For local actress,
it’s a curtain call

By Ruth Rovner
For the Times

For its final production this season, the Walnut Street Theatre is presenting the legendary musical Les Miserables — and it’s an all-new production of the show that’s considered the world’s most popular musical.
Based on Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables, this epic saga that covers three decades of 19th century French history has been performed in more than 26 countries and has won more than 50 international theater awards. In the U.S., those awards include two Grammys and eight Tony awards.
The Walnut’s new production is an ambitious one, with dazzling stage effects, stirring music and a large cast of both Broadway actors and local talent. The casting directors auditioned more than 600 actors in Philadelphia and beyond. Thirteen landed featured roles and 28 were chosen as members of the "ensemble."
These are performers who take on varied small roles, appearing in multiple scenes where they take part in the action and serve as the chorus.
Although they’re not in the limelight, their role is crucial, — and also quite demanding.
For example, Denise Whelan of Ambler is in nine different scenes in the first act alone. Although she has only minor parts, she takes on seven roles. Depending on the scene, she’s an apple picker, a factory worker, a sister to the bishop, a prostitute, a customer at an inn, a beggar and one of the townspeople.
These roles require seven costume changes.
"Two of them are extremely fast," she says.
They’re so fast, in fact, that she doesn’t even have time to go upstairs to her dressing room. Instead, she speedily changes right in the stairwell and then dashes back on stage.
Some scenes involve a complete costume change. For instance, in a scene where she’s a prostitute, she dons a tight-fitting blouse and skirt, with corset underneath, black boots and a red wig that she describes as a "big crazy Moulin Rouge type wig." For the scene at the local inn, she puts on an underskirt, pantaloons, a skirt and vest — and another wig.
"It’s split-second timing," she says. "You can’t relax at all. You have to be really fast."
Most of the costume changes take place in her dressing room. To get there, she climbs 40 steps up and then down for each costume change for every performance. She and another actress actually computed how many steps they’ll ascend and descend during the total run of this show. It involves 80 steps up and down for each costume change (about 10 per performance). With a total of 103 performances, the grand total was a whopping 129,000 steps.
The slim, high energy actress takes all those steps cheerfully in stride.
"I find it’s actually easier if I run up the steps," she says.
Besides the energy needed to climb repeatedly, there’s also the continuous action that takes place on the stage.
In addition to her nine scenes in Act I, she’s in four scenes in Act 11. One major scene takes place on the barricades that students have built as part of their revolution against the aristocracy.
In this scene, she’s one of the townspeople who is making soup and tying bandages.
"We’re on the stage for twenty-five minutes in this scene, and we have to be active the entire time," says Whelan.
But there’s one exception. That comes when actor Hugh Panaro, who plays the leading role of Jean Valjean, sings a lyrical and gentle ballad, Bring Him Home, in which he prays for the safety of the young student Marius.
This is when the hard-working members of the ensemble finally get one chance to rest. They even put their heads down as they listen to the song.
"We love it because it’s a beautiful song, and we all get to rest while we listen to those dulcet tones," says Whelan. "We even close our eyes, because it’s a prayer and we’re supposed to be resting."
But there’s no resting in the wedding scene of Act 11 which precedes the finale. This time, Whelan is decked out in a gown with hoop skirt. She also wears her dancer’s shoes, which she needs for the dancing in this scene.
"It’s a long scene, and we have to keep moving," she says.
When the scene ends, she climbs the steps once more to change into her original costume for the finale, when the entire cast sings the stirring anthem Do You Hear the People Sing? Invariably, audiences give the performers a standing ovation.
Despite the energy that each performance demands, Whelan is thrilled to be part of this production.
"The cast is phenomenal," she says. "They’re talented, high energy and couldn’t be nicer."
She’s also pleased to be working with award-winning director Mark Clements. He also directed her when she had a featured role in the Walnut’s production of The Thing About Men. Clements won the 2007 Barrymore Award winner for Outstanding Direction of a Play for his direction of the Walnut’s Of Mice and Men. Even before Of Mice and Men ended its run last year, Clements started planning for this ambitious production of Les Mis, as it’s fondly known.
Although Whelan doesn’t have a major role in Les Mis, she’s had her share of leading roles in musicals at the Walnut. She’s belted out show-stopping solos when she played Aldonza in Man of La Mancha and Molly Malloy in Windy City.
She also won a Barrymore nomination for her role as the Beggar Woman in the Arden Theatre’s Sweeney Todd.
The Ambler actress is a master juggler who manages to balance a busy professional life with her roles as a wife and a mother of two young sons, Jack, 5, and Connor, 3. Her husband, her mother and other family members pitch in as babysitters when she’s performing.
She’s appeared on varied area stages, too, but she’s always delighted to perform at the Walnut, even though it means a 45-minute commute to and from the theater.
"It’s the best place to work," she says. "They make you feel that you’re part of the family and that they’re grateful to you for working with them. You can’t ask for more than that."
Performing in Les Mis is definitely a highlight of her Walnut Theatre experience.
"Before this, I’d never seen it and never been in it," she says. "It’s really exciting, and I love doing it!" ••

Tickets, tickets . . .

The Walnut Street Theatre, at 825 Walnut St., presents Les Miserables through Aug. 3.
Tickets cost $10 to $70 and are available by phone at 215-574-3550 or www.walnutstreettheatre.org or ticketmaster. Also visit www.LesMisPhilly.com