Winners of LA's Next Great Stage Star 2011

On Sunday February 6 LA's Next Great Stage Star 2011 held its finale at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's beginning at 11:30 am. 20 contestants competed in a nonstop round and then the audience and judges voted for the top 5. Points were added together for the entire six weeks of the competition which began January 2. Those named were Michael David, Reba Buhr, Emily Goglia, Judy Mora and Matthew McFarland. There was a thrill-packed final round of singing and then Judy Mora emerged victoriously as the winner. James Lent served as musical director.

Highlights of the afternoon included: "Never Neverland" sung by Cristina Ballestero, "I Need You More" by Matthew Ballestero, Michael David's very funny delivery of "Mary Jane, Mary Lane", "Streets of Dublin" by Casey Zeman, Kate Ponzio's great interp of "The Understudy", Judy Mora's "Raise the Roof", Matthew McFarland's "Someone to Fall Back On", Danni Katz's cute "Alto's Lament", Emily Goglia's brilliantly acted "Sorry I Asked" by Kander & Ebb, and Giana Bommarito's dynamic "When You're Good to Mama" from Chicago.

Special guest star Blake McGiver Ewing entertained the audience after intermission while waiting for the announcement of the top 5 winners with: Stephen Sondheim's "Being Alive" from Company, the beautiful "There's a World" from next to normal, "Love to Me" and an original by Ewing, about to be filmed for the Trevor Project's anti-bullying campaign, "It Gets Better" with Ewing accompanying himself on piano and 3 backup singers. Needless to say, he wowed the SRO crowd with his fab 20 minute set. James Lent also played "88 Seconds Around the World". Both these performers are nothing short of genius.

According to strict contest rules, the winner receives $1000 in cash, and all 5 finalists receive their own gig @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's and guaranteed auditions for top casting directors, agents and musical theatres in LA and for Glenn Casale @ 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. Each week a new set of lyrics or dance moves were added to challenge the participants.

The finale literally flew by with so much terrific entertainment and due to Sterling's wise decision to have each contestant be critiqued by only one of the 11 judges, who took their turns in round-robin style. The judges included prestigious LA agents, casting directors, directors and producers.

In the exciting final round with the top 5 competing for the number one spot, Judy Mora's wonderful "Breathe" from Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights helped assure her as the winner. In my opinion all 20 are winners, and the very best of luck to them all!

Photo (B): (seated) Judy Mora; (standing) Matthew McFarland, Emily Goglia, Reba Buhr, Michael David and Don Grigware