'Les Miserables' memories help performers with local ties on tour

For more than three decades, “Les Misérables” has marched across the globe to move audiences to tears. The award-winning hit musical based on Victor Hugo's weighty 1862 novel has been running in London since 1985, and next week “Les Misérables” returns to Chicago for a 24-performance run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.

Aside from being a guaranteed weepie, “Les Misérables” has also helped inspire generations of aspiring actors. In the recently relaunched North American tour, two cast members with local ties have fond memories of their first times seeing the musical.

Northwestern University alumnus J Anthony Crane was 13 when he saw the original Royal Shakespeare Company production in London during a budget trip to England and France organized by his arts-loving single mother.

“This young man, who was at his most awkward state of young adulthood, just leaned right into it because it spoke to me in so many passionate ways,” said Crane, who stars as the conniving innkeeper Monsieur Thénardier. “I think the tiny, baby theater artist/clown who was growing into a young man deciding what he was going to do in life saw the show and thought, 'I can do that!'”

Glen Ellyn native Julie Cardia already had the performing bug as a veteran member of the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus (Anima) when she saw “Les Misérables,” a tale of an ex-convict who finds redemption. It was during her freshman year at Glenbard West High School, and Cardia was with a Presbyterian youth group at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.

“I got back home and I could not stop thinking about the story,” said Cardia, an ensemble member in the tour. “I remember my mom was doing dishes in the kitchen and I told her the entire story at length, which was probably an hourlong conversation! It was the beauty of this story about love and redemption and courage of this man, Jean Valjean, that really stuck with me.”

Before Cardia moved to New York in 2001 and later California, she and her twin sister, Janna Cardia, performed all over the Chicago area at theaters such as Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace and the long-gone Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. Cardia laughs at how she always thought of herself in one of the more romantic roles in “Les Misérables,” perhaps as Valjean's adopted daughter Cosette or the ill-fated Eponine.

Cardia's most prominent moment in the show is as the wig-making crone who bargains for the hair of destitute single mother Fantine. Cardia is also a Madame Thénardier understudy.

Crane, too, saw himself in one of the more dashing roles.

“It was only recently that anyone ever even brought the idea of playing Thénardier to me,” said Crane of the comical, greedy innkeeper. “I didn't realize that this is where I've arrived in my journey as an actor - someone who adapts well to these roles with an interest in both the villains and the clowns.”

This is the first time that Crane and Cardia have appeared in “Les Misérables.” Yet both acknowledge the benefits of being so familiar with the show.

“Because I've known this musical since I was 14 years old, it's kind of in my DNA,” Cardia said. “During rehearsals, I barely had to memorize my words because I already knew them. It's funny to realize that it has been a soundtrack for my life and now I get to perform it.”

“Les Misérables”

<b>Where:</b> Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or broadway inchicago.com

<b>When:</b> 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (also Sunday, Oct. 15); 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday (also Wednesday, Oct. 18 and 25); Oct. 11-29

<b>Tickets:</b> $57-$272