and that fat check comes with a responsibility to uphold the quality of the show.

adamgreer said: "Hal Prince rather famously still checks in on Phantom a few times a year, which is why, for all its flaws, the show never seems "stale."

So I'm told, which makes it all the more incredible to me that Mr. Barisich has been associated with the show for as long as he has.

Just read that article. This stood out to me:



After Mr. Robertson received his letter of dismissal, he immediately left the theater and drove to his conservatory. He read the letter to his acting students. On the basis of his experience, he told them, ''you've got to be nuts to want to be actors.'' He said the students were sympathetic to his situation but were still eager to enter the profession.



What an insufferable man. He was paid $25,000 in 1996 for being terminated. He was 45 years old, with the show 9 years and still playing a student. Quit being a crybaby and deal with it.

The mass firings at Les Miz for the 10th anniversary was indeed an event for the history books.

The reason why so many actors were with the show for so long (and infamously began slacking off) was an Equity thing. Due the fact that everyone but Valjean, Javert, and Fantine (excluding her Act II assignment as human scenery at the barricade) played multiple roles, everyone but those three actors were on chorus contracts, from which actors could not be terminated. Macintosh had to give a huge amount of money to each of the actors he wanted to fire in order to get Equity to allow him to let them go and buy out their contracts.

I believe chorus contracts are no longer automatically renewable due to the incident.

I recall that situation well. And the producer was right. The show at the time sucked. As a huge fan who had seen it many times it was clear the ensemble just did not care at all and many of the guys did look very old. The only show that had a worst don't give a turd ensemble attitude was Miss Saigon. Just Yikes!!! If I had the Game of Thrones Shame Bell, I would have used it. Those who were let go made a fuss in, as I remember, blaming others for their lazy performances. They were saying, Ohhhh Where was the stage Manager? Ohhhh,Where was the Resident Director? Dudes!!! Where were your professional ethics and standards being on Broadway in a show most other actors could only dream of being in!??! Not one of them said, "ya know things were stale. We were walking through the show bored. We were playing onstage games". Later, in Making it On Broadway (very interesting read), many of the those same Les Miz ensemble members say as much. And Mr. Robertson......c'mon!!!!!!! You had a nice run.....and as you had security, it was clear you did not give a flying fudge. So as a producer as it is his show with the creatives, you have every right to try to make the product as good as possible. Some cast members were simply let go. Some were asked to re-audition, and some were simply offered contracts again. THAT BEING SAID.............the newer production that opened after the Third National went back out was kinda "Meh". I think they changed some lighting here and there, maybe some costumes were reimagined and Valjean meeting Little Cosette at the well was put in. And Ivan Rutherford (a GREAT Valjean), was made alternate Valjean. Anyyyyyyway, if you have read this far, I will say I thought the original poster was talking about a different incident that some of us remember, when the Associate Director had flown out to read the riot act to the 3rd National Tour about them screwing around so much on and off stage that is was really affecting the quality of the show, and someone recorded it, gave the recording to Equity and he was let go. THAT BEING SAID................he was right.

Sorry to quibble but $25K is what, about 5 weeks salary? Let's say 6 weeks since we're talking about an incident from the 1990s.

A week's salary per year employed is pretty standard severance pay in most places.

So 6 weeks salary for a cast member who has spent 9 years with the show isn't a "huge" amount.

They were also given about 3 months notice! Plus the $25,000 which is about $38,815 now. Not a small amount. Plus after everything went down, Equity and MacIntosh negotiated that the performers were paid additional sums of money on top of the $25,000, calculated by how long they had been with the show.