Some items to pack for a year-long hotel stay: an answering machine and a laptop computer.This is some of the advice Lindon resident Kurk Davidson has been offered from cast members of the touring musical "Les Miserables." Davidson was chosen to act as the principal understudy for the musical's lead role, Jean Valjean, as part of auditions held in Salt Lake City during the Broadway production's recent monthlong engagement.
Cast members, who have been performing "Les Miz" at Salt Lake City's Capitol Theatre, almost immediately began involving him in their activities. He praised their caring attitude.
"Part of the anxiety is not knowing what to expect from the company," Davidson said. "They have really put my heart at rest."
The 35-year-old singer is expected to join the cast in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sept. 19. His stage debut will be in Reno, Nev., a few weeks later. He'll also learn the role of one of the students in the musical. His contract binds him to the company for a year.
"I just want to do good because I feel that I'm representative of everyone that's here," he said during an interview at Hale Center Theater Orem, where he is currently directing the theater's next production, "Tons of Money."
Davidson had given up any thoughts of a major acting and singing career; he was content living in Utah Valley and directing and acting in area productions. However, after attending a professional touring company production of "Hello, Dolly" a few months ago, Davidson told a friend he felt he could participate in a similar production. When announcement came of last week's "Les Miserables" auditions, the friend called and notified Davidson.
He wrote the date down but didn't think about it again until the same friend - a pianist - called the night before the auditions and asked if he planned to rehearse.
"If she wouldn't have reminded me, it never would have happened," Davidson said.
Given number 165 - there were ultimately more than 500 adults who auditioned - Davidson made the first cut, when all of the auditioners were merely paraded past the casting directors and selected solely on the basis of "types" (if they have the size and shape that could fit particular characters).
Then he was invited to sing for the judges - and was cut off after eight bars. Because all those singing had been required to sing 16 bars, Davidson's first thought was that he was being dismissed.
Instead, he was asked to learn some additional songs from "Les Miz" and return two days later. It was only when he later examined the titles of the pieces - Valjean's "Soliloquy" and "Bring Him Home" - that he realized he was being considered for the lead role.
At the call-back audition, he sang again and was sent in the hallway to wait a few minutes. Upon his return, he was told to pack his bags; he was joining the cast of "Les Miz."
"As my chin dropped all the way to the floor, I just couldn't think of anything to say," Davidson said. He walked out feeling numb and went to tell his friend the pianist that he had been offered a role. Promptly after delivering that news, he went into a bathroom and threw up.
"That's never happened to me. I've never been that worked up over anything before," Davidson said.
With little formal vocal training, Davidson considers his voice a gift. "It would be like being born playing the clarinet, and then all you have to do is just hone your skill," he said.
He was twice flown to Washington, D.C., to sing for President Ronald Reagan as a personal Christmas card from the state of Utah and once received a personal invitation to sing for Ezra Taft Benson, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Davidson has been involved in theater on and off throughout his life. He graduated from Southern Utah University, got married, and as his three children were born, he found there was little time in his life to be involved in theater. He was once offered a contract at Disney World but turned it down because he couldn't leave his children.
Following his divorce, he again turned to theater. Having lived in the Utah County area for seven years, he has appeared at Sundance Summer Theatre, the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre and both Hale Center theaters (in South Salt Lake
and Orem).
He emphasizes that he has been happy working in a smaller community with the talented people he has found here. When asked at the auditions why he hadn't done something like this before, he said it was because he hadn't really wanted to.
"It doesn't take a Broadway contract to validate that this is art," he said. "What these people give to me and what we share is equally as beautiful as anything else."
- TWO OTHERS CHOSEN during the auditions have already joined the touring company as part of the chorus and as understudies in other major roles.
- Robbyn Thompson Scribner, who was in the chorus of the Tuacahn amphitheater's premiere production of `Utah!" in St. George, has been signed to understudy the role of Madame Thenardier, the mean and abusive French innkeeper.
Scribner is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University, where she was a valedictorian.
She appeared in several productions during the 1992, '93 and '94 seasons of Weber State University's Utah Musical Theatre series, including "Fiddler on the Roof," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," a Kit Kat girl in "Cabaret," one of the Sharks' girls in "West Side Story" and in the ensembles of "My Fair Lady," "Peter Pan" and "The Fantasticks."
Scribner's BYU performances include roles in "Rags," "The Mikado," "Into the Woods," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream-coat," "The Hired Man," "Fortress" and "Falstaff" (Dame Quickly).
She also played in the SCERA Shell production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."
At BYU, Scribner majored in European studies, with minors in music and English. She was a member of the BYU concert choir in 1992-95 and took part in an intensive London theater study program during the spring of 1994.
- D.B. Bonds, a native of Columbia, S.C., and a student in the musical theater program at Florida State University, had just completed a summerlong run as Frankie in the Utah Musical Theatre production of "Forever Plaid" when the auditions were scheduled.
He said that he had planned to fly back to Florida to resume his studies but decided to take a chance on the auditions - since he could catch a flight the next day.
Instead of returning to school, however, he's in the production's large ensemble and is understudying the role of Marius, the young French student who falls in love with the grown-up Cosette.
He said he called his friends in Florida to inform them he wasn't coming back to school. They questioned his decision, but Bonds figured that the chance to play with a major touring company of this stature doesn't come along very often - and "Les Miserables" is a show that will look good on his future resumes.
A few other Utah performers, including some of the youngsters who tried out during the separate children's auditions, reportedly were placed on a list for future reference by the casting team.
And, when "Les Miz" returns to Salt Lake City next summer, there's a good possibility that there will be another round of auditions then.
Davidson noted earlier this week that a new international company of "Les Miserables" is being considered for a lengthy tour of Asia and Australia. If Ivan Rutherford, who is now playing Valjean in the U.S. tour, moves into that troupe, then Davidson could very well be featured as Jean Valjean when the tour returns to Utah in 1996.
Deseret News theater editor and drama critic Ivan M. Lincoln contributed to this report.