Does anyone know the story behind when and why musical Javert acquired his long hair? Judging from the original London cast production photos, Roger Allam had short hair in 1985. However, Mann and Quast appear to have long hair in 1987. Why did the production team decide to make this change? It's undeniable that loose, long hair looks impressive in "Javert's Suicide," but I'm sure they had a more substantial reason for it. Maybe some of you know.
so, there's no evidence stating that this is explicitly what happened, but I've always suspected that Terrence Mann had a heavy influence on the Javert redesign. when speaking about his Javert audition, he said:
… and I dressed all in black, I had black hair at the time, and I went to the audition with my hair all queued back and looking hopefully like Javert…
(he was actually given an Enjolras audition but went all-in on getting the Javert role, and his performance and appearance were apparently so striking that he got the part on the spot. honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Nunn & Caird committed to the long-haired look then and there.)
for funsies here's a comparison of Mann in the Javert wig in 87, and with his hair tied back in a role filmed two years later:
the wig wasn't the only Javert redesign that happened during the transition to Broadway. Roger Allam's Javert - and his immediate replacement in the 85-86 West End run, Clive Carter - are dressed in what I lovingly refer to as the original turtlevert fit. man's squarer than the brick.
from Broadway 87 onwards we saw Javert with a much more streamlined look. again, Mann seems to have been the first to wear that iconic Javert coat, with a silhouette far more flattering than the West End one. potentially designed that way to compensate for Mann being a dancer and not being very physically imposing, I don't know.
Quast's Javert also had the same redesign, but since the original Broadway production ran from March 87 and the Australian production didn't start until November of the same year, I think it's fair to assume that the Australian one took the design cues already created by Broadway.
finally, Stars also had a rewrite between the West End and Broadway, with the original London version having a much quieter ending. Mann seems to imply that he had a hand in the rewrite:
The song ‘Stars’ didn’t really have an ending on the London cast album; we worked on ways to make more of a statement with it.
sidenote: an almost identical redesign process happened during CATS' transition from the West End to Broadway only a few years earlier. the Rum Tum Tugger's design was particularly influenced by Terrence Mann - him again! - preferring to play the character with a Mick Jagger influence rather than the Elvis vibes that Andrew Lloyd Webber originally wanted.
again, this is just my interpretation, but I can 100% believe that something similar happened with Les Mis: almost everything about Javert was redesigned to fit with Mann's acting style and appearance, and it ended up becoming the blueprint for what we have today.
