Les Misérables is a story about the French revolution, which was adapted into a musical that’s now been running on London‘s West End for almost 40 years.
The show also has strong ties with Australians, most notably with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe taking on lead roles in the movie version of the musical, released in 2012.
Now, two other Aussies are taking on starring roles in the production but this time in the show’s original home – on the West End.
Watch the video above.
READ MORE: Stars ordered to walk out of blockbuster premiere
Victoria’s Josh Piterman and Robert Tripolino left behind Melbourne and Geelong, respectively, to take a chance on their theatre dreams before landing starring roles in this and a number of other London productions.
Tripolino joined the cast first, last September, playing love-struck revolutionary Marius Pontmercy (a role our very own David Campbell also performed in the Sydney production, when this journalist saw it on a school excursion many moons ago!).
READ MORE: Dani and Nicole run a six-figure business but don’t make a cent
Then Piterman took on the role of Jean Valjean in April, playing the same escaped convict turned nobleman that earned Jackman a Golden Globe along with Oscar, BAFTA, SAG and Critics Choice nominations.
While Piterman is a big fan of the Hollywood A-Lister and would love to have a beer with him (and “many Valjean chats”), the 37-year-old says he didn’t want to copy Jackman’s take on the character.
READ MORE: ‘Why?’ Emma Watkins stunned by ‘brutally honest’ question
“There’s been so many men who’ve got to play this role over the years and everyone brings their own thing to it,” Piterman tells 9Honey backstage at London’s Sondheim Theatre.
“So I’m not putting on someone else’s shoes, I’m stepping into my own shoes and my own version of it but I find Hugh terribly inspiring as a human, beyond just as an actor and as a singer and an artist.”
Piterman, who has also played the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera on the West End, says having a fellow Aussie in the cast provides a nice taste of home.
“We’ve never got to do a show together although [we] have come in and out of each other’s lives socially in the theatre circuits of Australia for many, many years, so it’s just been really nice to get to perform with him for the first time,” he tells 9Honey of working with Tripolino, 33.
“And then there’s that special thing about Aussies abroad – we’ve developed a really strong kinship and friendship.
“Just to talk things that are home – we’re both big Aussie rules fan – he’s a Geelong fan, I’m a Bulldogs fan, so we’ve been talking about the footy, the cricket, so just things that are Aussie.”
And the feeling is mutual.
“Josh is a real reminder of that home is not that far away,” Tripolino tells 9Honey.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsYRq06I1DP/?hl=en
“His work in the show is brilliant. We get to play every night together, we get to sing every night together [and] sometimes our Aussie accents, I think mine more, sometimes slip out.
“It’s such a joy to have him in the company, it’s very much a taste of home that I was really craving.”
‘It was quite heartbreaking’
While they had never starred together in a show before this, one experience they shared was what happened when COVID-19 struck, with both forced to head back to Australia and lay low as theatres all around the world shut down.
For Piterman, he ran online masterclasses and did a meditation teachers training course, while Tripolino worked with his family to rebuild a local theatre in Geelong.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmX9kJIgO9/?utm_source=ig_embed&
“It was quite heartbreaking to see the lack of community, which is what [theatre] brings the most – especially in Les Mis, you see the community of the audience,” Tripolino tells 9Honey of that time.
“You see the shared story, you see people grieving through the show, you see like a church and so to lose that church for a long period of time was quite heartbreaking.
“Back in my hometown, we made our own church – we had a theatre that we started rebuilding and refurbishing and so my family actually got together and it was kind of my way of answering the lack of theatre in my life at that time.
“I felt really lucky that I could do that.”
‘Wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them’
Both are equally thrilled at being back to performing and back on stage but they’re both ecstatic to be in the production of Les Misérables, which has personal significance to each of them.
“I wasn’t into theatre until sort of 16/17 but I got obsessed with Les Mis at about 17,” Piterman says.
“If I told that 17-year-old version of me that I’m going to be playing Valjean in 20 years time on the West End, I think he would have laughed in my face.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpR4wy9o_Vg/?utm_source=ig_embed&
This made having his parents visit recently to watch him perform all the more sweeter for the Melbourne boy.
“To get to share this with them is pretty special,” Piterman tells 9Honey.
“I know that they’re super proud and they’ve been so supportive. I wouldn’t be here – I know, it’s so cliché – but I literally wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them because, I grew up not as a singer, so they had to fork out the coin for all the singing lessons,” he laughs.
“They’re my number one supporters.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtisJyaIfQW/?utm_source=ig_embed&
“To be able to play an iconic role, in an iconic production, in an iconic city, it’s just, that’s dreams,” Tripolino says, recalling his first time watching the show as a kid back in Geelong with his parents and no idea he’d one day be in the West End production.
“I’m really living tiny Rob’s wildest dreams right now and I am loving that cause that is really nice.”
‘I’ve not experienced anywhere in the world’
While Tripilino says he misses the green spaces and oceans of Australia while living in the UK on and off for the past four years, the acting duo agree there’s one thing they appreciate about working on-stage in London.
“I would say that audiences are more happy to get up and give a standing ovation on the West End,” Piterman says.
“The way that the audiences respond is an energy that I’ve not experienced ever – ever in Australia or anywhere else in the world,” Tipolino agrees.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm31uypoNJa/?utm_source=ig_embed&
“Everyone stands up every time and gives us a standing ovation to go, ‘Hey, we felt this tonight’ and that’s a really special thing to receive every night.”
Piterman adds with a laugh: “I think the Aussies are notoriously lazier … but you’ve got to get up to leave the theatre anyway, so just stand up. Get up!”.
The pair have also been enjoying teaching British members of the cast and crew some choice Aussie sayings, including “chookas” – the equivalent of “break a leg” but more so meaning good luck for a full house.
“I have taught many people be art of where Whoop Whoop is – not many people know of Whoop Whoop and I’ve created so many monsters now,” Tripolino laughs.
“I love that every now and then you’d hear someone being like ‘oh yeah they’re from Whoop Whoop’, it makes me howl [with laughter] actually because I think it’s just such an Aussie slang that only we know.
“So that makes me happy that I invested that in this company.”
However, Piterman’s saying hasn’t quite caught on in the same way across the production cast and crew.
“‘We’re not here to f*** spiders’ that’s probably my favorite one,” he laughs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsYRq06I1DP/?utm_source=ig_embed&
“For those who don’t know what that is, ‘we’re not here to muck around’ … that’s a very Aussie saying that I don’t think anywhere else in the world would say. I use that from time-to-time with the rest of the crew.”
There’s no denying the pair are proud of their Australian roots and to be following in the famous footsteps of Aussies performing on the West End, which in addition to Jackman have previously included the late Barry Humphries, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Anthony Warlow and Rhonda Burchmore, among others.
Tap Dogs and Cyote Ugly star Adam Garcia is currently on the West End, starring in 42nd Street, while Succession star Sarah Snook will play 26 characters in the one-woman performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray next year.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.