Broadway Veteran Terrence Mann Stars In Les Misérables

Mann is directing the CRT production and reprising the role he originated on Broadway as Inspector Javert.

Luke Hamilton, left, (Ensemble) and Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert) in Les MisÉrables: A Musical Celebration onstage at Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

Luke Hamilton, left, (Ensemble) and Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert) in Les MisÉrables: A Musical Celebration onstage at Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert), right, and Luke Hamilton (Ensemble)  in Les Misérables: A Musical Celebration onstage at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)
Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert), right, and Luke Hamilton (Ensemble) in ‘Les Misérables: A Musical Celebration,’ onstage at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

With a list of acting credits that numbers 22 films and 19 stage productions, including starring roles in three of Broadway’s longest-running musicals, Terrence Mann is one of the nation’s most prominent actors, as well as a distinguished professor in musical theatre at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

So when he is asked during a break in rehearsals for “Les Misérables” why he has returned for the third time in recent years to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Mann says simply:

“It reminds me of why I do what I do. I’m a theater rat; it’s where I’ve always felt the best and feel at home. I come up here and it’s that summer stock feeling. Everybody’s here for that same reason. We have a ball. We feel like we’re 18 or 20 years old. You always try to grab back that good feeling and the stuff you like to do.”

Terrence Mann stars as Inspector Javert and directs Les Misérables: A Musical Celebration. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)
Terrence Mann stars as Inspector Javert and directs the CRT production of ‘Les Misérables.’ (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

Mann is directing the production and reprising the role he originated on Broadway as Inspector Javert, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination. The CRT Nutmeg Summer Series production, which opens May 28 and runs through June 7 at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, also includes Broadway veterans David Harris, Ariana DeBose, Philip Hoffman, and Liz Larsen.

The production in Storrs takes the form of the popular “Encores!” series that focuses on the musical scores in what Mann describes as “a reimagining” of the Victor Hugo novel about a French peasant who breaks parole after serving a prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread and is doggedly pursued by a police inspector.

“It’s people singing at a microphone, but at any given moment we change the set to the inn, to Paris, creating the humanity in that moment,” Mann says. “We’re using projections to give the atmosphere of Paris. Everyone is dressed in black and wearing boots. We’ll add a piece of clothing to suggest the period. I’m trying to keep it at the edge so that you’re having enough visual storytelling.”

Mann first came to prominence on Broadway as Rum Tum Tugger in the 1982 Andrew Lloyd Webber show “Cats,” then originated the role of Javert in “Les Misérables” in 1987, and earned another Tony Award nomination for his starring role in “Beauty and the Beast” in 1994. The shows are three of the top 10 longest-running Broadway productions. His film and television roles include “A Chorus Line,” “The 10 Million Dollar Getaway,” “A Circle on the Cross,” “30 Rock,” and the current Netflix series “Sense8.”

With a long career as a performer, Mann often is asked by students in the master classes he teaches how they can find success for themselves. He says there is no great secret; primarily it is a combination of work and a bit of good fortune: “It’s got to be a combination of being prepared, talent, being in the right place at the right time, and being lucky and taking advantage of it.”

He illustrates his statement with examples from his own career: “I was given a break on Broadway by Joe Layton [for ‘Cats’]. I had to go to London and talk my way into an audition for ‘Cats.’ For ‘Les Mis’ they didn’t want to see me. They said come for Valjean. I got Javert. Stuff happens.”

David Harris (Jean Valjean), left, and Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert) in Les Misérables. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)
David Harris (Jean Valjean), left, and Terrence Mann (Inspector Javert) in ‘Les Misérables.’ (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

CRT audiences know Mann from his roles in recent years in “My Fair Lady,” “Man of LaMancha,” and directing “Pirates of Penzance.” In addition to directing and acting in “Les Misérables,” this summer he will play Captain Hook in the CRT production of “Peter Pan.”

In a 2013 interview with Broadway.com about his various stage performances, Mann described playing Henry Higgins in the 2011 CRT production of “My Fair Lady” as one of his most surprising experiences.

“I had done it when I was in high school,” he says. “It reminded me of how good musicals of that generation are, because you are swept up and carried along. You don’t have to work that hard, you just have to be the vessel for it.”

He says the role he found the most fun to play was Frank ‘N’ Furter in the 2001 Broadway production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“The thing that made it so special – apart from the music and wackiness of it, and trying to emulate Tim Curry – is you have all those one-liners that people [in the audience] throw back at you in the moment,” Mann says. “You’re constantly improvising with the audience. Every time you walk out there you’re going to hear something new, and you constantly have to be on your toes. Every performance was just electric because of that.”

“Les Misérables” is part of the 2015 Nutmeg Summer Series of the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. For more information go to the CRT website.