Nathan Taylor

On 23rd June 2003, Nathan started rehearsals for the West End production of Les Miserables.

The show had been running at the Palace Theatre in London since 1985. The new company rehearsed for five weeks, and opened in the show on Monday 23rd July.

Nathan was employed as a swing, just like his duties on Martin Guerre, which means that it was his responsibility to cover all of the ensemble boys (11 in total) and go on for any of them as necessary.

He was also understudy to the small role of Grantaire, the beer-swilling devil's advocate student, who doubts and challenges the word of the students' leader, Enjolras.
It is not unusual for second covers to get the chance to go on, but it doesn't tend to happen very often. Nathan notched up seven performances, the first of which being on the 18th October 2003.

Nathan is very proud to have been in the 2003/04 London Company of Les Miserables, as after nearly nineteen years at the Palace Theatre, the show moved to the Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, to begin a new period of its run. This makes the 2003/04 company the last cast to perform the show at its original venue, and the first at the new one.
It was a very exciting time to be involved with the show, with many of the original creative team looking in on the piece, and participating in the rehearsals to refresh the show for the next stage of its historic run, including the original directing team of John Caird and Sir Trevor Nunn.

With luck, the refreshed version of Les Miserables now playing at the Queen's Theatre will enjoy just as successful a run as it did at the Palace over the last (nearly) two decades.

Nathan finished in the show on Saturday 26th June, 2004, after a very happy twelve months.

Photographs
Top line from the souvenir brochure, second line taken by Nathan during the Technical Rehearsal for the opening of Les Miserables at the Queens Theatre on 3rd April, 2004.