Practise your understanding of Musical theatre
Watch this short clip, answer the questions then check your responses against the sample answers.
The clip shows comic actor, Matt Lucas, preparing for his debut performance in the musical, Les Mis茅rables at the O2 arena. We see Matt rehearsing, trying on his costume and discussing the finances for the show with the producer.
Question
What role is Matt going to play in Les Mis茅rables?
Matt will play the role of Th茅nardier in Les Mis茅rables.
Question
What helps Matt bring the character to life?
Costume and make-up are key to help Matt bring the character to life so it's important to get them right.
Question
How many items of clothing are in the Les Mis茅rables production?
There are over 500 items of clothing in the production.
Question
How many performers are involved in the production?
There are over 400 performers involved.
Question
Who will be playing the star role of Jean Valjean in this production?
The tenor Alfie Boe will be portraying Jean Valjean.
Question
What does the director tell the actors portraying the poor they need to focus on?
The actors playing the poor are told that they need to give more meaning to the words they're singing and that the text is everything.
Question
How large is the audience?
The audience is very large with 16,500 people expected to fill the O2 arena.
Question
What is the budget mentioned for staging one performance?
It'll cost 拢2 million to stage one performance.
Question
Why did the producer decide to include a matinee performance?
As the production costs 拢2 million and ticket sales will only generate 拢1.3 million, they need to do two shows a day to make a profit.
Question
What's the first run-through of a performance in which both the singers and orchestra perform together known as in 'theatre speak'?
The first run-through of a performance in which both the singers and orchestra perform together is known as Sitzprobe.
Question
Why is there a large screen projecting the live action to the theatre audience?
As the O2 arena is so vast with an audience of 16,500 people, it would be difficult for many of them to see the facial expressions of the actors and follow the action from such a distance. The large screens ensure they don't miss any nuances of the performance.