In March the company will be taking to the stage to perform Les Misérables and later in the year they will be revisiting the hills to present The Sound of Music. 

“We wanted to celebrate where we have come from and where we are now,” president of Encore Theatre, Belinda King said. 

“We chose two productions which we have done previously for our anniversary year that we thought we could do something fresh with.

“These two shows, in particular, stood out from our repertoire and as a company, we try and develop and grow what we do and how we do it.”

Les Misérables is a monolith of a musical that at 30 years young shows no signs of slowing down and since its recent brush with Hollywood in 2012 the musical has been introduced to a whole new audience. 

In 2010 Encore pulled out all the stops for their Les Mis performance and Belinda is looking forward to showing their 2018 audience how far they have advanced. 

“When we did this show back in 2010 we modelled what we did on the original production, so we used a revolving stage, which is a familiar scene for those who have seen the original Australian production,” Belinda said. 

“This time around there is no revolving stage, there are giant set pieces that move and there will be a barricade that spins and we will add to the look of the show with more contemporary theatre technology and projections, to give it a really thick professional gloss.

“Our capacity to apply strong production values has grown exponentially over the last  number of years, our sound, lighting and costume departments and performers have grown over the decade.”

While the set and production will be going through big changes, audiences of the 2010 show will see some familiar faces reprise their roles. 

“We have three performers in the show who held the roles the last time, they were all asked to re-audition so the roles weren’t guaranteed,” Belinda explained. 

“All three of them auditioned and all three of them are back in their roles.”

Ross Marsden will be playing Monsieur Thénardier, which was his first big role with Encore in 2010, he has since gone on to play Basil Fawlty, Daddy Warbucks and the wizard in Wicked. 

Dean Cocker delivered a stellar performance in 2010 as Javert and Belinda said they were “excited” to have him back in the role. 

The third returning actor is Matthew Garwood as Marius. 

“Matthew has been a rising star for Launceston and gained national recognition through The Voice,” Belinda said. 

“This is perhaps his last chance to play the role of Marius and it has been interesting to see Matt work his way through the role and I have to keep asking him, how would 16-year-old Matthew think chasing the pretty girl, not the 27/28-year-old man who is more worldly.” 

Speaking about returning to a classic musical Belinda said. 

“The expectation around the show is extraordinary, everyone has their favourite character, the other thing it's one of those shows that many people know every word. 

“Since Les Mis emerged in ‘86, it's been such a touchstone, it’s just wonderful and the show itself has just developed over its 33-year life in English but the themes of love and redemption have remained.” 

Belinda also explained some of the challenges Encore are faced with when trying to pull together such a large and famous production, especially for the iconic barricade scene.

“The barricade scene is a huge challenge because of all the guns involved, they have to look real and some of the guns are real so as part of our crew we have a licensed armourer on site every night. 

“Some of the guns are real and others are replicas, they all fire blanks which will be overlayed with simulated gunfire overlaying real fire, everyone who handles a gun replica or not have to have a gun licence and police check. 

“Once you start looking at each area of the show it does get quite involved. 

“It is the attention to detail that we put in now that will pay the dividends when the audience is sitting in their seats in awe.”

 Les Misérables will run from March, 16 to 31 at The Princess Theatre, Launceston. Tickets are now on sale.