It can be a mixed blessing to land the role of your dreams.
Just ask Sayer Roberts, who had a chance to take to the stage as Marius in Les Misérables at Chemainus Theatre last year. As he gets set to return to the role again – this time in the Arts Club Theatre production that opens July 2 – he’s had a chance to reflect on the experience.
“It’s almost like a gift and a curse to do your dream show,” the New Westminster actor says now, on the phone during a lunch break from a day of intensive rehearsal in the week before Arts Club’s opening night. “You have built it up so much that you have to work so hard and will inevitably be let down by yourself.”
That’s what he found the first time out in Chemainus. Playing Marius, the student revolutionary and young romantic lead in the popular epic musical, was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, because Les Misérables has been among his favourite shows since he first heard the music hears ago.
“I instantly loved it, I loved the music and the sweeping epicness of it,” he recalls. “As a singer, it’s the most luxurious, decadent dessert possible.”
It’s not just about the huge vocal range and the sweeping melodies, he notes, but the emotional states each performer must explore. “It is all about character: there is depth, emotion and drive too.”
But actually being onstage meant that, inevitably, something wouldn’t go as he’d hoped – and he’d feel let down that he wasn’t achieving the vision he had in his own mind for the role.
Fast forward to this year and Roberts is feeling far more sure of himself.
“My understanding of the character is still very much the same,” he says. “I got to kind of marinate in it for a year. Now I can say, ‘I know how this scene goes, I know who Marius is.’”
Rehearsal for the show has been extremely condensed, he notes, with just two weeks for the whole cast to come together. Since Arts Club previously staged Les Misérables in 2009, the cast have been able to watch video from the original show to understand the “floor plan” and envision how it all comes together.
Two of the leads – Kieran Martin Murphy as Jean Valjean and Kaylee Harwood as Cosette – are returning, as are some members of the ensemble.
Roberts is thrilled to be acting opposite Harwood, the other half of the pair of young lovers at the heart of the story.
“I have so much respect for Kaylee in so many ways,” he says. “She has so much heart and soul. She cares so much about every moment, and it’s infectious. You can’t help but be inspired. She is an absolute joy to work with, onstage and offstage as well.”
And he’s inspired, once again, by the chance to be part of a musical that so many people list among their favourites.
“That’s part of the joy of doing it. I love when people come up and tell me their connection to the show,” he says, adding that knowing how his work affects people and how people connect to the stories he’s telling, is what keeps him performing – even beyond the pure physical enjoyment he gets from singing, dancing and acting.
“The reason that I choose to make it my life is telling stories that affect people,” he says.
Asked to choose favourites from the Les Misérables score – which is packed with such familiar songs as I Dreamed a Dream, Bring Him Home and Do You Hear The People Sing – Roberts doesn’t hesitate.
Marius’ own Empty Chairs at Empty Tables – a tribute to his fellow students who fell in the failed revolution – and Stars, sung by the antagonist Inspector Javert, are his two chosen.
And, for the record, Roberts has no inclination to take on the role of Valjean as he matures: his chosen future role would be Javert, the police inspector who devotes his life to tracking down the escaped prisoner Valjean.
“I actually have my eye on playing Javert. He’s actually my favourite part of the show. His story is so compelling,” Roberts says. “The payoff at the end of the show” – no spoilers here for those unfamiliar with the story – “that, for an actor, is a huge moment to play.”
In the here and now, however, there’s one moment Roberts singles out as his own hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment.
It happens at the end of the show, when Valjean is at the monastery where he has gone to die. He is singing Alone, I Wait in the Shadows, and just as he finishes a phrase, a solo cello enters with four haunting notes.
“It’s my favourite musical part of the show,” Roberts says.
The Arts Club’s six-week run of the show is a blessing for the performer, who notes that there’s not a lot of opportunity to find work in musical theatre in Vancouver.
Though he loves it here and it’s where his family roots are – yes, Roberts is part of the clan that includes dad Russell Roberts and mom Colleen Winton, both established actors on the local scene – he says it’s just tough to make a go of it in a market like this one.
Come this winter, he intends to head to Toronto – which has more performing opportunities and more companies coming to audition performers for shows all over the world, not to mention its proximity to the Stratford and Shaw festivals. Roberts has also been studying stage combat and fight direction, another area of theatre work where he can find more training and employment opportunities in Toronto.
Roberts has no particular set plans at this point, he says; he’s just willing to see what happens.
“I’m always open to things that come out of nowhere,” he says.
And, he adds, he’s living in the moment right now for Les Misérables.
He points out that acting is one of the few art forms where an artist has to wait until someone else tells them they can do their art – not like a writer or a painter, who can create whenever the mood strikes.
“We hunger so much, just longing for someone to tell us, ‘Here’s your chance to do what you want to do,’” he says – which means when those chances come, you have to savour them.
“It is very difficult sometimes to maintain momentum in this industry. There’s a lot of pressure to keep moving forward, keep moving forward, keep moving forward.
“You have to remind yourself, enjoy this.”
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Les Misérables is onstage at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Granville Street from July 2 to Aug. 16. The show is on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $39. Call the Arts Club box office at 604-687-1644 or see www.artsclub.com.
