Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

#1

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/13/13 at 10:37pm

Am I bad at math, or did Victoria Clark play Madame Thenardier at the age of 28?

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"Nice is different than good."

#2

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 1:32am

did she do it on tour?

#3

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 5:25am

Victoria Clark was Madame Thernardier in the first national tour. I have the cast list from the souvenir brochure. Carolee Carmello was in the ensemble of this same tour, as was Olga Merediz (In the Heights) and Hugh Panaro (Marius).

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Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

#4

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 6:37am

She screams Fantine, I wonder why she didn't play that role instead...

#5

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 7:11am

Diane Fratantoni was Fantine on that tour. Wouldn't be surprised if Carolee understudied that role.

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Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

Updated On: 11/14/13 at 07:11 AM

#6

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 8:21am

Carolee understudied Cosette

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Without bread we'd just be hungry but without theatre we'd be dead

#7

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 8:45am

^Nice to know! Thanks.

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Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

#8

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 9:37am

Didn't she understudy both Fantine and Cosette?

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#9

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 11:19am

Carolee definitely understudied Fantine. I saw this tour company in DC. The day I saw the show, Diane Fratantoni was out and Carolee was on in the role. I still have the understudy slip in my program! She was very good in the part but I had no idea then that she'd become a star years later. Developed a major crush on Hugh Panaro though--the hottest Marius I have ever seen.

#10

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 11:46am

Was this the same tour where Melissa Errico played Cosette?

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#11

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 12:45pm

Yes, I was going to mention that Melissa Errico was the Cosette. She was so pretty. Now this makes me want to dig out all my old show programs and find out who else I've seen (especially in tour companies) that went on to become a "name" on Broadway....

Updated On: 11/14/13 at 12:45 PM

#12

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 12:46pm

I have the souvenir brochures from the first national tour, bus and truck and the LA company, but Melissa Errico isn't listed in any of them. The lists I have are from the original companies of each. I know she toured with Les Miz, but not sure which company and when.

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Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

#13

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 1:13pm

A friend saw Melissa Errico as Cosette in Detroit... so whichever company that was. I think it was the 3rd national (bus and truck).

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#14

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 1:33pm

I thought Melissa was the Cosette opposite Hugh Panaro on that tour. I know she was Cosette on one of the tour casts I saw. I'll have to go back and look at all my Les Mis programs to find out which.

#15

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 1:44pm

Errico was 18 when she played Cosette, and she was born in 1970. So 1988 would be right. I think I remember her playing opposite Panaro, so that makes sense too. So much talent on one tour...so many future big names.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#16

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 2:06pm

I'll check when I get home from work.

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Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

#17

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 4:42pm

I saw the tour in Boston in '90. The cast I can remember from memory was:

Valjean - J. Mark McVey
Javert - Robert DuSold
Cosette - Melissa Errico
Fantine - Susan Dawn Carson
Eponine - Jennifer Naimo
Marius - Peter Gunther

Sorry - can't remember more and don't have the Playbill handy.

#18

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/14/13 at 8:28pm

Ok. Checked my playbill from 1988. Tamara Jenkins was Cosette at that point in the tour. I think Melissa was after that. Victoria Clark definitely was Madame Thenardier.

Updated On: 11/14/13 at 08:28 PM

#19

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/15/13 at 8:27am

Clark was the original Mme. Thenardier in the first national tour, which played Boston, DC, Philly, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and LA, with returns to the first four cities. Panaro was the original Marius. Errico was Cosette in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Boston--she never played opposite Panaro. Speaking of women who covered Cosette and Fantine, Barbara Walsh covered both in part of that tour! This was also the tour where Anne Hathaway's mother, Kate McCauley, briefly played the Factory Girl/Fantine cover. Laurie Beechman played Fantine in the second Philly run.

#20

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/15/13 at 10:04am

The 1st National Tour's Philly Stop (Fall '88 - Spring '89) was my first time seeing the show (seeing any show actually) so I have very fond memories of Victoria Clarke as Mme. Thenardier. If I remember, she played opposite Neal Ben-Ari as Thenardier.

Half that cast eventually got called up to the Broadway company (Schulman, Pistone, Panaro, Kolinski) and I think Melissa Errico was in the wave of replacements that came after the call ups. I could be wrong, but I know she wasn't in the company in the first Philly run.

I believe Ann Crumb also opened the tour as Fantine. I know a recording exists that identifies her in the role from that time period.

#21

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/15/13 at 10:09am

Wasn't that also the same tour that had Jarrod Spector (long-running Frankie in Jersey Boys; now in Beautiful) as one of the Gavroches?

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#22

Victoria Clark in Les Miserables?

Posted: 11/15/13 at 10:40am

^ Yes.