<p>I went to see Ted Neeley last night in Jesus Christ Superstar and it was great (as usual). I saw an amateur (college) production of this one time and it was UNBEARABLE! It led me to believe that JCS should only be done professionally.</p>
<p>At least that was what I thought until I saw this 17-year old girl rehearsing for a high school play:</p>
<p>And this is a first run-through!!! Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall at her college auditions. I’d love to watch the jaws drop. She’ll have her choice of MT programs.</p>
<p>Think of the high school teacher looking for kids to sing in a production like this. Imagine his thoughts when she came through the door. Some people are just destined for the stage.</p>
<p>I once saw a local h.s. production of JCS that was BREATHTAKING…the talent was immense and much more resembled that of a professional company. </p>
<p>The young girl in the youtube video is exceedingly talented, IMO. Hopefully she has a few connections too, as often that’s what it takes to get into the top MT schools! ;)</p>
<p>We have someone locally (the director of our area’s major professional company) who has major connections, and oftentimes, the ones from here who are accepted at Tisch or UMich or wherever are barely different from many of the ones left behind. JMO.</p>
<p>Great voice! I hope they stopped her from pacing back and forth, though!</p>
<p>Not to be a wet blanket, but every year I attend our HS spring musical and there is always at least one and usually a couple of “fabulous” voices. That’s a good start for MT–then you need to be able to act, dance, and devote your life to your craft. Then you still need luck and connections. So…good luck!</p>
<p>Hey, I saw Ted Neeley a few weeks ago in JCS in San Francisco. I had no idea I would be seeing the guy that was the original Jesus when I went (got free tickets). Anyway, I went home and googled Ted Neeley’s age when I got home, and it came up with <em>Jesus Christ, Senior Citizen.</em> Okay, he did look old, but his acting was good, and his singing was amazing. He did a good job.</p>
<p>Yes, the girl has a fabulous voice. Good luck to her!</p>
<p>The girl was very good, especially considering this was apparently a first rehearsal. I was distracted by the pacing, and also surprised at how low her voice was. (Everybody’s a critic.) She did have very good control. I also thought the pianist was quite good. She “adjusted” the rhythm a couple times and he stayed right with her.</p>
<p>We have an excellent musical theater (and drama) program at our HS. Always amazed that when one “star” graduates, there’s another in the wings.</p>
<p>Soozie - for some reason I thought your d was CAP 21. But I don’t really know the different NYU programs, so it doesn’t suprise me that I’d mix them up. When is the performance? I’m hoping to go to NYC in April.</p>
<p>Wasn’t sure whether I should respond to this. It’s possible the girl is your daughter or some other relation. I in NO WAY mean to offend.</p>
<p>She certainly has talent, but I’m afraid that jaws are not going to drop at MT auditions. My experience watching high school theater is that, in many high schools, there are five or six girls as good, and some better. This is not all high schools, of course, but in wealthy suburbs where children have had voice and dance lessons from the time they were six years old or even younger, large high schools quite often have a number of young ladies at this level or higher.</p>
<p>As others have said, she needs to stop pacing. Standing still on stage is usually more powerful than pacing unless the pacing has purpose. Pacing usually indicates nervousness, as does shifting from foot to foot or standing in the fig leaf position. She also needs to actually feel the music and the emotions instead of indicating. Biting one’s lip the way she did is an indication.</p>
<p>Look, she’s young. She can and probably will improve greatly. Take all the high school performers in the US and she’d probably be in the top 15% or so. That’s a good enough starting place to go on to the professional stage if that’s what she wants. But I can assure you that there are many more polished performers that age who are better than she is at this point in her life. But that can be overcome with hard work.</p>
<p>I’m going to guess that the young lady has not had much coaching, because a vocal/acting coach would have stopped the pacing for sure!</p>
<p>I agree that there are some pretty powerful high school singers out there. I’ve even seen a couple at our own local high school productions. Esp. for girls, there is a lot of competition out there. Still, there was something about the quality of the girl’s voice that caught me. She has great potential. </p>
<p>Binx – I also was impressed by the piano player!</p>
