evita

By Catherine Jones on Apr 16, 08 12:22 PM

I've been meaning to write about the Evita auditions but we didn't finish until teatime on Monday and I actually had a day off work yesterday.
Having seen the Maria/Joseph/Pop Idol etc auditions on the TV, it was very interesting to sit in on something similar in the flesh.
And it certainly wasn't as heartless as some of those telly ordeals can be.
Musical director David Steadman, who led the audition panel, was so kind and encouraging.

He told me he'd been in auditions himself where it had been a nerve-wracking experience and he knew how our would-be Magaldis and their female counterparts felt.
One girl was so nervous he even came out from behind the "judging" desk, put his arm round her and coaxed her to sing.
He had a generous word or smile for everyone, whether they had a hope of getting to the next round or not.
But at the end of the day he was still firm in sorting out the wheat from the chaff. After all, his choices will have to audition in front of Bill Kenwright on Friday and Bill doesn't have time to see the almost-good-enoughs.
I only meant to stay for an hour or two to get a flavour of the candidates, but I became so addicted to the process, and the thought that any moment now the perfect candidate would walk through the doors, that I was still there more than six hours and 90-odd auditions later.
I'll be back on Friday to see what Bill makes of it all. Whoever he chooses will also have to be OK-ed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
But it's looking good.