Les Misérables (/leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːb(əl), -blə/ lay MIZ-ə-RAHB(-əl), -RAH-blə, French: [le mizeʁabl]), colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz (/leɪ ˈmɪz/ lay MIZ), is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation by producer Cameron Mackintosh with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks.
Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption, released in 1815 after serving nineteen years in jail, five for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child, the other fourteen for numerous escape attempts. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a bishop inspires him with a tremendous act of mercy. But a police inspector named Javert refuses to let him escape justice and pursues him for most of the play. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists attempt to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris.
A film adaptation was released in 2012.
Chuck Wagner (born June 20, 1958) is an American actor, director, musical theater historian and teacher. He has had an extensive career in theater, but is perhaps best known for co-starring in the short-lived science fiction TV series Automan (1983-84).
His notable Broadway credits include both Princes and The Wolf in Into the Woods, Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, and The Beast and Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. He also originated the title roles in the world premiere of Jekyll & Hyde and reprised the roles on the 2nd US national tour.
Early life
Wagner was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Hartsville, Tennessee. He attended public school in Gallatin. While at Gallatin High School, he performed the leads in "My Fair Lady", "Carousel", and "Inherit the Wind". As a BFA student, he attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa under Edmond Williams and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles under John Houseman. His collegiate summers were spent in Manteo, North Carolina, where he played John Borden in The Lost Colony, America's longest running outdoor drama.[1]
Career
Television
He is known for his role in the short-lived science fiction 1983 TV series Automan as the title character.[2] He also starred on the soap opera General Hospital as Randall Thompson in 1981 and 1982.
In 1981, Wagner was a contestant on the television game show Password Plus.
In 1984, he appeared on the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour.
In 2012, he was also a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.[citation needed]
Wagner has made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, including The Dukes of Hazzard, Dynasty, and Matlock.
Musical theatre
Wagner has performed in several Broadway productions. His first role on Broadway was in The Three Musketeers in 1984 as Athos.[3]
Wagner went on to originate the role of Rapunzel's Prince in the original Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods (1987).[4] The recording of that show, on which Wagner appears, won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. In 1988, he joined the cast of the first US tour of Into the Woods playing the roles of The Wolf and Cinderella's Prince.[5] (Roles he understudied in the original Broadway production)[6]
Wagner has appeared on Broadway (replacement) and in the U.S. national tour (1992) of Les Misérables as Inspector Javert.[7][8] In 1994, he began a four-year stint as "The Beast", in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in both the Broadway (replacement) and Toronto productions.[9] Wagner originated the title roles in Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde in 1990 and Svengali in 1991 at The Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. He reprised his dual roles in Jekyll & Hyde in the post Broadway national tour in 1999.[10] In 2001 he toured the U.S. in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate as the MacArthuresque General Harrison Howell and understudy to Rex Smith's Fred Graham.[11] He appeared on Broadway in 2004, in Wildhorn's Dracula, The Musical, standing by for Dracula, Van Helsing and Quincey Morris.[12]
Wagner also sang the role of Sir Percival Blakeney, aka The Scarlet Pimpernel, in the original concept recording of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1992).
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