Winner Madeleine Morgan (centre) with judge Jenna Russell and host Bonnie Langford. Pictures: David Ovenden
Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year 2024 at the Sondheim Theatre, London.
In a partisan atmosphere akin to a rugby match with each contestant bringing their college fan club with them, Madeleine Morgan made it back-to-back wins for Wales in the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year competition at the theatre bearing the great wordsmith’s name.
She follows Swansea’s Milly Willows as the 16th winner of a competition which began in 2007 with an entry of just ten – naturally all ten made the final – and this year attracted 330 eager contestants from all over the world, two of the finalists being American. Much water flowed under the bridge before 330 was whittled down to the 12 tasked with performing two songs, one by Sondheim and one from the New UK Musicals list.
Morgan, from the Gower in south west Wales, is on a Masters degree course at the Royal Academy of Music. We saw her last year as Mary Flynn in the National Youth Music Theatre’s Merrily We Roll Along at Southwark Playhouse and will shortly be seeing her again as the Baker’s Wife in RAM’s Into the Woods.
It was from Into the Woods that Morgan’s Sondheim selection came, ‘Moments in the Woods’. She conveyed the Baker’s Wife’s excitement and bewilderment brilliantly with great use of the pause. But it was her non-Sondheim number, ‘Running On Empty’, the best song in Gus Gowland’s musical Mayflies, that clinched the £1,000 top prize. Coming right on the interval, it received the biggest ovation of the first half.
The judges were unanimous but it must have been close with Philadelphia-based LAMDA student Gavin Rasmussen who followed ‘Marry Me a Little’ from Company by absolutely inhabiting the stage with ‘Tartarus’ a witty song from The Sorrows of Satan by Luke Bateman and Michael Conley that required plenty of athleticism, theatricality and detail. It was the sort of performance that made you want to see it again and the packed audience clearly adored it.
(L-R) Jenna Russell, Oliver Halford (Emil Dale Academy, commended), Madeleine Morgan (Royal Academy of Music, winner) and Gavin Rasmussen (LAMDA, runner-up) with Jenna Russell and Bonnie Langford
The judges, chaired by Edward Seckerson, were so impressed by Oliver Halford’s ‘I’m Calm’ from A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum and subsequent ‘Infinity’ from The Blackfriars Boys (by Josh Sneesby and Sarah Middleton) that they found an extra prize the Emil Dale Academy student.
I was also especially impressed by another LAMDA entry, again an American, Brooke Bazarian who acted and paced the long title song from Sunday in the Park With George beautifully and backed it up well with ‘Lost in Translations’ by Craig Adams.
The other eight finalists were Holly Adams (Trinity Laban), Harrison Langham (Arts Educational), Katie Leach (LAMDA), Rowen Newsome (the first finalist from Brighton Academy), Tumi Olufawo (Bristol Old Vic), Thomas Oxley (Italia Conti), Daisy Pearson (Rose Bruford) and Josh Rosewood (Mountview).
Reserves Jacob Dolan Holmes and Noah Thallon (both Mountview) had their moment in the spotlight as all 14 opened the show with a special and very effective arrangement by John Haslam of ‘Beautiful Girls’ from Follies.
The energetic and much-loved Bonnie Langford hosted the event for the first time and gave us ‘I’m Still Here’ from Follies while the judges, Jenna Russell, Fra Fee, Callum Scott Howells, Jak Malone and Alex Parker, deliberated. Russell said there was no fighting this year – all were in accord over winner and runner-up.
Further entertainment came from the NYMT with a taster of their August production of Into the Woods; last year’s winner Milly Willows, as is the tradition, reprised her winning number from 2023, ‘The Worst Pies in London; Joaquin Pedro Valdes and Ronav Jain duetted on ‘Giants in the Sky’; and Molly Osborne and Jack Quarton sang ‘Time’ from the much-anticipated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, soon to be seen in the West End.
MD Nigel Lilley accompanied all the finalists as charmingly as ever, Hannah Chissick directed fresh from guiding RAM through Spring Awakening, and Sondheim Society powerhouses Craig Glenday and Tina Foote acted as co-producers.
Incidentally, the 2011 SSSSPOTY winner Taron Egerton was Welsh too (he moved to Wales from England when he was two!) and look where he is now, making a mint in Hollywood. A good omen for the 2024 champion?
Jeremy Chapman
Comments are closed.