Great ghosts of Les Misérables
Colm Wilkinson sings praises of upcoming film
In the new movie of the musical Les Misérables, Colm Wilkinson does not play Jean Valjean, the role he made famous on stage.
In fact, he remembers very clearly lying in bed during the filming of one scene, with Hugh Jackman’s Valjean leaning over him, holding a wicked looking spike.
The 68-year-old Wilkinson, it seems, can’t quite shake the grip of Les Mis. Twenty-five years ago he was Valjean in the first epic English-language stage production of Les Misérables in London, which moved to Broadway and won him great acclaim.
In the film opening Christmas Day, Wilkinson plays the Bishop of Digne, the saintly man whose generosity allows the ex-convict Valjean to find a life of wealth, if not of happiness.
Much as the policeman Jalvert haunts Valjean in Victor Hugo’s powerful story, the ghost of Les Mis haunts — happily — Colm Wilkinson.
A few days after Wilkinson performs a Christmas concert in Ottawa on Dec. 21, filmgoers will line up to see the latest movie version of the musical that helped define his marvellous career in musical theatre. But it’s not just Les Mis that is on Wilkinson’s resumé. He’s also had leading roles in Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar and many other productions.
Judging by a recent PBS airing of a 25th anniversary concert, time has certainly not diminished Wilkinson’s voice. There he was as one of the four Valjeans of stage success, singing hits from the musical.
As much as Valjean was austere and aloof, Wilkinson is engaging, open and confident in a recent interview. Perhaps it’s his Irish upbringing. He has the gift of the gab.
Young Colm, it seems, was destined for a career in music — bred in the bone if you will. The Wilkinson family filled their home in Drimnagh, a Dublin suburb, with regular singalongs where everyone, including all 10 Wilkinson children, was expected to take part. He remembers being asked by his father to come down from his bed to entertain his dad and his cronies just back from the pub. “People entertained themselves in those days,” the late 1940s and the 1950s.
That training has bred a career that has spanned the decades and has brought him many accolades.
He says he owes much to Victor Hugo, the French author who wrote the novel Les Misérables, published in 1862.
“My Bible I used to call it, when I was performing it. You got tired when you were doing that show for such a long time. I would just go back to the book and I would just read Hugo to try to freshen it up for myself.
“Hugo was such an incredible character. And he lived into his 80s. He was a rock star in his age. He wrote a lot of Les Mis while he was in exile in Guernsey and people would pick up the stones that he walked on as souvenirs.”
Wilkinson, who has settled in Toronto, has made his mark there, outside of mega hits, by co-found- ing the group Theatre 20 with, among others, Louise Pitre. He says he’s “just one of the guys.”
“The magic of musical theatre? I look at it as a form of work, but I suppose it is a communication process. People can tell a story through singing. If it’s done right it can be magical. When it works it works really well.
“The secret to Les Misérables was the fact that two French guys wrote it (Alain Boublil and JeanMarc Natel) who had huge veneration for Hugo and they wrote in that way. (Claude-Michel) Schönberg’s music was so well suited, it’s just unbelievable.
“But not so well suited to a lot of other things. He did Saigon and Martin Guerre and Pirate Queen, but not as successfully.”
His time in the past two years has been taken up by working on the movie.
“In between that I do the concerts.”
The part Wilkinson plays in the movie is a central one. The first 100 pages of Hugo’s novel are devoted to the Bishop of Digne.
“The bishop is the guy at the top of the story who takes him in. Valjean stays 17 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread and he’s totally hardened. He’s rejected by everybody. Thrown out of the inn and refused food and the only guy to take him in is the Bishop of Digne.”
Valjean then steals the bishop’s silver and runs away, only to be caught. He’s brought back to the bishop by the police and thrown at the holy man’s feet. The bishop covers for him and even gives him two candlesticks.
The bishop is the catalyst for Valjean’s changed life.
To see Valjean played by Hugh Jackman, “it was like handing over the baton to somebody else, handing over the candlesticks to Jackman. It was a nice way to end this journey by giving the candlesticks to Hugh Jackman,” Wilkinson says.
The film premiered in London earlier this month, and this week was nominated for four Golden Globe awards (best musical or comedy, best song, and acting nominations for Jackman and Anne Hathaway as Fantine). The London Telegraph film reviewer called it a “heart-soaring, crowddelighting hit-in-waiting: the Mama Mia it’s all right to like.”
The film “looks beautiful,” says Wilkinson, adding, that “I just did my part.
“They were wonderful people. Jackman is an incredible force of nature. His work ethic is unbelievable. Anne Hathaway is the same. They made me so welcome, saying, ‘here he comes, the boss.’ Huge respect for being the first Valjean. Eddie Redmayne, the guy who plays Marius, said he told his parents that I was in the movie and they said, ‘now we’re getting somewhere, working with Colm Wilkinson.’ I couldn’t believe that.”
Today, Wilkinson says he wants to stay off the computer and slow down. But he’s not really doing it. In fact, his Ottawa show is part of a 14-date tour from Mississauga to Medicine Hat.