Utah girl gets 'Les Miserables' call
Murray student will be cast as Young Cosette

MURRAY -- Alison Fidel was wrapped up in the reverie of the last day of school when her parents arrived at her second-grade class with news she had just been cast in the part of Young Cosette/Eponine in the third National Touring Company's production of "Les Miserables."

Summer vacation will be short. She will join the company in Washington, D.C., June 28 for rehearsals and will open in the production at The National Theater July 13.Young Fidel was selected for the part and put on the company's recasting list following auditions in Salt Lake City in July 1998. A casting director asked to see Alison again during Salt Lake auditions in April. She again made the recasting list. A half-dozen names are on the recasting list for the part at all times, so Alison left the audition with the instruction: "Forget all about us until we call."

According to the casting office in New York City, the roles of Young Cosette/Eponine and Gavroche, the scrappy young lad at the Parisian barricades, are cast on the basis of size and height, not age. As soon as a performer gets too big for the role, he or she is replaced.

The question Alison Fidel had for Mom: "If I get the part, can I have a Beanie Baby?"

The Fidels received a call from New York Wednesday asking if Alison was still available. The formal offer came Friday morning.

Alison is the daughter of Deseret News high-tech writer Steve Fidel and his wife, Melia, Murray.

Alison and her two older sisters, Taylor, 13, and Katherine, 11, are active in theater. The trio first appeared on stage when Alison was 5 and played the role of an orphan in a production of "Annie" at the Villa Theater in Springville.

She has appeared as Molly in subsequent productions of "Annie" at Rodgers Memorial Theater in Centerville and Salt Lake Community College's Grand Theatre in Salt Lake City, where she also played the role of Gretl in "The Sound of Music."

Alison was most recently cast as Maudie in an upcoming production of "April Ann" (Aug. 14-Sept. 18 at Hale Centre Theatre). Not being able to fill that role is her biggest disappointment as the reality of her new opportunity sinks in.

Another young Salt Lake girl with Hale Centre Theatre ties -- Jenell Brook Slack -- played Young Cosette in the national touring company for several months. Slack, whose family is moving to Boston, recently signed a one-year contract to play the Little Girl in the newly remounted touring production of "Ragtime: The Musical," debuting this fall in Houston.