THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010069
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
OUT-OF-TOWN critics have been generous with their praise, calling her a ``legend in the making,'' ``the next great voice'' and ``the new Streisand.''
Linda Eder said she isn't so sure what all the fuss is about, but does concede that she's ready for Broadway.
``Yes, I have a big voice,'' she said last week from her hotel room in Wilmington, Del. ``I had it since childhood. I was always the loudest child, but I also have learned to sing softly. I think the thing is that you have to let the audience know, early on, that you have the equipment.
``Then, you can keep them in suspense as to when you'll use it.''
Eder is playing Lucy, the woman of the night in ``Jekyll & Hyde,'' the Broadway-bound musical coming to Chrysler Hall on Tuesday. ``It's been a long commitment,'' she said, ``but I'm with it all the way. It would be foolhardy to bow out now, when we're so close to Broadway.''
In the meantime, Linda Eder fan clubs have popped up and music stores are stocking up with the cast album and her solo disc, ``And So Much More.''
``I'll admit that I'm young in theater experience,'' said Eder, 32. ``To tell you the truth, I've only seen a dozen musicals on stage, but our whole idea with this show is to make it a contemporary musical. Andrew Lloyd Webber has been doing it from London, but it needs to be done more often, and by Americans. We want to draw a younger audience to the theater.''
Apparently, Eder has made the best of that experience. She's been likened to Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Liza Minelli and, most often, Barbra Streisand. She doesn't mind the comparison.
``I'm a great fan of hers. When I first heard her, and knew that kind of voice could be used for pop music, it changed my life. I grew up listening, and trying, operatic arias.
``Basically, I taught myself the craft of vocal art, without a teacher. In recent years, I've worked on developing my own style. I'm just coming around to the idea that being Linda Eder might be enough. That, vocally, I have to be myself.''
Still, Eder said, the current music scene is difficult for new female singers to crack.
``What I do is a difficult format,'' she said. ``It's difficult to get heard on the radio. They don't play standards.'' Nonetheless, her concert in Los Angeles last year was named best solo appearance of the year.
The daughter of a Viennese pastry chef and a Norwegian housewife, Eder grew up in tiny Brainerd, Minn. She was Miss Brainerd of 1979 and first sang professionally in the lounge of the local Holiday Inn. But her career really took off in 1987, when she entered TV's ``Star Search'' competition. In the finals, she faced Dee Dee Bellson, daughter of drummer Louie Bellson and singer Pearl Bailey. Eder walked away with the $100,000 prize.
Producers and managers flocked to her, as did composer Frank Wildhorn, who has written three stage musicals for her. The two live together in California.
``We're very happy, although I'm seldom at home now,'' she said. ``Traveling on the road has been a unique challenge. I've learned that a chest cold swells your vocal chords and it's a real challenge to go on.
``I've been a long-distance runner since I was 7 years old. I think that played a part in developing this large breathing capacity.''
She's already sung the leads in two Wildhorn musicals, ``The Scarlet Pimpernel'' and ``Svengali.'' The role of Trilby in ``Svengali'' is ``just as good as the one in `Jekyll & Hyde,' and I want to do it on Broadway later, but `Jekyll & Hyde' has to come first.
``The plan is that someone else will do `The Scarlet Pimpernel.' My role in that is largely parallel to `Jekyll & Hyde,' but the role of Trilby would be a growth.''
Her two German Shepherd dogs - Lucy and Trilby - are named for her roles. Trilby is on the road with her.
``Jekyll & Hyde's'' current tour will end in mid-summer; the show will then go into rehearsal again for the Broadway opening.
Interestingly, the female roles in ``Jekyll & Hyde'' are stage and movie concoctions that have evolved through the years. In the Robert Louis Stevenson original, there was no romantic interest. The only women were a housekeeper and a maid. It was later that writers created the prostitute Lucy and Jekyll's high-society fiance, Lisa.
``Yes, there is a fascination with so-called women of the night,'' Eder said, laughing. ``The challenge in playing her is to make her vulnerable and poignant. She needs to be sympathetic.''
Broadway is waiting. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CAROL ROSEGG
Linda Eder plays Lucy opposite Robert Cuccioli's Jekyll.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY THEATER SINGERS by CNB