Chairman of the jury, Edward Seckerson looks forward to this year's Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year prize.
50 students, 50 Sondheim songs - all in the space of 8 hours. That's testing for even the most hardened Sondheim enthusiast. For this Sondheim enthusiast, whose brief was to choose just 12 finalists from amongst them, "testing" doesn't even begin to describe it. Excitement? Apprehension? Dread? How much stand-out talent was waiting just beyond the audition room door? Had it been a good year for our national drama schools and universities? Which songs would prove the most popular choices? Would they choose wisely? Should we be quoting odds on "Not While I'm Around", "Being Alive", or "Send in the Clowns" topping the most-often-performed charts? Just as well we didn't. I'm a sore loser. And the heats for the Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year 2008 were nothing if not unpredictable. When the first four people through the door could all make the final and none of them sing "Send in the Clowns" you begin to wonder if an hour or two is all it will take for you to turn into John Barrowman: "Outstanding! Outstanding! Outstanding!"
And a high percentage of the work was. Students went for less familiar songs: hell, we even had a song from Bounce. Some performances were work in progress, some were fully fledged, some would stop a West End show right now. But most had sincerity and most had heart and most sounded like they loved the man's work.
So 12 finalists - 8 girls, 4 guys - are I know going to put on a cracking show on the afternoon of 1st June. My fellow judges - Gareth Valentine, Barry Burnett, Kim Criswell, and George Stiles - can blame me for the choices but they won't blame me for including a few risk-takers. I am always so encouraged to see and hear not just pretty voices and word-perfect delivery but youngsters prepared to go the extra distance, to inhabit a character and fill a lyric and dare with a vocal line. Several of these contestants have the potential to blow an audience away. It could be anybody's final.
And, of course, there are the all-important "new" songs. Steve made that a condition of this annual competition going ahead in his name. New writing had to be a part of it. So which of the 12 new songs (courtesy of that invaluable organisation - the Mercury Music Development) will grab our attention and walk off with the Stiles & Drewe new song award? We'll know it when we hear it. And we'll probably hear a grunt, too, which will be Sondheim in spirit offering some discreet vocal encouragement.
50 students, 50 Sondheim songs - all in the space of 8 hours. That's testing for even the most hardened Sondheim enthusiast. For this Sondheim enthusiast, whose brief was to choose just 12 finalists from amongst them, "testing" doesn't even begin to describe it. Excitement? Apprehension? Dread? How much stand-out talent was waiting just beyond the audition room door? Had it been a good year for our national drama schools and universities? Which songs would prove the most popular choices? Would they choose wisely? Should we be quoting odds on "Not While I'm Around", "Being Alive", or "Send in the Clowns" topping the most-often-performed charts? Just as well we didn't. I'm a sore loser. And the heats for the Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year 2008 were nothing if not unpredictable. When the first four people through the door could all make the final and none of them sing "Send in the Clowns" you begin to wonder if an hour or two is all it will take for you to turn into John Barrowman: "Outstanding! Outstanding! Outstanding!"
And a high percentage of the work was. Students went for less familiar songs: hell, we even had a song from Bounce. Some performances were work in progress, some were fully fledged, some would stop a West End show right now. But most had sincerity and most had heart and most sounded like they loved the man's work.
So 12 finalists - 8 girls, 4 guys - are I know going to put on a cracking show on the afternoon of 1st June. My fellow judges - Gareth Valentine, Barry Burnett, Kim Criswell, and George Stiles - can blame me for the choices but they won't blame me for including a few risk-takers. I am always so encouraged to see and hear not just pretty voices and word-perfect delivery but youngsters prepared to go the extra distance, to inhabit a character and fill a lyric and dare with a vocal line. Several of these contestants have the potential to blow an audience away. It could be anybody's final.
And, of course, there are the all-important "new" songs. Steve made that a condition of this annual competition going ahead in his name. New writing had to be a part of it. So which of the 12 new songs (courtesy of that invaluable organisation - the Mercury Music Development) will grab our attention and walk off with the Stiles & Drewe new song award? We'll know it when we hear it. And we'll probably hear a grunt, too, which will be Sondheim in spirit offering some discreet vocal encouragement.