Students at Woodrow Wilson High School in East Dallas performed the musical Les Misérables in 2005. On Wednesday afternoon, the creators of that long-running Broadway hit, lyricist Alain Boublil and composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, borrowed the Woodrow stage for a couple of hours to rehearse their enormous concert Do You Hear the People Sing, making its arena debut Friday night at the American Airlines Center.
Against scenery for Thoroughly Modern Millie (Woodrow continues a more than 50-year tradition of putting on huge musical productions), veteran stars of Les Miz, Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre, The Pirate Queen and other Boublil-Schönberg shows ran through songs and blocking. Friday night's concert also will feature the 80-piece Dallas Pops Orchestra, a 100-voice choir and members of the Turtle Creek Chorale.
The Sing cast includes original Miss Saigon star Lea Salonga, who also played Eponine and Fantine in Les Miz on Broadway. Brian Stokes Mitchell and Terrence Mann starred in Les Miz; Mann will be singing selections from Miss Saigon alongside Salonga. Peter Lockyer will be part of the 25th anniversary tour of Les Miz coming to Bass Hall; he also starred in a national tour of Miss Saigon. Marie Zamora played Cosette in Les Miz; she'll sing some of Schönberg and Boublil's songs in the original French.
Standing in at Wednesday's run-through for Pirate Queen star Stephanie J. Block was Dallas actress Patty Breckenridge. Block currently is playing the lead in the Broadway revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. She'll jet in for the Friday show here.
"I am ecstatic about having Do You Hear the People Sing come to Dallas in this larger-than-life show," said Boublil. "We are excited about bringing this great music to the people of Dallas."
We hung out at Woodrow (our alma mater, by the way) and took some snaps of the pros at work and on breaks. If it all comes together by Friday, this thing could be epic.