<p>I say the same. Her breath support could be better, the rhythm problem was quite serious, and she’s scooping up to most of her high notes. She needs to hold back on the Britney Spears gasps at the beginning of phrases; young women are getting the impression that that’s the way to show that you can sing. On the other hand, she’s got a nice clear tone, confidence, and a pretty good ear. She has a great look, which can play a big role in getting work (obviously).</p>
<p>dig, I saw the JCS tour with Ted Neeley back in September and loved the opportunity to see him reprise that role. He’s fantastic and I don’t care that he’s in his 60’s! </p>
<p>The girl in the youtube clip is certainly talented, but, as others have said, there are thousands of kids just as talented out there. The fact is that noone has their choice of MT programs. There is so much competition, especially for girls. This young lady has a beautiful, if untrained voice, and could use some direction in how to properly act a song. Having said all that, I enjoyed listening to her! The accompanist did a fantastic job.</p>
<p>Binx, Soozie’s D is, indeed, at CAP21 which is Tisch’s MT studio.</p>
<p>Hanna – you get to judge that! Very cool. I loooove acappella singing groups. A friend of ours (older guy, old like me) sings in a group, and we are big fans. My 13 year old daughter is already thinking it would be very cool to get into such a group in college.</p>
<p>alwaysamom – I know, imagine being 64 and still being able to sing like that!</p>
<p>tsdad, absolutely nothing! I was referring to the complaints of many when it was announced that Ted would do this tour, more than 30 years after first playing the role. :)</p>
<p>I thought I’d post a couple of quick clips to illustrate just how much talent is out there. I still have a lot of friends who are performers, teachers, video producers, and the like. On occasion, they send me interesting stuff. This particular video is, apparently, of a regular suburban high school … not a high school for the performing arts.</p>
<p>This first clip is one of Eponine who, I’m told, is 14 years old and a high school freshman:</p>
<p>I’m including this second one just because I think it’s important to remember that the odds are stacked against any of the three kids here ever setting foot on a Broadway stage. That’s just how tough it is. It’s much easier to be be hired to play for an NFL team.</p>
<p>Tarhunt, I tried to load the Eponine video a few times and it kept stalling after the young lady had only sung a couple of bars. From what I heard in those first few bars, she was already pretty “pitchy”. She may be terrific in entirity.</p>
<p>Many high schools are full of very talented kids, both in musical theater and in music performance. It certainly makes pursuit in these areas astoundingly competitive.</p>
<p>I thought the girl in the first video had a pure voice. I guess I was the only one who wasn’t that impressed with the pianist! :D</p>
<p>After viewing the video Digi provided, I decided to check out some of the young woman’s other videos. I was surprised to discover that she’s German; she mentioned that in one of her comments, and there was a performance from Jekyll and Hyde (“A New Life”) in German. Although I wasn’t wowed by her vocal performance and some of her “bad habits” were evident in other videos, I am impressed with her bilinguilism in a genre that may not necessarily be friendly to translation. I think the basics of good vocal technique are universal, but I suspect acting a song may be more difficult when it’s not in your first (native) language.</p>
<p>I watched the videos. I’m not hard to please, and I love high school musical theater, and I enjoyed this. I admit, though, the thing I was most impressed by was the videography - very well done. The kids all seemed like kids - granted they all have potential. I thought the young man was best.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think Eponine’s looks (figure) will be held against her. Of course, she’s 14, so things can change. But musical theater is very much a “visual” art, and there’s a lot of competition. I think the girl in the first video would make a very interesting Eponine! </p>
<p>This (Eponine) was a finished performance, so it’s hard to compare with the first video, of a first rehearsal. But I thought she did a good acting job while singing.</p>
<p>I watched them all. I am not hard to please as well. Made me kind of teary-eyed to think of all the talent we are surrounded by, the potential of our youth. And if they don’t make it to Broadway or even want to, they have that experience and knowledge of themselves to treasure for a lifetime. And they too will eventually appreciate youthful talent in their time.</p>
<p>Well, I love the fact that I can go to high school shows for (what, $10 a ticket?) and see such high level stuff. Sometimes the high school shows are better than the community theatre shows around here. The high school stuff is not as smooth as the polished professional shows (DUH), and can even have some MAJOR flaws, but you know, the energy and joy level is usually way higher-- these kids give it all they’ve got – which makes the shows a lot of fun.</p>
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