‘Rocky” has a boxing ring. “Aladdin,” a flying carpet. And Broadway’s new staging of “Les Misérables” has its own special effect: the leading man’s chest.
When Jean Valjean rips open his shirt to bare his prison tattoo, he reveals pecs of such Michelangelo-esque perfection, the audience bursts into applause.
And to think, says Ramin Karimloo — the possessor of those pumped-up pecs and awesome abs — he owes it all to Hugh Jackman, Cameron Mackintosh and Victor Hugo, though not necessarily in that order.
“Hugo says Jean Valjean was a man of medium height, broad-shouldered, robust and in the prime of his life,” Karimloo says. “ Whatever he did to keep himself fit and strong — and I’m sure he wasn’t doing yoga in prison! — he had the wherewithal. So I thought, ‘I’ll start getting in shape.’ ”
And he has, thanks to 45-minute, four-times-a-week sessions with trainer Brian Robinson, who calls him “the easiest client I ever had. He’s supermotivated!”
And how. After seeing photos of Jackman — biceps bulging, face red — dead-lifting 405 pounds, Karimloo upped his own ante to 415. But he insists he’s not competing with the 2012 film’s Valjean. Rather, “Hugh inspired me to push on.”
At 35 and 5-foot-11, Karimloo is younger and shorter than the erstwhile Wolverine. He’s also a goateed father of two with Middle Eastern good looks and the apologetic cadences of a Canadian.
In fact, Karimloo was born in Iran — just when the shah was being run out of the country — and grew up in Ontario, where, though you’re not exactly required to play hockey, “there wasn’t much else to do.” (He was a left wing.)
He was 12 when he saw his first musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” and later bet a friend he’d one day play the masked man himself. At 29, he became the youngest Phantom to play in London. A few years later, in 2011, he was headlining “Les Miz” when Mackintosh, its producer, popped into his dressing room.
“Well,” Mackintosh said, giving his star a once-over, “looks like somebody got into his 30s.”
Another man might have been devastated. Not this one.
“That was a real eye-opener,” Karimloo says. “At least I had time to fix it.”
Not only did he have the time, he had a guru: his fitness teacher wife, Mandy. A true believer in the workout regime fittingly known as Insanity — a 60-day circuit training program — she put him through his paces.
“After our first fit test, Ramin went white and passed out,” she says. “I had to carry him to the shower.”
He stuck with the program, even while touring for his bluegrass-inspired album. His band members joined him for workouts. “We did it in Texas, and it was so hot, I thought I’d have a heart attack.”
When “Les Miz” came to Toronto last year, the show’s directors found a whole new body under Valjean’s rags and decided to give Broadway audiences a look.
“I want to leave you with the image of a strong man,” says Karimloo, whose real-life tattoos wind up and around his left arm. “Did I look big?”
Totally! He smiles. “Job done!”
HOW HE GOT THOSE ABS
You don’t build a chest like Ramin Karimloo’s overnight. So demanding was his workout — so disciplined his diet — that there were times, the Broadway actor says, when he was tempted to give up: “And then I asked myself, ‘What would Jean Valjean do?’ ”
Granted, the hero of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Misérables” didn’t go to the gym, but Karimloo does. Here’s what Equinox trainer Brian Robinson puts the 190-pound actor through during a typical workout.
CHEST FLYS
Robinson spots the star through three sets of 10, at 35 pounds.
DEAD LIFTS
Inspired by Hugh Jackman, Karimloo boosted his lift to 415 pounds.
ONE-ARM PUSH-UPS
Karimloo makes like Jack Palance at the Oscars, putting himself through three sets of five.