I WANT THIS TO BE TRUE SO BADLY THAT I DID SOME RESEARCH
John Mulaney: Born in 1982, so we are talking about 1988-1992, if we broaden the ages a bit
Les Mis had three national touring companies in the US. From Wiki:
“The First National Tour opened at Boston’s Shubert Theatre on 12 December 1987, and continued to play major cities until late 1991.
The Second National Tour (called “The Fantine Company”) opened at Los Angeles’ Shubert Theatre on 1 June 1988. The production played for fourteen months then transferred to San Francisco’s Curran Theatre where it enjoyed a similar run.
The Third National Tour of Les Misérables (called “The Marius Company”) was one of the longest running American touring musical productions. Opening on 28 November 1988, at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Florida, and closing on 23 July 2006, at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri,[58] the tour ran for seventeen years and 7,061 performances. The tour played in 145 cities in 43 states.
Sam’s Broadway page gives us some, but not all, of the necessary information.
Great, because we know the Second National Tour didn’t stop in Chicago already.
From this article, published March 30, 1988:
Sam B. Riegel, an animated, dark-eyed 11-year-old from Arlington, will play alternate for Gavroche. He will share the role with an out-of-town actor in the limited Washington run that opens at the Eisenhower Theater July 5, according to a spokesman for the production.
Tour dates for the first national tour:
It stopped in Chicago March 18-September 2, 1989, as well as March 16-September 29, 1991. I would say we are looking probably at the 1989 tour stop.
The third national tour is where it gets interesting. The opening night credits include:
They don’t do a single performance in Chicago. Therefore we know that the actor who understudied Gavroche, also the kid John Mulaney wanted to kill, was in the First National Tour.
However, we know that only the originating actors are credited, and we still don’t know when Sam switched from the Third to the First National Tour.
There are a few sources that help us, however:
We can gather that Sam and Eden only were with the Third National Tour for 4 months. Eden is credited as the Alternate to Cosette and Eponine in the actual Broadway production, whereas Sam:
DEFINITELY REPLACED THE GAVROCHE ALTERNATE IN THE FIRST NATIONAL TOUR! The only thing to do now is to figure out the timeline. If they in fact only performed with the Third National Tour for 4 months, then they would have been free starting October 1988 at the earliest. At that point, the First National Tour was just starting its performances in Philadelphia, the stop right before Chicago.
I couldn’t find a cast list for the Chicago 1989 performances, so I looked for the surrounding performances of the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia and the Fisher Theater in Detroit. The only thing I can find is that Eden, Sam’s sister, was still with Les Miserables in 1990. However, I can’t find anything about Sam specifically! Please let me know if you can!
tldr: Sam MAY ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN the kid John Mulaney wanted to beat up for being the Gavroche understudy. I especially believe it to be the case because every person wants to beat up Sam upon meeting him.
kianamaiart
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
baratheonpilled
prguitarman
