Talented Tipperary group rises to daunting challenge

Youth theatre group Bellvue Academy Of Performing Arts ran their production of Les Misérables in the White Memorial Theatre, Clonmel.
The result was a captivating show incorporating exceptional acting, emotional storytelling, powerful music and visual spectacle. On the day of their final performance, I was lucky enough to speak to some of the cast and crew and found out how they created such a high quality production.

The show’s director, Lisa Kelly, told me she was inspired to do Les Misérables when she saw it in the West End in London.
She knew it would be challenging, but as most of the cast have been involved in Bellvue for years she knew they would be more than capable of doing it. She told me, “With a youth academy you can’t just pick a show because you like the show, you have to think about who you have and if it will suit them.”

Musical director Nial Kelly shared that “For such a young group, they are the most professional that I’ve ever come across in my life.” Speaking to the cast members themselves, one thing that was very clear was that they all felt a strong sense of community, many saying it felt like a family. Some told me that they found the prospect of doing a show as famous and complex as Les Misérables to be daunting, while others found it exciting and welcomed the challenge. Lisa also explained that the rehearsal schedule for such a big cast meant they had to give up a large amount of time, but everyone was fully committed.

The set designer Anthony Lawless did an incredible job, the sets looked spectacular on the stage. Lisa told me “Anthony Lawless is a genius. I’ve been so lucky on this show to work with amazing people, and when I told Anthony the few things that I needed for the set, he came back to me with a design. At first it was a much simpler design, but then he asked me “Can I go bigger?”. And I think now that this is the most elaborate set that’s ever gone into this theater.”
I was curious to hear from Niall about what the arrangement for the live orchestra was like. He told me “You could do Les Mis with just a piano, but in my opinion that wouldn’t have the same effect. To me, the minimum for a show of this scale is an 11 piece orchestra, so that’s what we have. They’ve all very kindly given up their time to come and play with us here.” Lisa added, “And the piano player in the orchestra is Mary Rose McNally, who has been an absolute superstar as a Chorus Mistress teaching the cast the music.”

As I watched the show’s final performance, I was blown away by the result. The chemistry between the cast members was remarkable, most notably between Jean ValJean (played by Nathan Dalton) and Javert (played by Cathal Walsh), who perfectly portrayed the rivalry between the two characters. Keenan Scully and Caitlin Fanning were hilarious as the Innkeepers. The cast members performed brilliantly in their solo moments with two shining examples being Millie O’Sullivan’s Fantine and Saoirse Scully’s Eponine.

There is no spoken dialogue in the play, and Cathal told me a big challenge is telling the story through song. I think the perfect example of this was a performance by Cormac O’ Donovan, who played Marius, with the song Empty Chairs At Empty Tables. Cormac expertly blended the performance of the song with conveying the story to the audience. Órdhan Williams also did a great job at this as his character the Bishop. Even the younger cast members seemed like experienced actors, such as Sean Savage’s Gavroche.

The cast was at their best while singing together. Aoibhe Condon, who played Cosette, told me it was these moments of the show which were her favourite, and for good reason. Songs such as One Day More were powerful enough to give anyone goosebumps, with their combination of harmony, emotion and energy. And that is the main takeaway from speaking to those involved: the reason it was so good is because of a lot of extremely talented people working together. Lisa wished to thank everyone who was involved in the show in any way. Bellvue’s next event will be their kid’s show, Tiger Beats in May, and Lisa plans to do some more dramatic shows with Bellvue.