SHS Theatre takes on Les Miserables to close the year

(Seguin) -- For some Seguin High School seniors, there’s not only that final game or final concert. There’s that final time of being on stage under those bright lights.

Four years of working on stage, in tech or backstage comes to a wrap this weekend as this year’s seniors perform in their final production of the year, Les Miserables, the School Edition.

For many, Les Mis has been enjoyed in multiple stage variations not to mention film and even a TV series. But for many of this year’s seniors who pioneered in live streams and YouTube film performances due to COVID, they couldn’t ask for a sweeter finale.

Applauding the entire cast and crew’s ability to master the “not so easy” show is Director Lydia Robles. Robles says this group includes incredible vocal talent. She says it made choosing this production easy.

“It is a completely vocal show. There’s no dialogue. No character just stops and talks to the audience. Everything is sung and the scoring in it of itself is not your typical composition where you can just pick out the melody. There’s a lot of intricate rhythms and it takes a certain talent to be able to pick out their rhythms and their vocal parts and the intricacies that such a show contains. There’s a reason why this is one of the longest running musicals on Broadway. It is a truly gripping and compelling piece story wise but also the music is just gorgeous and when it’s done well, you can’t help but absolutely love it,” said Robles.

Cast with the lead role is Senior Garrett Reinhard. Reinhard describes the show as spectacular.

“My character’s name is Jean Valjean. He was a quote unquote criminal. It started off he stole a loaf of bread to save his family and he was put in prison for 19 years and he goes through this phase of going from a hardened criminal to a kind of soft and sentimental man trying to figure out which decisions to make. He has to take care of a child and he goes to war in the French Revolution and meets his child’s love interest. My character is very complex. For my senior year, I mean this is probably the musical that I’ve wanted to do since I was little. My dad has seen this show and my mom has too so to end it off my senior year with this show is really something special. I’ve been doing theater here at the high school since my freshman year and I would have never thought that I would have gotten the lead in the last musical of my senior year,” said Reinhard.

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