Quake Rattles ‘Les Miz’ Actors

At the Shubert Theatre in Century City, “you could hear and feel the rumble moving from stage left to stage right,” said “Les Miserables” stage manager Scott Faris. “The turntable sounded like a drum.”

Reece Holland, who plays Marius, was singing “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” The quake emptied a few of the chairs in the auditorium, as several people headed for the exits. But Holland kept singing, and even steadied the nearby chair and table with his hand. He got a rousing ovation as soon as the tremor stopped--before his number was completed, said Faris, “and the applause continued well into the next scene.”

“The only thing that went through my mind was to sing louder,” Holland said. “It was one of the scariest things in my life, but it’ll make a good story to tell Johnny Carson.” Meanwhile, two of the actors who play ghosts of the revolutionaries, in a lineup behind Holland, ran off stage. They were two of the Californians in the company, said Faris, who also reported that “the follow spot operators, suspended over the auditorium, were scared to death.”