Les Miz Is A Family Affair for McArdle in Ogunquit

Well, the summer may be over but in Ogunquit, through October 12th. the excitement continues as the Ogunquit Playhouse presents the Tony Award winning musical by Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, Les Miserables, featuring some absolutely amazing talent including Tony Award Nominee Andrea McArdle. Les Miserables has been seen by over 54 million people in 38 countries and 21 languages since its first London performance in October 1985. It is its powerful affirmation of the human spirit that has made Les Misérables a popular masterpiece and an instant classic.

In 1977, McArdle originated the title role in the Broadway musical Annie. She became the youngest performer ever to be nominated for a Tony Award as Best Lead Actress in a Musical. She received the Theater World and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for her performance. Her vast theatre credits include Les Misérables, [both on Broadway and in the national tour], the Jerry Herman musical, Jerry's Girls alongside Carol Channing and Leslie Uggams], Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret, Evita, The Fantasticks, Oliver!, Gypsy, Grease, Starlight Express, State Fair, Meet Me In St. Louis, They're Playing Our Song, as well as playing another celebrated Annie in Irving Berlin's classic, Annie Get Your Gun. She has performed in the showrooms of many of the casino hotels in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and in cabarets such as the renowned Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre in New York, Odette's in New Hope, Pennsylvania and the King Cole Room at the St. Regis Hotel as well as Freddy's Supper Club in Manhattan. 

Her CD, Andrea McArdle on Broadway, was arranged and produced by her husband, composer Edd Kalehoff, who also collaborated with her on an album of Christmas songs that was released in conjunction with her Family Christmas Show at the Tropicana Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The couple has one daughter, Alexis Kalehoff, who has performed in many shows, some alongside her mother, including her Broadway debut in Les Miserables. McArdle took some time after the show's opening to talk with me about the show and being on stage with her daughter.

TJ: Miss Andrea, how are you?

MCARDLE: I'm a little tired but good.

TJ: How's the show going?

MCARDLE: Great. The shows going great! I can't believe that they actually technically pulled everything off in that amount of time, understaffed and everything. It actually went incredibly well yesterday.

TJ: Was your opening yesterday?

MCARDLE: Yes. We didn't finish tech Act II of the show until the matinee yesterday. We had a matinee and evening yesterday and the day before...Wednesday and Thursday, so yesterday was technically the opening. And I went home after the party, but apparently most everybody else went out and got in at 5 or 6 in the morning. So, I am feeling a lot better than they are.

TJ: That's a tough thing to do, especially with shows the next day.

MCARDLE: I mean I did it for years...it's somebody else's job now.

TJ: [laughing] I hear you! Now, you're playing Fantine in the show and your daughter, Alexis Kalehoff, is playing Eponine. What's that like for you being in the same show with her?

MCARDLE: Well, Les Miz was her Wicked, her Annie, her Rent...you know? This is the show at four years old that spoke to her. She made her Broadway debut as young Cosette in, I believe it was, 1996, in the Broadway company when she was eight. And for any child who has been in that show, now to get to play one of the most coveted roles, is like a dream come true for her. The fact that I can get to share that with her is pretty cool.

TJ: Mom and daughter on the same stage!

MCARDLE: I actually played Eponine after I did Fantine, with Laurie Beechman playing Fantine, and Alexis was playing Cosette. This is so cool that now the second generation is playing the same role already and it doesn't seem like that much time has passed.

TJ: Alexis is about 20 then?

MCARDLE: Yes.

TJ: She started out pretty early.

MCARDLE: Well, we let her do Les Miz because she just kept at us and at us. She spent a lot of her years on the road with Mom and Dad. And life on the road when you're a kid before school starts is actually pretty fabulous. I really think it's the backstage that seduces them as much as the show. It's that extended family and she fell in love with that before she fell in love with being on the stage. That is quite a seduction for a kid.

