Interview: Gerard Carey and Josefina Gabrielle Talk LES MISERABLES

Having joined the cast of Les Misérables at the newly refurbished Sondheim Theatre back in December 2019, Gerard Carey and Josefina Gabrielle have had quite the roller coaster experience as everyone's favourite rogues, the Thénardiers.

Between them, their list of theatre credits is impressive and, despite having never met prior to the show, Carey and Gabrielle have united to create a strong partnership throughout multiple lockdowns and two different productions.

We spoke to them at the Sondheim Theatre before a Thursday night show, where they gave us their views on the power of live performance, the lowdown on switching to a concert performance (and back again) - and which roles from their past they'd love to revisit.

Given everything that's happened since 2019 - in the theatre world and beyond - what has the Les Misérables experience been like so far?

Josefina: Well, I think Gez had the most dramatic start, didn't you?

Gerard: Yes! So, we got cast in the roles and we started rehearsals, as you do. It was great fun - brand new theatre, new production - and it was all going terribly well...

...and then I got really sick during tech. I kept seeing doctors and they didn't really know what it was. They thought it was a vocal problem because I couldn't breathe, and my voice started getting very laboured and I couldn't really sing properly. I couldn't even walk from one side of the stage to the other without being out of breath. I saw a lot of specialists and, lo and behold, opening night came, I saw a throat doctor and I was put off sick for two months. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I returned to the show in March 2020...

Josefina: Yes, it was March! So, in the meantime, our understudy Mark Pearce was thrown on with no notice, no rehearsal. And then Matt Lucas was brought in at no notice but he had herniated disc or something, so he had to drop out. And then Ian Hughes - who was playing Thénardier on the tour - was brought in. I felt like the Black Widow!

Gerard: In the space of a few weeks, Josefina had about four different husbands!

Josefina: But the day finally came that you were well enough to come back to show, and they eased you back in, didn't they?

Gerard: Yeah, they let me do a couple each week, and after about three weeks I had built myself up to doing a full week of shows...

Josefina: ...and then the curtains came down and we went straight into lockdown.

Gerard: So in total I got three weeks of playing the role. The interesting thing is that, of course, now with hindsight, what the doctors didn't realise was that it was very likely Covid.

Josefina: And then when we did the staged concerts just before Christmas [2020] - we literally did just ten shows and then had to come off again.

Gerard: And Cameron Mackintosh said to me "I'm never employing you ever again! You keep closing my shows!" So, the journey had been quite checkered, yes, but it's been a lovely experience and just fabulous to be back.

Josefina: We just finish each other's sentences now. I mean, we are an actual married couple.

Gerard: I see more of this one than I do of my wife.

Well, that's theatre for you, isn't it?!

Have you noticed a shift in audience? I find it quite interesting how Covid might have changed the audience profile of some shows, particularly a show like Les Mis that historically attracts a lot of tourists. Have you noticed a difference in terms of who your audiences are, or how their response to the material might have changed?

Josefina: I think our audience is more homegrown now. And a lot of returners. It's just such a universal story and you can relate to it in so many situations. When we had the first lockdown, it was being quoted all over the place - "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise". It almost felt like it could have been written for that exact situation. So, it does feel the audience is coming back to their beloved show and beloved live theatre. It's quite sensational.

Every night feels like a press night with the audience response that we get. We just look at each other and go "Wow".

Gerard: It's such a collective experience. Obviously the writing is wonderful, as is the commitment from the cast and the way that they tell the story, but also it means so much to the people who come to this show. It's part of the fabric of people's lives. It's been around for 37 years. So you do feel like you're all connected.

It connects generations as well. Everyone has a favourite Jean Valjean, or a preferred cast recording. It's such a powerful thing and we're thrilled to hear you're still performing to full houses - although not surprised!

Gerard: There was that period for a couple of weeks when Omicron was bubbling and you could feel the audience was just a little bit nervous. You could feel it. And that's just that's typical of theatre - whatever's going on in the minds of an audience, you feel it on stage, you really do.

Are you getting a more positive vibe in the auditorium now then? As an audience member it certainly feels much more positive and confident, with theatres getting busier...

Josefina: I think we've lived with it for so long that we are getting our heads around it, and during that Omicron scare we were preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. But it feels like it's manageable now with the disciplines and precautions that we've got in place, and you don't have that fear of "Is it safe to go to work?" or "Will audiences return?" anymore.

Gerard: I think we were one of the only shows over Christmas that didn't close. The only time we did close for a few shows was because we didn't have enough cast members! And when that happened we actually felt quite defeated because we were doing everything we could to make it work.

And there was a very real fear in theatre with people frightened to leave their house, to get on the Tube and come into work. So, I take my hat off to everybody who worked so hard to keep the show going because it was a mammoth, heroic job.

Josefina: And it was wonderful that the audiences wanted to be here. I think when forced to isolate and be at home, the power of collective enjoyment that live performances gives you becomes a craving. So it's been wonderful to see.

As performers your livelihoods are obviously dependent on large groups of people being together, so the stakes were so high for you all when the lockdowns hit. It must have been quite traumatic at times, but hopefully the mood within the company is much more positive now?

Josefina: We were the lucky ones because we knew we had that light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that we were in a show would reopen eventually. But yes, the performing arts is freelance. So, if you're freelance and the jobs just aren't there because so much has been postponed, you are a performer with nowhere to go.

** a stage management announcement interrupts our conversation over the tannoy **

Josefina: That's showbiz, folks!

Gerard: Sorry, we can't turn that off. At least it proves we're actually in a theatre right now and not actually in the basement of my house or something!

