Life After Les Miz
by Keith U.
The completion of a successful musical theater run is stressful and can be emotionally devastating. Thespians may experience a wide range of emotions, even when the end of the musical's run is expected.
Many report initially experiencing a sense of numbness and loss of purpose, and it is not uncommon to find cast members doing hair and makeup and showing up at the venue at the appropriate call time notwithstanding the fact that the theatre is locked.
Coping is vital to your mental health. There are many ways to cope effectively with your life after a Les Miserables run, and everyone is different, but here are some things that have helped others work through the process.
1. Pour your surplus creative energy into finishing that Les Miserables / Okalahoma! mashup you've been working on[1].
2. Buy a half dozen helium balloons and TicTok Bring Him Home without falsetto.
3. Lock and unlock your phone by entering “24601” over and over while rocking gently back and forth (with and without humming Castle on a Cloud).
4. Block the entire show on your dining room table using Legos®.
5. Fight call, fight call, fight call. (Consider telling the other people you involve what it is you're doing, first.)
6. Ask people politely to focus on the ten out of eleven times you hastily exited stage left without running into the wall, thank you very much.
7. Stand in a walk-in closet with the lights off and door closed and practice not talking in the wings.
8. Review all the lines and lyrics to every successful musical Gulfshore Playhouse Education has not done yet, paying particular attention to the ones you don't know as well. Like Jesus Christ Superstar and The Producers. Because let's face it, you know Phantom cold, and if you don't were you even in Les Miz?
9. Sit somewhere comfortable and quiet, close your eyes, and ask yourself, “What is Austin feeling right now?”
Remember, coping is a process that takes time. Healing happens gradually — it can't be forced or hurried — and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving. Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. The loss will never go away, but many find they are emotionally ready to immerse themselves in the next project much sooner than expected. Without rushing yourself or getting too far out of your comfort zone, consider auditioning for other productions even if you don't feel “ready.”
You will never have this experience again, but this one cannot be taken away from you and there will be others.
[1] Hoedown, hoedown
There's dancing in the barn
Hoedown, hoedown
A party on the farm
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Author's Note
Some inside jokes here, but you'll likely enjoy it about the same regardless. (Which I expect will be with a resounding, "meh.")
Other stories by Keith U.
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Keith, this is a riot. I can't believe I'm actually seeing it because of my fifteen year connection with this show. I never performed in it but waded through a barricade of Jean Val Jean's including Colm Wilkinson. I was a member of the bartending staff at the Broadway Theatre and then followed the show to the Imperial where it closed but then, of course opened again. Fortunately I was no longer a part of those later productions. And I do have a fine life after Les Miz, thank you. We always used a 'z' Although there are moments when i wake up screaming "Master of the House' in the middle of the night. (just kidding)
First off, thank you so much for the edit - whenever I do things phonetically (that, honestly, I don't know anything about) I get them wrong. Les Miz it is.
Second, thank you for reading and commenting and for the fav - though a very narrow audience for this, and even more so with the inside references - I was just too pleased not to share it for that one person who might appreciate it.
You are that person. Thank you!!!
This is funny! I'm glad you're trying to help.
I just (re-)read "Bleeding Edge," and there's an Andrew Lloyd Webber joke in it. I don't think Pynchon likes Andrew Lloyd Webber much (or he just likes to insult him in his fiction); there's one in "Vineland," too. Equivalent to torture, and all that. Cruel and unusual.
*
I've always wondered how one would cope. *
Love this, rambling and rollicking and just perfect. I may put these to use :) *
Keith, you catapult me back to University productions, Rotatary Round Table days of AmDRAM musical theatre that proved the bane and delight of my early and brief theatrical life. Between G&S (Gilbert & Sullivan) group dances and tunes and my later foray into dissent theatre, you've hit another appreciative reader. Thank you for the time travel :-)
With embarrassed apologize for the delay, thank you Smiley, Beate, Foster, and Amantine - I don't know how I missed all your generous kindness, but I can tell you that it couldn't come at a better time now that I've (finally) seen it.
Thank you, thank you all. <3