Les Miserables Original Set Design Questions

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 5:25pm

I have recently been watching some clips of the original staging of Les Miserables. I saw the tour with the original staging, and I have seen countless pictures/videos. One thing I can never figure out is how the barricade part of the set worked. I vaguely remember the barricades being visible in the wings throughout the entire show, and I know they were somehow used in "Look Down" with the bridge flying in. Can anyone explain the design and where/how the barricades were stored and/or used on stage in scenes they were not needed in? (LizzieCurry - I am guessing you know this!)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 5:45pm

I believe a turntable was used extensively and prominently, perhaps that had something to do with it?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 6:07pm

:)

They were just in the wings the whole time. Usually if you sat on the sides of the theatre you could see it.

The whole thing was used in Look Down, but then they just turned the other way (vertically) for use as the barricade.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 6:11pm

Without being familiar with the exact mechanics used, I can explain as simply as possible…

The barricades were, indeed, stored in full view at the sides of the stage. The barricade, obviously, was built in two sections - a stage left sago and a stage right wagon. Each wagon had a motorized base structure with a n onboard motor to move it across the show deck and then each ago had an upper structure that was hinged to rotate up and down (think a seesaw).

The turntable had two sets of tracks (like railroad tracks almost) running across it - think the X-Men logo, with a giant X filling the circle. at each side of the stage, there was an individual set of tracks leading into the 'wings'. When the turntable would rotation, one set of tracks or the other on the turntable would connect to the tracks on the rest of the deck, much like how train tracks connect at a junction or in a train yard.

For "Paris", each barricade unit would move into position, looking like ramshackle buildings, and the bridge unit would fly in to connect the the pieces, looking like one structure.

To build the barricade, the barricade units would roll onto the stage and the upper section of each unit would rotate to a 45 degree angle, interlocking and causing it look like a pile of objects.

If I remember correctly, the barricades operated similarly to the tire in Cats.. rather than automated tracks in the deck, the power source was onboard set the set piece and it would drive itself similar to a remote control car, controlled by a stagehand.

I tried to make that the most "un-technical" explanation that I could.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 7:01pm

What, no sketches or diagrams?!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 7:06pm

Lend me your water colors. I don't have mine handy.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 7:11pm

Wow - thank you for the detailed responses! I thought that they were pretty much always in the wings in place of the usual legs that mask backstage. How exactly were the barricades used during the prologue, though?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 7:23pm

I don't remember them during the Prologue.
If you revisit the video of the 10th Anniversary concert and MAYBE the 25th Anniversary concert videos you will be able to see several of the barricade transitions in video clips interpolated in the filmed versions.

The barricades are always visible.. and they are not used "in place" of legs / masking. Think of the basic stage design as a massive box set, larger than the proscenium. There was a back wall and a wall on either side of the stage with window shutters and the like.
This is because of how the stage layout was at the original home of Les Miserables..
The barricades are not used as wing masking at all. In fact, you could often see other props and pieces in the wings depending now here you were seated.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 7:52pm

The barricades were visible for most of the show in most productions.

(The transformation at 4:30 of this video)
http://youtu.be/vqZOORic7HU

[morosco]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 12:05am

[morosco]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 1:46am

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 2:04am

Thanks for sharing those pictures Morosco. They are wonderful and I hand not seen them or a while.

In the lower picture you can clearly see the tracks on the turntable, where the barricades store, as well as the gates used during "Heart Full of Love", etc.. all fully visible when the lights are up. :)

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 3:01am

As I recall the barricades were always visible standing upright where they resembled the slums of Paris, then when they folded down onto the turntable you should have heard the applause in the theater.

[morosco]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 12:55pm

Building of the barricades

[TimesSquared]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 1:16pm

There was actually a stagehand inside the base of each barricade who "drove" them into position. There was also a large remote-controlled platform which moved downstage carrying the ABC Cafe, the runaway cart and the judges bench for Valjean's trial, when the show was in the Broadway Theatre. They didn't have room for it when they moved to the Imperial's shallower stage, so they just rotated in, or carried on the set pieces.

The set changes for the original production, whether the cinematic sweep of the turntable, or the movement of the Paris towers/barricades accompanied by booming music, were truly a thrilling element of the show.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 1:58pm

Thanks, TimesSquared. I didn't realize they were INSIDE the barricade unit. I had always assumed that it was down from off stage, similar to the tire in Cats (which was controlled by a stagehand watching on a TV monitor marked with a big black line so that he or she would know where to stop the tire, as I recall..)
Wish I could have seen the show with the up-downstage platform, but I DO think that rotating them in or carrying them on just seems to fit more with the locomotion of the show.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 9:50pm

Really interesting to hear about the barricade pieces always being visible on the sides. When I saw the national tour as a kid in Jackson, MS, there was an article in the local newspaper about how the theatre the show was playing at did not have enough wing space, so the barricade halves would always be visible onstage until falling into place for "Look Down." I always felt bad about that, so it's refreshing to know that in some productions that was normal.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/23/14 at 9:54pm

Opera,
That was probably a semantics issue. The barricades were never masked but, ideally, they would roll completely out of the playing space (i.e., "off stage"). The article probably means that the space was narrow enough that still just protruded onto the stage more than usual..