More Praise For Les Mis

To the Editor:

I would like to add to last week’s many letters of praise for Sabrina Post’s and Kathleen Slanski’s production of Les Miserables at Newtown High School. I would especially like to pay tribute to one actor who was not mentioned — Steve Petrovich, who played the imperious, implacable Javert. I first heard Steve sing a few years ago at St Rose Church — he sang like an angel — and wondered how his amazing talent had held up as he got older. I needn’t have wondered. He was absolutely superb. The Bee’s word limit for letters is far too short to do him justice; a comment on one scene, Javert’s suicide, will suffice.

In a play about the redemptive power of acts of mercy, he was the perfect counterpart to Tyler Von Oy’s magnificent Jean Valjean, the latter transformed by the bishop’s generous act of clemency. Steve’s Javert is the merciless “man of the law” who cannot endure the inbreaking of forgiveness and redemption into his rigid world, and during the suicide song we watch as that world cracks and breaks under the pressure. Steve is not only a prodigiously talented singer, but a fine actor as well.

Several writers commented on how much time must have gone into the production. My daughter was a singer in the ensemble, and so I know: rehearsals went on for at least three months. After a long day at school — and for many, three more hours of sports team practices — the students rehearsed from 5 or 6 pm until 9, 10, or 11 at night. The Sunday before the opening, the technical rehearsal lasted 14 hours! And one can only imagine how much more time the lead singers put in. All this and homework and CAPT testing too! They, along with Mrs Post, technical director Tom Swetts, and the entire production staff, orchestra, and volunteers, deserve our grateful thanks.

Many of the same students, and others from the NHS chorus and orchestra, are leaving for a performance tour of Austria under the direction of the indefatigable Mrs Post from April 16 to 26, and I know they will be wonderful musical ambassadors.

Mary Taylor

31 Jeremiah Road, Sandy Hook                                   April 13, 2004