We really didn't let her do much until she graduated from school. So, she hasn't acted in years.  She does a lot of singing and a lot of the studio work...she's savvy in the studio. But this is her first role as an adult, literally. The last roles she did was one of Fagin's boys in Oliver and Nellie in Annie Get Your Gun. And she was great last night! And I get to watch her because I am already dead! [laughing] A little bit of Mama Rose in all of us.

TJ: Mama watching from the wings..."Sing out Louise!!"

MCARDLE: No, actually I get to watch from the back of the house. Even better. I mean, I never get off easy in a show like this. I ‘m always off just to change costumes. This is awesome for me...Fantine's demise is pretty swift.

TJ:  I know when we talked before, you had said the staging was different, in particular with there being no turntable.

MCARDLE:  No, they're not. In New York, the problem was at the Imperial Theatre, they had no wing space whatsoever. So all the crossings had to be underneath the stage through the crawlspace. Here in Ogunquit, the theatre is terrific as the stage has a lot of depth. This set came from the Walnut Street production and I gotta tell you, there are a lot of things about it that I actually like better than the turntable. Although it's not as cinematic, this set looks like you're in Europe.  It doesn't look like a set. It's interesting in that there are a couple of pieces in it, like in A Heart Full of Love with Marius and Cosette, and Eponine brings him there...I actually like it way better than it was in the actual production. This is done like Romeo and Juliet with a balcony and a fountain...the relationship between Eponine and Marius is very defined in this production. You wonder why he's going for Cosette because Eponine is more of a sexy character and they're buddies in this. It's very clear that she will never be in his class. Sean Kerrison, our director, has done an amazing, amazing job! He directed the revival on Broadway. That's why I love what Brad Kenney does up here. He gets the people who know the shows in and out more than anybody. I wouldn't go to a lot of summer stages as they'll pay you a chunk of change and the production's awful. This is a great production!

TJ: And you have some local talent in the show from Boston, like Mary Callanan.

MCARDLE: I am telling you, debra monk had better look out because this lady is the real deal. And Ryan Landry, who is also very popular in the Boston area. The two of them on stage is just fantastic. And Ivan Rutherford playing Valjean and Todd Alan Johnson...my daughter played Gavroche in the national tour with Todd and he was terrific in the show before. But just the age on him now is amazing and Ivan as well. He's done it on Broadway, probably as much as any other Valiean, These guys were young and they aged them...they had great prosthetics but now with a little bit of extra baggage, their performances were multi-dimensional. I mean, I saw a hug difference. It's a lot of fun for me. Everything is completely different...a good different.

TJ:  The audience is going to have a great time seeing this new production.

MCARDLE: They are! And a lot of the older audiences are discovering the show. The younger audiences know the show but the older audiences usually would go to see your My Fair Lady's. They are discovering these newer shows here. This theatre here is a great venue too because the show looks so huge and yet, it's intimate. The costumer is on loan from Hunter...he was a professor there and this guy is so amazing! I mean the authenticity and everything. These are not rented costumes...he built most of these from scratch, which I can't believe for a five week production.  They're as good as the Broadway costumes.

TJ: Well you know why we do it. We do it because we love it. And you have been doing it from a very early age playing Annie.

MCARDLE:  Yep! And I was addicted. I was one that started in TV. But the minute I did theatre, that was it. I'm way too ADD to do television...hurry up and wait. That's what I like about theatre...it consumes you.

This was an extreme pleasure to speak with Andrea, as I fondly remember her as Annie and many other varied performances. Folks, our Annie has grown up into a beautiful and still amazingly talented woman.  Personally, I can't wait to make the trip to see the show and 'hear the people sing' this weekend and you can get your tickets to see Andrea and Company in Les Miserables, at the Ogunquit Playhouse, 10 Main Street in Ogunquit, Maine. The show runs until October 12th, so don't wait!   You can get tickets through the website at www.ogunquitplayhouse.org or by calling the theatre at (207) 646-5511.  So, as always, ciao for now, folks and remember, theatre is my life!

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