Near the end of this month, actor-singer Nick Cartell will mark a major milestone in his career. He will log his 1,000th performance as the heroic ex-convict Jean Valjean in the national touring production of “Les Misérables.”
Cartell landed the highly coveted role in 2017 under tragic circ*mstances, when his mom passed away from ovarian cancer the day before his final callback. He toured with the show for 2-1/2 years — including a 2018 visit to San Diego — then was laid off when the pandemic shut down all tours and theaters in March 2020.
Finally the tour relaunched in Ohio last October with Cartell in the lead and now it arrives Tuesday at the San Diego Civic Theatre for its first two-week visit here since the 1990s.
In a recent interview, Cartell said he was thrilled to return to the role of Jean Valjean for several reasons. The role transformed his career; the musical’s message of survival and humanity mean so much more to him post-pandemic, and he now feels a deeper connection to his character, because, like Valjean, he recently became a father who would do anything to make his daughter happy.
“I now understand the feeling of having your heart outside your body,” Cartell said of his 3-year-old daughter, Sullivan, who he shares with wife, Christine Cartell. “Singing that line that she’s the best of my life, and to actually sing that with the knowledge that I do have someone who is the best of my life and the best thing I’ve ever done, puts a new perspective on the sacrifices he makes.”
Long promoted as one of the world’s most popular musicals, “Les Mis” — as it’s popularly nicknamed — premiered in London’s West End in 1985 and debuted on Broadway two years later. A revival version of the show debuted in 2014 with new state-of-the-art scenery, projections and special effects. Over the past 38 years, the musical has been seen by more than 130 million people in 56 countries and 22 languages.
Co-written by writer-composers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and lavishly produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the epic musical is based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel about the intertwining lives of several characters in post-Revolutionary France from 1814 to 1832. The central character is Valjean, a peasant released after a 19-year prison sentence he served for stealing a loaf of bread. Unable to find work because of his prison record, he jumps parole and assumes a new identity. Valjean becomes a successful businessman and later adopts an orphaned girl named Cosette. They move to Paris, where a student rebellion begins to brew and the vengeful police inspector Javert aims to capture the escaped parolee Valjean and imprison him for life. These human stories unfold against a backdrop of enormous human suffering in the prisons, workhouses, brothels and streets.
Cartell said the scale of the human tragedy in the musical has a more profound impact with tour audiences now than it did before the pandemic.
“The world has gone through this collective moment,” Cartell said. “So when audiences come to this show, they know they’re going to hear the songs and see the characters they expect, but they don’t realize how deeply this story will affect them this time. You see a story about people who are fighting for a better world and fighting to be heard. There’s this theme of the survival of the human spirit and everybody down to their core can connect with that now.”
Also returning to the Civic Theatre with the tour on Tuesday is San Diego native Jenny Bates, a San Diego State University graduate who performed on local stages in the 1990s before becoming a theater publicist based in New York City. Over the past two decades, she has managed press and publicity for multiple national tours including “Les Mis,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Jersey Boys,” “Miss Saigon” and many more.
Bates has been involved with every “Les Mis” U.S. tour for the past two decades. Asked to describe her favorite part of the show, she says there’s no contest.
“My favorite moment is when Nick sings ‘Bring Him Home,'” Bates said of Valjean’s falsetto prayer for the life of the injured student Marius. “When he sings, you can hear a pin drop. You literally hear this collective inhale when he starts singing it. He commands the stage and the audience and there’s always this collective eruption of the audience afterward. I’ve seen audiences give him a standing ovation mid-show.”
Bates said this “Les Mis” tour visit to San Diego will introduce the musical to a much larger audience because it is staying in town twice as long as usual. As a result, not all of the best tickets will be snapped up by subscribers.
“The Magic of ‘Les Mis’ is that it’s a show that really inspires and warms the human heart,” Bates said. “I remember when we launched the tour in October 2022 at Playhouse Square in Cleveland I was in the back of the house when we welcomed the first audiences in. I still get emotional seeing it because of the beauty of the show. I’m thrilled to be bringing it to San Diego for two weeks.”
When the pandemic shut down the tour in March 2020, Cartell had already taken a leave with his wife to return to their two-bedroom apartment in New York City to welcome their daughter, who was born on April 2, 2020. Although he said it was “scary” living in the city with the highest COVID death toll in the U.S., Cartell said that it was a profound blessing to have that quiet time with his wife and daughter.
“We had a chance to watch our newborn grow every day,” he said. “But it was very hard to pick yourself up and get going in the morning and try to figure out what the next steps for this career would be.”
When he was finally called to join the tour’s relaunch last fall, he remembers a very emotional first day of rehearsals for the cast and creative team.
“We sang ‘One Day More,’ and to hear those four magic notes at the top, there was this energy in the room. This was the one day more, when we finally get to take that show back out. It still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear the orchestra start playing those notes.
“The fact that we’re able to welcome live audiences back into the theater again is such a joy and privilege that I get to do it every single night and and take the journey with us. Our perspective has changed. None of us are taking this for granted,” he said.
Cartell’s wife and daughter have joined him on the tour. They enjoy exploring every city where the tour stops as a family. During their San Diego visit, they look forward to visiting local beaches and the San Diego Zoo.
After finishing the San Diego visit on Oct. 15, the “Les Mis” tour will head to San Jose Oct. 17-22, then on to Sacramento Oct. 24-29. It’s there in California’s capital city where Cartell said he will mark his 1,000th performance as Jean Valjean.
Cartell said he has never tired of the role and he aims to make it like the first night every night when he performs.
“My secret to keeping it fresh is our audiences, who change every time. The energy they bring every night keeps us going,” he said. “And I also always try to find little moments onstage each time that are new. It’s easy because these characters are so rich.”
‘Les Misérables’
When: Opens Tuesday and runs through Oct. 15. Showtimes, 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., San Diego
Tickets: $39 and up
Online: broadwaysd.com
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
