BWW Interviews: The 25th Anniversary Tour of LES MISERABLES' Shawna Hamic

The 25^th Anniversary of LES MISÉRABLES has come to the San Diego Civic Center from August 28^th – September 2^nd!  LES MISÉRABLES explores love, life and survival during the French revolution. This show has no shortage of memorable characters, but some of the funniest moments are provided by the Thénardiers, a working class couple who are the primary villains of the piece.

Shawna Hamic has the pleasure of being the infamous Madame Thénardier in this anniversary production of the worlds-longest-running-musical.  While most little girls dream of playing Éponine or Cosette, Shawna was drawn to Madame Thénardier.

"My parents took me to see some because I had started to get into theater…I think I was in Jr. High and we went and saw 'Les Mis'. It was one of the very first big shows that I got to see, " Shawna says. " Literally in the middle of the show I leaned over to my mom and I was like, "Mom", and she was like "what?", and I was like, "I need to be Madame Thenardier one day", and she was like 'okay'."

This role was the one that also led Hamic to the realization that theatre was an avenue that she could pursue as a career. "Literally it's the show that started me on the path to becoming a performer for a living. I didn't know people could do that for a living. I didn't have any idea, like it didn't compute until just that moment you could do that and it was specifically this role, the role that I am now - Madame Thénardier on the 25th Anniversary tour that started it all for me. "

And what was it that drew her to this character?  The answer is deceptively simple "She made people laugh".

It is proof that you should dream your dream in life, because this audition process brought her back to fulfill the dream made years back.  Even though it was a long process, it culminated in a final audition in front of a group people including the four people from the casting office, both British directors, the music supervisor, and Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the composers of the show.  With so many people in the audience, how did she approach this final audition?  "At this point, this is no longer an audition, this is like a mini-cabaret and I'm just going to perform for you people because there's far too many for it to be an audition anymore," Shawna said with a laugh.

What was the first thing she did after she found out she got the role? "I called my mother, and I said, 'I'm going to be able to keep a promise I made to you 25 years ago'!" 

While the tour has been full of great moments Shawna says that one of the coolest moments of performing on the 25^th anniversary tour was "Last July, we played the Ahmanson Theatre. It was the first big L.A. city that we had played, and we got to play it for 7 weeks. It was such a big moment for me, to have my family with me, this huge full circle moment in my life."

LES MISÉRABLES is playing at the San Diego Civic Theatre from August 28^th – September 2^nd.  For ticket information, go to www.Broadwaysd.com

Photo credit: Broadway San Diego