So, with less than a week until Jessie opens in the Trevor Nunn production of Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, what do people here on DS think about it?

Those of you who know me will know I've been a staunch Jessie supporter since IDA and run her Blog site.

However, will any of you who sat on the fence during IDA or didn't support Jessie go? Surely most of you will have seen the development and progress she has made in the months since the IDA final. She performed at Sydmonton, has done many PA's in the UK and Ireland and trained at RADA for a month.

Are you happy to see Jessie in this role of Anne?

It officially opens on the 2nd Dec (I believe) and it will be interesting to see what the critics make of it.

Just thought I'd start a topic to see what the general DS opinion was

I think Jessie should prepare herself, some critics will make John Barrowman's comments seems sweet and nice.

:-/ really? sounds ominous!

I hope Jessie great but if she's not the critics won't miss her, especially as she was so publically supported by CM and ALW.

Also there will be a few critics who will critcise her anyway because of her route via IDA.

Gosh, that's a difficult musical. Sondheim has some very strange note sequences. I like her though and wish her all the best.

^I don't think there's any great problem. Jessie is something of a fan of Sondheim, and apart from that is a good musician. She will study the music and analyse the songs. I doubt if she'd have got the part if they hadn't ensured she could sing the notes.
Having seen or heard most of what she's done recently, and having met her, I think the part will suit her pretty well. She's a lovely, lively girl who will have worked her socks off on this. With Sir Trevor Nunn to learn from and a cast that sounds as if they're shaping up as a team I'm fairly confident in our "little Jessie"!
Anyway we'll let you know after the first performance on Saturday!!

Hey All,

I was a fan of jessie's, she wasn't my fave, but always enjoyed her performances. And I agreed wholeheartedly that she had tonnes of charisma and star quality. She would have made a super Nancy. One with edge, vitality and difference. A shame she was pipped at the post.

Have tix to see her in December and I, for one, cannot wait. I reckon she's going to shine.

I'll post my thoughts after her performance but would just like to say Good Luck Jessie, break a leg.

Welcome Munax and well said.
If you're interested there are some ALNM rehearsal photos, including one of Jessie, at:
http://www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=2450
Quite a sweet photo!

Got tickets for Feb. She looks fine on everything she has done since. Its somewhat ironic after the JB stop Jessie campaign that she actually gets to go on stage before Jodie......

Well that's not strictly true - Jodie was in Les Mis for a while.

There was all that nonsense from Barrowman during the final stages of IDA about how 6 months prep would not be enough for Jessie and that was why she shouldn't be Nancy. However she has only been rehersing for ALNM for a lot less than 6 months as far as I know. And she would not have been cast in a big role if she couldn't handle it. Hope Jessie proves all her critics wrong, lots of people are rooting for her!

I didn't think she had a big role in ALNM.

Forgot that.......I even had the thought that she would be better doing the woman of the rue in les Mis as I kept on thinking she was the Artful Dodgers mother watching her on CIN....

Havn't seen it but it looks like she has one of the biggest......don't read if you don't want to know what happens......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Night_Music

Don't know why I thought it was a small role.

I think this is better for Jessie now than Oliver as it's away from the spotlight a little bit. I agreed with what Rachel said in her exit interview, she support Jodie for Nancy because she was emotionally ready whereas Jessie & Sam although talented enough weren't ready yet.

I think if she can master the accent when she in her early 20's Jessie will be a great Nancy.

Btw, can I ask am I the only person who favourite Jessie performance isn't The Man That Got Away or As Long As He Needs Me? I much prefer Killing Me Softly or Stop.

I like them all equally Jill -but thought "stop" was brilliantly sung and interpreted, and didn't deserve any criticism at all.
Killing me softly was equally brill.

I've just posted at some length on the Jessie Appreciation thread. It was excellent and Jessie was marvellous, as a summary!! SEE IT IF YOU CAN!!

A full review up on the Jessie Blog
JESSIE BUCKLEY FAN BLOG

It was a great show - would really recommend going to see it, even if you aren't a huge Jessie fan! The whole production is superb and the theatre charming. Who knows you may even be converted!

And I got to meet her too and we had a big hug

The first "outside" review - pretty good:
http://www.musicalcriticism.com/oper...sic-1108.shtml

I may be showing my ignorance but can anyone tell me what that sentence means?

I just did a quick google and found an explanation of what a tessitura is:-

"The tessitura. This is the part of the vocal range which the singer is most comfortable producing: for tenors, C3 to C5; for baritones, A2 to A4; for basses, E2 to E4; for sopranos, C4 to C6; for mezzo-sopranos, A3 to A5; for altos, E3 to G5."

So the comment is presumably about the upper part of Jessie's 'comfortable' vocal range.

^ and ^^ The high lying tessitura is the top end of the normal soprano range. As given above that's C6 (2 octaves above middle C). The part of Anne asks for D6 (one tone above), so it's high even for a soprano. On IDA the songs were generally in the alto range, because that's what is needed for Nancy, so because Jessie could belt out the numbers with her big bottom end voice it was rather assumed that was what she could do. However, since then she has surprised us by producing a soprano above this. Most singers do not fully mature that voice until 25-30 years old, though there are exceptions, but most of those don't have the belting alto!! In effect she is singing about half an octave above the IDA songs. We say she hit the very high notes perfectly, all that they needed was a little more confidence. My guess is that by now the notes will be exquisite and fully developed. We were told by "Henrik" that this was the first full run through in the theatre they'd had. Overall the song was beautiful!! She really is developing into an unusual and marvellously talented singer.

See what you two said made complete sense why couldn't the reviewer say that?

Glad to see Jessie doing well.

Just shows the tremendous range she actually has. All the girls in IDA were chosen on the basis of their alto belt voices. There were a few on the show who obviously had strengths outside of the Nancy register. Sarah has a lovely soprano range in addition to the alto belt. Niamh Perry is not really an alto at all, but promises to be a super mezzo. Sam Barks' chest voice range goes very high indeed (though I don't think she got to show whether she had the head voice too).

Based on the IDA performances, I thought that Jessie's strength was in her alto belt range (and ALW stressed this during the show). So I was surprised to see her taking on this role and doing so well. I'm not surprised to find that she isn't quite as comfortable in this high soprano range as she was in her alto comfort zone, but she's clearly managing and over the next few years, no doubt her amazing voice will just keep getting better.

Sondheim is sooooo tough musically, the intervals and note patterns he uses are so unusual. But given her background and her knowledge of other instruments and her very secure tuning, I suspect that Jessie's musicality is very advanced for her age (and second to none of her competitors in IDA) so no better woman to take him on.

Anyway, congrats to Jessie!!! To have gained the respect of such powerful theatre producers as Cameron, Andrew and Trevor Nunn at her stage is a tremendous achievement and bodes well for her career. Can't wait to see the show!!!

Do see the show - it's great. The characters are human, the music is excellent and it really is fun. Jessie is almost unrecognisable from IDA, in which we thought she was amazing, and as for her singing and acting - WOW. This is an even more amazing performer!! And yes she is a very accomplished musician at her age.