Eulogy for Stephen Pike’s Celebration of Life event, Erindale Theatre, Canberra, August 25, 2024

Stephen Pike. 1955 - 2024

by Tony Magee

In July 1994 and again in January 1996, Canberra Philharmonic Society produced two stunning seasons of Boublil and Schonberg’s Les Misérables, the story based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name.

The amateur rights had just been released in Australia, for the very first time, and Philo jumped on it immediately. Those productions, at the time, put Philo on the National Map.

And right there as the centrepiece of it all, was Stephen Pike, in his unique and outstanding portrayal of the lead role - Jean Valjean.

Now, being in the orchestra pit at the Canberra Theatre, we were all privy to comments from audience members after the curtain came down. Scores of people would come down to the pit, leaning over the rail and say to one or a number of us “I’ve seen this in Sydney, I’ve seen it in London, I’ve seen it in New York - yours was better.” It happened multiple times every night.

I certainly knew we had a seriously excellent production - everyone in it knew that - cast, crew, orchestra, production team - we all knew that were were performing something really, really special, to a standard that eventually way exceeded anyone’s initial expectations.

My parents also told me on the nights they came - both in ’94 and ’96, that comments like that were frequently overheard both in the foyer at interval and also walking back to the carpark afterwards.

In addition, both seasons were totally sold out and we received a standing ovation every single night.

Director Colin Anderson certainly considered those two seasons as one of his greatest achievements - and he really did nail it and extracted everything possible from the cast. In addition, I think Musical Director Ian McLean and choreographer Michelle Heine also considered those productions to be one of the highlights of their long and distinguished careers in music theatre.

One further thing I should mention - is the late John Thompson’s set. It was so good - in fact a triumph of set design and construction, particularly the barricade, that multiple theatre companies around Australia wanted to hire it after we’d finished with it, which they did and it went all over Australia, being used countless times for future productions of Les Miserables.

The entrance of the barricade itself in our performances would always receive a thunderous round of applause.

Advertisement from the Canberra Times for the January 1996 season

But back so Stephen and his portrayal of Jean Valjean. I think he definitively considered it the high-point of his long career in music theatre as a performer, and there’s no question that he pulled off the role in a way that was equal to many international portrayals of that character, both vocally and as an actor.

I visited Stephen on several occasions during his admission to Nat Cap Private. He told me once when I was there, that he found it comforting that he could see my apartment from his hospital bedroom window!

We reminisced so much about our performing careers - there were so many shows where we shared the stage together in cabaret during the 80s and early 90s and then again in 2007 for his come-back show at Teatro Vivaldi, which BTW, included a 12 year old Billy Bourchier in the cast! But when we got to discussing Les Miserable - it was a more serious conversation.

Stephen recounted to me the day that he and director Colin Anderson, both saw, at exactly the same moment, during a rehearsal one day, that Stephen had “found” his character. “I remained seated on the stage in a sort of stunned manner,” he said, “slightly breathless actually. I looked over at Colin and he was running up onto the stage.

“Colin embraced me, hugged me, kissed me - and I started crying”.

“You’ve found your JeanValjean!” said Colin. “I know - I can feel it.” said Stephen. “As soon as I felt it, I looked over at you and you were looking at me, and I knew that you knew too.”

It was a big moment during the production run and one that I think every actor and director who experiences this would put down as a significant turning point in a show’s progression during the rehearsal process.

But more than that however, from that moment on, Stephen kept his JeanValjean character even off stage. That’s how seriously he took the role.

Shirley MacLaine described exactly the same thing referring to Peter Sellers characterisation of Chance the Gardiner in the 1979 movie Being There. She said in an interview many years later that it took him quite a while to find the character of Chance and that when Sellers and director Hal Ashby finally saw the moment on set on the day he’d nailed it, he didn’t let go of it - both on and off the set.

Stephen Pike did this with his JeanValjean.

I don’t think there have been very many examples of Canberra actors taking a role as seriously as that. But Stephen did, and it was because the process of finding JeanValjean was such a journey of discovery - a long journey of discovery - that he couldn’t let go.

Stephen Pike, long time Canberra actor, director, and arts administrator, with photographs of his early acting days. 

(Picture by Katherine Griffiths)

But there was a lot more to it than that. JeanValjean ages about 40 years during the story - from still a relatively young man with the prison number 24601 tattooed on his chest, to an old man on his death bed, with the ghost of Fantine by his side.

Stephen embraced the challenge of the ageing process with intense dedication and seriousness. It was one thing to have found his character as I previously outlined - but now that character had to age and change, not just in looks, but in personality, body language, stance, the way he walked and talked and, very importantly, in his singing voice.

We all know the ageing process - we’re all doing in incrementally day by day - but to have to do it to the extant Stephen did in a two and a half hour show, night after night, and so convincingly, was a stunning achievement on his part. 

It was truly a great honour to work with Stephen Pike during those shows, both in rehearsal and in performance and something that I too will remember with fondness and pride as a highlight of my own musical career.

My allotted time is almost up, so I’ll just finish with this: I have here an entry from the Catalogue of Minor Planets, published by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. There are 720,000 entries. Most of them are asteroids and one in particular catches my eye. Diameter: 2.6km, date of discovery October 26, 1971 - Stephen would have been 16. Designation - Permanent, Citation number and name: 24601 Valjean.