An encounter with Les Miz and Miss Saigon creator

MANILA, Philippines - Les Miserables which hit Manila in the ’90s is observing its 25th year and Lea Salonga is back in London to join the anniversary gala.

In the same vein, it’s been 21 years since Miss Saigon opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London’s West End on Sept. 20, 1989.

As it turned out, the musical made history when it closed its West End run on Oct. 30, 1999 after 4,264 performances and became Theatre Royal’s (Drury Lane) longest running musical reportedly eclipsing the record set by My Fair Lady.

As musical history gave its verdict, Saigon made a star out of Lea who played Kim and opened doors to other Filipino singers who tried the various roles to great acclaim around the world.

Its composer, Claude-Michel Schönberg, reaped both critical and commercial success with both Les Miz and Miss Saigon.

On the 25th year of Les Miz and the 21st year of Miss Saigon, let me just recall my first and last encounter with their composer.

 Born in Vannes, France 66 years ago, Schonberg — before Les Miz and Miss Saigon — wore multiple hats as producer, actor, singer and songwriter whose collaboration with lyricist Alain Boublil was another success story.

 On first encounter, Schonberg admitted there and then. “Since I was a kid, I was always in love with opera. I don’t have one favorite in particular but I’d always love the works of French opera composers like Berlioz, Gounod and Offenbach.”

Early in his composing life, Schonberg was exposed to samplings of musical theater and then a dream came a-forming at the back of his mind. “When I was younger,” he recalled, “I wanted to be Leonard Bernstein because he wrote West Side Story and I also wanted to be Andrew Lloyd Webber because he wrote Cats. Now that I’ve written Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, I am happy to be known as the creator of said musicals and be myself. To be identified with your own works is I think the biggest reward a composer can get.”

Schonberg’s foray into musical theater started in the early ’70s when a compatriot, Alain Boublil, then still a relatively unknown songwriter, saw Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway and was enchanted by the experience. They figured out that they could actually go beyond three-minuter songs and tell a story which would combine their love for opera and pop songs.

The result was the first Boublil-Schonberg musical, La Revolution Francaise whose concept album turned into gold and that sealed their addiction to musical theater which has no tradition in France.

In this very first Schonberg musical staged in 1973, the composer also debuted as an actor playing the role of King XVI.

Their next venture, Les Miserables, even became a bigger success in its original version staged at Le Palais des Sports in 1980. It was readapted for West End by Cameron Mackintosh who said when the show opened in London, “Luckily for all of us the British public ignored the critics and fell in love with the show.”

The next Boublil-Schonberg collaboration, Miss Saigon again eclipsed the track record of Les Miz and Mackintosh spotted the different style adopted by the composer. “The style of the music was completely unexpected, completely unrecognizable from the 19th century romantic sweep of Les Miserables. The score had a drive and restless energy which was as modern as any I have ever heard in a contemporary musical. Only occasionally did I recognize Claude-Michel’s artful use of operatic-choral writing which I knew from Les Miz.”

Les Miz and Miss Saigon — now still running in Australia and Canada and other major cities — had kept Schonberg busy for many years.

Married with two children still based in Paris, Schonberg revealed his life was a cross between writing and rewriting music and travelling all year round.

“I do a lot of music writing when I am in Paris but I am ever hardly at home,” he confided. “Like I was in Paris one week working on a new musical but I got this call from another city because another production of Miss Saigon was opening there and then I had to fly to Australia because of the new auditors there and from Manila I had to get back to New York because another company was staging my musical.”

Even with three certified hits to his credit, Schonberg — to that day — was still unnerved by opening nights. “On that day critics and audiences will judge my work, I am always walking around that theater and going backstage only to check if everything is well. I am always nervous every time there is a new show whether this be in New York or Germany. But in some shows where I know that the musical is working well, I am not so nervous anymore when it was tried elsewhere before that run. But on the first night of a very first creation, any opening night is a nightmare.”

His only fear as a composer is when audiences end up not appreciating what he has done. “My only fear as a composer,” he said “is to end up not a good composer. All acts of writing music is difficult enough and the agony doubles when your work is up for judgement. I didn’t choose to be a composer; my music chose me. So all the struggles of writing music is for me a normal state because I cannot imagine myself doing other chores except that of a composer.”

Schonberg recalled that he took note of Filipino music when he saw a Lino Brocka film in Paris and was fascinated by the flow of music in the soundtrack. Auditioning talents for Miss Saigon and finding none that will suit the musical, he thought of the music of Brocka’s films and told himself there must be more in that country where that film came from. “When we arrived in Manila,” he said, “all my wishful thinking about the wealth of musical talents awaiting us here came true. We never expected to find so much talent here.”

He was completely disarmed that when Repertory Philippines got the permission to stage Les Miz, and came over to personally coach and supervise the Filipino actor-singers.

As a rule, he makes it a point to work closely with the interpreters of his work. “I guess all composers care a lot how their music will be treated,” he pointed out. “You have to work closely with singers to make sure your songs are not sang with missing whole note and half note.”

Lea who sang the role of Kim in Miss Saigon admitted that from the point of an interpreter, singing Les Miz was a breeze compared to the vocal demands of Miss Saigon. “I’ve sang Les Miz as Eponine and saw it as a theatergoer and always I’d be moved to tears.”

Cocoy Laurel who once played the role of Engineer in the Australian Production of Miss Saigon, admitted that the French composer’s music was so good he is still in love with it. “You have to be in tip-top shape to be able to do justice to his music.”

As for Schonberg himself, he confessed he could not imagine a life without music.

“I am afraid I have no other life to speak of outside of music. I like reading too but writing music consumes me. I have a house south of France where I can take a vacation but I basically don’t want to rest because I can’t stand doing nothing. Maybe in the future, I could attempt to direct opera probably in places like Manila.”

Could he imagine himself in other career choices not related to music?

The composer looked at me straight in the eye and said, “If I’d be confined to working without music, you’d find me jumping without regret from the 18th floor of Manila Hotel.”