Wheatley cast finds joy in ‘Les Miserables’

Richard Tedesco

Wheatley School cast members say they wondered whether they could sing their way through the demanding operatic score of “Les Miserables” when the spring musical project was first announced.

But that was before they met their musical director, Cosmo Mallardi, who had a bit of on-the-job experience from playing in and conducting the orchestra of the “Les Miserables” national traveling entourage for a decade.

“It’s quite a feat putting on the show with a high school. They’re really good and as opening night approaches, the enthusiasm level rises,” Mallardi said, smiling.

Mallardi’s hoping the cast’s enthusiasm peaks when the curtain rises on performances in the Wheatley School auditoriium on April 7, 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee on April 9 at 2:00 p.m.

A graduate of the master’s program at the Yale School of Music, Mallardi was originally playing bass with the road company of the Broadway epic based on the novel about class struggle and a failed Paris revolution by Victor Hugo. He conducted the company orchestra for more than three years, including a week of performances at New York’s Imperial Theater in 1997 while the show was being revamped.

“I never got tired of it. It’s that kind of show that can breathe and be a little bit different every time,” Mallardi said.

It’s the show’s operatic structure that Mallardi knew would necessitate adjustments for the high school vocalists.

“It’s really a hybrid,” he said of ‘Les Miserables.’ “It’s got rock. It’s got orchestral. And fortunately, we can get that here.”

So after an extended hiatus, it feels like he’s back doing the same show he played in and conducted for through a long road run that eventually became too long for him.

“For me, it’s been a real treat. It’s brought back a lot of memories for me,” Mallardi said

The actors in the Wheatley cast are making the vocal adjustments while appreciating their musical director.

“He pays a lot of attention to detail. He’s worked on the show and that helps a lot,” said senior Christine Ames, a veteran of four years of productions at the school, who plays Eponine

“The time he’s dedicated to the show is amazing. I didn’t know I could sing operatically,” said Doug Aliano, who plays Javert, the arch-protagonist police investigator of the piece.

There’s also a difference in the fact the story they’re enacting is based on historical events in 19th century France.

“We’re singing a song. And we’re doing history, said senior Kenneth Kriheli, who plays the star-crossed protagonist Jean Valjean. “The historical part colors everything.”

The actors also must adapt to singing operatic lines in both range and cadence, with virtually all the lines expressed in song.

“We’ve never done a show likes this before. Vocally, it’s very different,” Ames said. “You have to have a conversational tone to it.”

Cast members said Mallardi has enabled them to make the necessary adjustments.

“He pays a lot of attention to detail. He’s worked on the show and that helps a lot,” Ames said, noting that Mallardi has helped teach the cast the style of singing required.

“The time he’s dedicated to the show is amazing. I didn’t know I could sing opera,” Aliano said.

Cast members also have to make quick physical and emotional adjustments through sudden scene changes.

And Lauren DiGennaro, director of the challenging stage production and a special education teacher in the district, contacted Mallardi because his parents knew DiGennaro’s husband’s parents, and they put the two in touch. And when they spoke, the timing was ideal.

“I had just been saying I’d like to do a high school production of ‘Les Miserables’,” Mallardi recounted.

So the prospect of doing a student version of the production, complete with moveable barricades, became a reality.

“This was the year to do this show. I believe in fate,” DiGennaro said.

Despite the difficulty in relating to characters in such extreme emotional and political circumstances DiGennaro said the cast “all got right into it.” And she lauds Mallardi’s efforts in coaching them through it.

“He has the patience of a saint. And what he offers them is completely professional. I’m going to remember this one,” she said.

It promises to be a memorable effort, on both vocal and a logistical terms.

Tickets to the show are $10.00. Senior citizens are free. It’s suggested that tickets be purchased online at www.ewsdonline.org or by calling call 516-336-9333 to order tickets.

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