LA's Next Great Stage Star 2011 Gets Off to a Big Start

LA's Next Great Stage Star 2011 began its six-week run through February 6 this past Sunday, January 2, 2011 @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. It was a long first show, due mostly to some unforseen technical issues, but boasts 20 very talented vocalists, well worth checking out in the weeks ahead.

For the next five weeks, these 20 will compete and on February 6, 15 will be eliminated and the remaining 5 will go a round further in order to select LA's Next Great Stage Star 2011. The winner will receive $1000 in cash, and all 5 finalists will receive their own gig @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's and guaranteed auditions for top casting directors, agents and musical theatres here and @ Music Circus in Sacramento. It's a one-of-a-kind competition produced by Michael Sterling and Tony Monsour and has been a very exciting contest to attend for the past five years.

This year, for the first time, the show had an opening number with all 20 participants. Choreographed by Tania Possick, the group entered and sang "Give My Regards to Broadway", went out and came back in a different formation and performed snippets from about fifteen musicals including Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Funny Girl, West Side Story, Company and Sweeney Todd. It was a great rousing way to start the show, and the group made as professional a sound as any chorus on Broadway.

Sterling served amiably as host, bringing each contestant to the stage. After singing a particular selection, that contestant chatted a bit with Sterling about his/her background and how they spent their holidays and then the judges gave a quick appraisal of the performance. Judges on Sunday January 2 were casting director Michael Donovan, Musical Theatre of Los Angeles' newly appointed artistic director Robert Marra, The Blank Theatre Company's artistic director Daniel Henning and Performance Riverside's artistic producer/director Ms. Rey O'Day. 10 performed and then there was a ten-minute intermission and then the final 10, after which audience members ranked each contestant by a point system of 0-1. These points from each of the six weeks will be tallied in total to determine the winner(s) in the sixth week. Musical director James Lent served brilliantly as pianist/accompanist throughout the three hour afternoon competition.

Some of the musical numbers sung by the contestants included "On My Own" from Les Mis, "Hey There" from The Pajama Game, "Change" from A New Brain, "Larger Than Life" from My Favorite Year, "I Am Your Dentist" from Little Shop of Horrors, "The World Goes Round" from New York, New York, "His Name" by Scott Alan and a bevy of different selections from both Andrew Lippa's and Michael La Chiusa's Wild Party. By and large the singing was terrific - the younger ones especially, 18 year-olds with such great trained voices! - with judges evaluating many participants on their weaker acting skills. A singer will sometimes pick a challenging song to audition with and he/she is not quite there yet; better to audition with one within one's comfort zone! Rey O'Day's comments I found most helpful to the performers, especially the ladies, as she critiqued them on their attire, makeup and use of correct arm and body movements in performing.

It is the earliest stage and performances will undoubtedly change, with some surprises coming forth, but for me, the following are the contestants to watch closely over the next five weeks:
Matthew McFarland, Casey Zeman, Paul Marchegiani, Matthew Ballestero and Jesse Einstein from the males. Einstein, less for his vocal prowess and more for his very comic delivery. Of the females, I most admired Judy Mora, Giana Bommarito, Emily Goglia, Reba Buhr, Katrina Rennells and Ashley Wright. To all 20 contestants, I heartily advise Break a leg!