Jane Seaman's class

I had an absolute, unexpected blast last Thursday night at Jane Seaman's insightful musical theatre class. Jane had asked me to come in and hang out, listen to her students, present them some of my material. There were probably seven or so there and, amazingly, they all can sing. That is virtually unheard of in a musical theatre class. Some of them have huge Broadway belts and others more legit sounds. One young woman, Lauren, has enormous vocal range that she showed off in a Urinetown number . Another, Jaymee, great power and variety in her singing (and a knockout bod) in "Life of the Party". A young man named Johary is very pop-inflected (works for me!) and his rendition of "Only with You" from Nine was charming. Nikki, who looks like a tiny doll, belted the hell out of "Turn Back, O Man". Ruth did the best "Hold On" from Secret Garden I had ever heard. Deni rocked out a bit with "Part of Your World", which was surprisingly welcome. Sarah did a Tarzan number I didn't know very nicely. Alyssa sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and made you forget you'd heard other people do it.

Then I got to present six of my songs for them, which I always enjoy. They seemed to respond well (okay okay okay --- they were HIGHLY complementary) and I hope they start, as I get them written down, to sing them.

And Jane is brilliant. The real deal. She's been teaching for years and knows her stuff, both material and technique, back and forth and up and down. The students seem to realize that. Isn't it funny - a week before she had been simply Samantha's mother to me. You sit by people at church, share lunch with them, and have no idea what their gifts are. Well, I know Jane's now and I am impressed.