How did this casting came about for you both? Was Les Mis a show you'd always wanted to be in?

Josefina: I didn't think I was Les Mis material. I mean, there are set windows in your life that you might be eligible for a certain character, but on the whole, I think my opportunities went a different away. So when I was asked if I wanted to audition for Madame Thénardier, it came out of the blue and I thought, fantastic, yes please! I thought I'd give it a go and hope I get the gig and...voila!

Gerard: I'm pretty much the same. It was never really on my list because I never thought I was right for anything in the show, but I'd always loved the character of Thénardier, and thought how lovely it would be to play that role one day. But I thought to myself "Oh, I've got too many years to wait yet...I'd have to wait until I'm a lot older until I'm suitable...!"

Anyway. I'm so, so, so pleased that I said yes to the audition. SO pleased that I got the job. And I'm so pleased that I ended up doing it with this one [points at Josefina]. We were at the audition together obviously and they paired up at one point...then I think we went for a bevvy afterwards...?

Josefina: Yes! I think it was the recall, and we were having a little chat before we went in, just talking about our mutual friends and things. Then Gez went in and did his audition. Then I went in and met with our director, James Powell - who, actually, we've both worked with before. So after my audition, he brings Gez back into the room and then literally did a rehearsal with us working together as a pair. So, it felt like a reunion with an old friend, and a fantastic new experience with a new friend.

Gerard: And we went for a bevvy afterwards and both said to each other "I hope it's you!".

Have you got a favourite scene that you're in together?

Josefina: "The Bargain" scene. When Jean Valjean encounters little Cosette in the woods and brings her back to the inn, offering to pay to take her away. And that's a big scene for us, where the Thénardiers think "Ooooh, money!".

Gerard: There's a big power shift going on there. And the other lovely thing for us has been that we've been able to do two different versions of the show, because we did the concert version together as well.

Josefina: In the main show, you are in your own scenes and you hear the rest of the scenes off stage, but in the concert version you are present for everything. I now feel like I know every note and every lyric, so that was really satisfying.

Did it feel odd shifting back into the fully staged version?

Gerard: It is a lot more tiring!

Josefina: What was funny about the concert, is you obviously had to talk to each other as if you were "out there" [gestures in front of her] - so you'd be shouting at Cosette or talking to your husband in front of you even though they were beside you.

And on the very first night that we went on in front of an audience, I don't there was a single one of us that didn't go out, stand in front of that mic, ready to do what we've done so many times before and feel so exposed, so naked and so vulnerable. I think we all had a little a moment...and then settled into it. It's nerve-wracking doing concerts!

You don't get quite as much of the physicality with a concert, and that's a big part of the Thénardiers...

Josefina: There is a lot of physicality with them, yes! So that was lovely to find that new interpretation in the concert version, very satisfying.

Gerard: In fact, it was quite hard to come back to the staged version and drop all of the things that worked so well in the concert! One of the magical things about the concerts, of course, is that audiences do connect more with the lyrics. Without the visuals, you can really lock into what the lyric is.

There was a lot of public discourse about the removal of the famous revolve from the production - it was almost a national outcry! But you both came into the show after that happened so you never got to perform with it...

Gerard: They know we drink too much, that's why they didn't want us on a revolve...!

Josefina: We've revolved in other shows, haven't we?

Gerard: Josefina said to me "Think of this show as a national treasure". The fans do have a sense of ownership over it. I remember having coffee with friends of mine whose daughter was in Les Mis, and we were having catch-up shortly after I found out I got the job. I was talking about being at this wonderful theatre that was being refurbished and how I was really excited to be doing a new version of the show. And all she could say was "But oh Gerard, how could they do it without the revolve?". She was so upset!

Do you have a favourite scene that you aren't in? Do you even get to see any of the scenes you aren't in?

Josefina: We really don't get to watch! But during tech we do get to watch it all come together, and there were two scenes that stood out as just...visual magic. "Bring Him Home" - when Jean Valjean is sitting in the middle of the barricades, elevated, amongst a red, white and blue glow - just absolutely breathtaking. I mean, it really does look like a religious experience.

And the second one is "Lovely Ladies". It's the set design, the lighting... I remember sitting out there thinking it was like watching a moving oil painting.

Gerard: A lot of that down to the wonderful Paule Constable's extraordinary lighting design. It's like she's got a magic wand.

I love 'The Prologue'. In fact, I feel quite sad when the prologue is over! I think it's brilliantly written and you're really locking into the character of Jean Valjean straightaway. I remember in the concert when Alfie Boe was playing the role, it always moved me to tears. Always.

Both of you have got extensive theatre credits. But if there's one role you could revisit from your stage career, which would you choose?

Gerard: I would have said Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at the RSC, but then I actually did that as it came back the following year. That was lovely because sometimes you play roles for short periods of time, and you love the part and the production, but you leave it and think "I'd love another crack to get it right". So with that, I did get the chance to go back and improve on it.

I played Malvolio at the Young Vic in Twelfth Night, which was a brilliant, brilliant show and I absolutely relished playing him. I would love to play him again. People went bonkers for it, but it was only a six-week run and it just wasn't long enough to really get every little ounce out of it. So I would love to have the chance to do that again.

Josefina: Well - and this is up to Cameron Mackintosh, if you're listening - I'd love to revisit the The Witches of Eastwick because it was so much fun, with strong female leads. And I think the more mature the women are, the more fun it is. So being significantly more mature now...I would love to have another go!

Les Miserables is currently booking at the Sondheim Theatre until 10 July - book tickets here