Motherhood takes centerstage for actress playing Fantine in ‘Les Mis’
By Lisa Larson

This season, Mindy Smoot Robbins’ role as Fantine in Les Misérables has her truly living the dream she dreamed. This iconic character is one Robbins has studied and admired for years, but when she considers the unique parallels between Fantine as a mother, and her own real-life role as a mom, the dreams fulfilled in this experience take on even more meaning.

“Fantine’s story is such a tragic story, but the way I can relate is through my mother heart,” said Robbins, a mother of four children. “When you become a mother, biologically or otherwise, there’s something in your heart that enlarges to create a desire to do anything at any cost for your child.”

In Fantine’s case, as a single mother who must work to survive, she places her child in the care of the nefarious Thenardiers who, unbeknownst to Fantine, are regularly lying about the need for additional money to care for the child, and Fantine will do anything to pay.

“In the story, Fantine has not been with her daughter, Cosette, for four years,” Robbins said, adding that Fantine is willing to do anything to help her daughter, including selling her teeth, her hair, and eventually her body, to cover the cost of caring for her child, always with the hope of reuniting.

Although Robbins has not found herself in Fantine’s poverty-induced separation from her children, she currently has a daughter serving a mission for their church in Japan. Even though she is happy for the reason her daughter is in Japan, and she knows the separation is temporary — roughly 18 months — she still feels the absence keenly.

“To be physically separated from my child… It hurts the mother heart in ways I can’t explain,” Robbins said.

Similarly, Robbins’ experience losing her mother to death nine years ago has given her a deeper well from which to draw as an actress when trying to access the kind of pain and grief that comes as a result of separation from a loved one.

“There are not English words to describe the feeling of being cut off from the presence of your mother or your child,” Robbins said. “It’s a spiritual feeling, a sacred bond that cannot be put into words.”

Perhaps, but the novel, the script, and the score of Les Mis certainly try.

I think Hugo is trying to teach us that joy does not come from our circumstances,” Robbins said. “Joy comes from loving other people.”

Including a mother loving her child.

“I feel so blessed and so indebted to God for these opportunities,” Robbins said. “I’m so grateful to Tuacahn, and to Victor Hugo for writing such a beautiful story, and for Schönberg and Kretzmer for the music.”

And she feels especially blessed to have a family willing to support everything this job means for each of them.

“When I got the call that I was being offered the role… it’s a dream role and my favorite show. It means so many things for so many reasons, so my performing heart immediately said ‘yes!’ but my mother heart said, ‘I don’t know,’” Robbins said. “I needed to take this to my family because I knew it would be a sacrifice on their part too. But my husband and all four of my children’s immediate response was, ‘do it!’ It’s so touching to have that kind of support, love and understanding.”

Since Robbins lives full time in northern Utah, this job means roughly 39 trips from Mapleton to St. George and being away during some of the busier times of the year for her teen and young adult children. But this is not the first time Robbins has had to adjust in order to live out her dream of being a mother, and her dreams of being on stage. It’s something she’s been learning for decades.

Robbins’ performing career began when she was 16 years old and includes such milestones as the Broadway touring company of Les Misérables during her single years, and multiple roles on the Tuacahn stage beginning back in 2001. During those same years, her life off stage grew to include a husband and four children, yielding a depth of experience and understanding for any maternal character roles that no amount of study can replace.

“My first two seasons at Tuacahn, I didn’t have any children,” Robbins said. “But when I played Maria in The Sound of Music in 2007, I had two children and was nursing one.”

That memory is particularly poignant for Robbins as she recalls going to her nearby home on the 15-minute actor breaks in order to feed her baby — an added layer to her day that Robbins said, “was probably a first and a last for me.”

By the time Robbins took on the title role in Tuacahn’s Mary Poppins in 2013, she was the mother of four children in real life. Five years later, when she performed as Miss Honey in Matilda the Musical, she had the privilege of sharing the stage with her oldest daughter, Mylee, an experience she absolutely loved. Then in 2021, Robbins and her two daughters were all part of the Tuacahn cast of Annie.

“Having them with me for that show was so much easier,” Robbins said. “I take the role of mother and wife as my most important eternal role. When I have the opportunity to be on stage with them, it becomes an experience we can have together.”

Depending on the theater company, Robbins said she is often in the minority as a working actress and a mom. But thanks to Tuacahn’s family-centered mission, not only does Robbins get this opportunity, she sees other women, couples and families, making it work too.

“One of our choreographers Mara Greer, has a beautiful daughter, and our associate artistic producer, Shari Jordan, carries a huge responsibility at Tuacahn and is also a mom,” Robbins said. “She and her husband, AJ Sullivan, both work at Tuacahn, which I think is so cool.”

In addition to highlighting Fantine’s love for her child, many other themes found in Les Misérables — including justice, mercy, love, and sacrifice, and the need to offer one another grace — certainly apply to women and motherhood, but are applicable to everyone, regardless of their particular stage of life.

“Even hundreds of years later, this book is just so relatable,” Robbins said. “It’s the same thing. We’re just wearing different clothing.”

It comes down to love. And as the musical so eloquently concludes, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Don’t miss this season’s production of Les Misérables, along with Grease and the all-new Disney & Pixar’s Finding Nemo: a Family Musical through Oct. 24 in the Tuacahn Outdoor Amphitheatre. Tickets are on sale online at www.tuacahn.org or by calling the box office at 435-652-3300.