Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year took place at the Sondheim Theatre this year hosted by Bonnie Langford with Edward Seckerson, Jenna Russell, Callum Scott Howells, Fra Fee, Alex Parker and Jak Malone on the judging panel. The 2024 competitors drawn from numerous institutions including the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity Laban, LAMDA, Italia Conti, and for the first time Brighton Academy, were required to sing their chosen Sondheim number plus any song from a new musical listed on the New UK Musical catalogue, an opportunity to showcase new work as well as these early career performers which was Sondheim’s own stipulation for this annual event.
Previously whittled down from 330 applicants to the 12 finalists and two reserves performing on the Sondheim stage, the group were arranged in blocks of three and took a broad approach to their song and Sondheim musical selections. So while there was still the expected peppering of Company, Into the Woods and Follies thanks to recent revivals, the 2024 competition included work spanning from Sunday in the Park with George to Saturday Night with entrants hoping to win the £1000 prize fund and follow in the footsteps of the 2023 winner Milly Willows who returned to sing her winning song from Sweeney Todd.
Accompanied only by piano with no props or scenery the performers – Holly Adams, Brooke Bazarian, Oliver Halford, Harrison Langham, Katie Leach, Madeleine Morgan, Rowen Newsome, Tumi Olufawo, Thomas Oxley, Daisy Pearson, Gavin Rasmussen and Josh Rosewood – had to use their vocal arrangements, delivery and choice of movement to make their chosen number stand out while simultaneously giving the audience some indication of the wider story it is drawn from, particularly the emotional situation of their character at the point in the musical that each song occurs. And there was much to enjoy in the choices the finalists made, bringing out the comedy, despair and tumult of their songs with impressive performances.
The new songs selected were also quite broad-ranging and potentially new to many in the audience from shows including Alex James Ellison’s Fiver, Thirtysomething by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, Craig Adams’ Lift chosen by a couple of singers, Shift + Alt + Right by Hilmi Jaidin and a particularly devilish number from Luke Bateman’s The Sorrows of Satan performed with gusto by Rasmussen who became the official runner up and paired this with Marry Me a Little from Company.
While the judges deliberated, the Sondheim celebration continued with Joaquin Pedro Valdes teaming up with the National Youth Music Theatre to perform Giants in the Sky from Into the Woods which the NYMT will perform at Southwark Playhouse in August. Alex Parker also used the finale moment to announce a new production of Sondheim on Sondheim at Alexandra Palace in October starring fellow panellists Jenna Russell and Fra Fe. Before the big announcement, host Bonnie Langford almost stole the show with her rendition of I’m Still Here from Follies which she performed in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre last year.
At the conclusion of the event, Madeleine Morgan from the Royal Academy of Music was pronounced the 16th annual Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year, receiving the prize fund and a chance to sing the audience out. Her chosen number was Moments in the Woods and this was certainly hers.
Student Sondheim
