Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 89

mmmrn ceive that if you are going to communicate with the people and where you live or die in this business VVVVVVV Ifla tended and what he learned performing in various bands Along the way he has picked up other skills This is a business where you have to diversify to he said Hie writea and inp jinjlm end Hvw ifUntiSratinn for radio and television in Ireland "I do a bit of tap dancing as welL I had a thing a television show and and I played the devil A tap-dancing Although the year-long London run of "Lea kept him away from his fondly in Dublin he has brought them over for the year he is contracted to be in the New York show taken a house in New Jersey for his wife Deidre and their four children Aaron Judith Simon and Sarah aged SVk to 16 Itfr no coincidence all biblical namea "Good atrong their father said "and they 11 go with I TAKE WHAT I want from religion Tm not a fanatical Catholic I just believe there is a force I suppose a family man Fm very conscious of He comes from a family of 10 children just a normal Irish family They call us At Christmas they would all gather he said and each of the children would perform singing or reciting were all musical My mother was always IBs only vocal training consisted of choir singing at the Christian Brothers school he at in London with Trevor Nunn of the Royal Shakespeare Theater as director "Lea which has supplied ideas for two dozen movies and at least one television series follows Valjean from his release after 19 years in prison He is pursued relentlessly by Inspector Javert (Terrence Mann) who believes be should be returned to prison Wilkinson as Valjean is on stage for most of the musical's 3 hows He estimated that he spends about hours singing as in many contemporary British musicals there is no spoken dialogue "The understudy went on for a week and lost 10 said Wilkinson a sturdy 42-year-old with a gray-flecked beard "This is the hardest thing ever dime in my life" His vocal range is octaves "diminishing he said "No I don't mean that 2If anything a role like this stretches your range I used to hit When I hit it was a strain Now I can hit Cs This thing is what people like Pavarotti dread having to do on stage every night and we do it eight times a week You would want to have a throat like the inside of the exhaust pipe on a The strain is not only on throat his back takes a beating too At one point he must carry Marius (David Bryant) a wounded young revolutionary through the sewers of Puis to evade police "I put my back out carrying the guy in London He was fourteen stone 196 pounds David's not that Jars of honey sit on shelves in dressing room He uses it for energy and to coat his throat "I use garlic a lot too I take a medium-sized clove and eat it with honey a great antibiotic ft heals the body Soldiers used to carry garlic with them and rub it on their There is still a strong sound of Ireland in speech Just as there is a pronounced Cockney flavor in that of Frances Ruffelle the only other repeating member of the London cask When they are singing on stage though they sound as American as the rest of the cask ft was a conscious decision to sound that way said Ruffelle who perfected her American accent as a Tnwmhwr of the original London company of Express" where everyone played American trains Trevor Nunn picked her from that musical which he also directed to play Eponine in "Les Finding his Jean Valjean was more difficult experience had been mainly aa a singer with several Irish pop groups as a youngster and later on the original recording of as Che His earlier stage work included appearances in "Jesus Christ Superstar" and in a concert of material by Tim Rice lyricist fin: that show and most of Andrew Lloyd Webber's earlier musicals have a long-standing friendship with Tim worked together a lot He was talking to Trevor about directing his new musical which he subsequently did The talk got around to what Trevor was doing and be mentioned Lee Tim told him Exactly what you want is Cohn "I relate I suppose to what Jean Valjean Wilkinson said Td be described as being more spiritual than religious I believe in a lot of different things "I believe when I go out there on stage at night I can feel the thought processes of people out there come hank to me You must be able to re tT R2 SWEET ZB said the poeter-aised paper in the childish print that js popular in refrigerator-door art circles ft was done by the children in the cast of "Lea who wanted to assure Frances Ruffelle that they would remember bar Ruffelle (the final is silent) is a memorable presence in the lavish and densely populated production a light child-like figure in the tragie role of Eponine She is not sure why she was chosen to repeat the role die had created in the London premiere She knows that the producers of a planned new American musical had come up with the idea of casting her in file title role about the time Tea Miserable was being set for Broadway "It eras the same sort of casting the same sort of voice ft was strange because the two casting directors were asking eech other Do you know anybody like Francee Jvv BnfMU product tf IwiAm mik ing her American debut agreed to play Eponine in London before ahe had finished her run aa Dinah in the original cast of "Starlight In both shows aha was directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird "the beet directors ever worked with fan too and Tm not acared of the problem with earne she said For "Les in New York where theater costs are sometimes triple thoae in London getting about twice what she waa paid there even though like most of the company ahe ia basically on the chorus pay acale she said "ft we have several roles we negotiate extra money very she said fibs plays three small parts In addition to Eponine IntheLondonprodne-tion she played Eponine with her normal Cockney accent to make a distinction in dasa from most of the other cast members Originally the plan was to have her aaaumo a Brooklyn accent for American audiences but class distinctions are not that simple in this country and the idea waa abandoned in favor of the standard American 7 3 CJI ihiRMl has four songs including an opera-sized thumi fa thu arm nfthe man sha favea Marina He unfortunately loves another Coeette who has been reared by Valjean Eponine ia reduced to serving as an intermediary between him and Coeette The awful Ruffelle said "is any woman in love is going to do the same thing really in hopes that notice her going to want to be around him asmach as she can and do for him what he wants her to do Most women make file same mistake Lady Di came to the show ahe was sitting next to John Caird and tuned to him and said You know Td have done exactly the same "fW s- I-'- V--.