AN aspiring star of the stage from Dunfermline will be performing some of musical theatre’s most popular songs - in front of the New York composer who wrote them.
It could be a daunting task for Cate Anderson but the 16-year-old can't wait for An Evening With Jonathan Reid Gealt on Saturday in Edinburgh.
She'll be performing a solo rendition of Gealt’s I Had A Dream Last Night after auditioning for the American composer and lyricist via a YouTube video.
Cate, who lives in Pitcorthie and is a former pupil at Dunfermline High School, said: "Video casting is now commonplace in performing arts but, in recording the Jonathan Reid Gealt song Mamma Don’t Cry, I felt like I was getting my first real taste of the industry and I really enjoyed it. I knew about Jonathan and his work but chose that particular song after hearing it for the first time - it’s a gorgeous song.
“All of Jonathan’s music is emotional and very well-written, so I’m unbelievably excited at getting the chance through The MGA Academy to perform some of his work for him."
Cate's stage career began at aged 11 with a role in Rosyth and District Musical Society’s performance of The King and I at Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline.
She is now an HND Musical Theatre student at the MGA Academy of Performing Arts in Edinburgh and will have plenty of support on Saturday with parents Judith and Stephen, sister Erin and grandparents Elizabeth and James Clarke all coming to watch the show.
Andrew Gowland, director of the MGA Academy, said: “We are very excited about such a massive name in Jonathan Reid Gealt coming to Edinburgh and allowing musical theatre aficionados to see his songs performed by some of the best emerging stage talent in Scotland.
"Through Beyond Broadway Productions, the students at the MGA Academy have been given a great opportunity and we hope they, and the audience, have a fantastic time on Saturday night.”
The show - on from 7.30pm at St Andrew’s and St George’s West at 13 George Street, Edinburgh - is the only Scottish date of Gealt’s current UK tour and follows a performance in London earlier this month.
Tickets, priced £15, are on sale at the Beyond Broadway website via http://tinyurl.com/JRGtix
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