Post by Lynda on Sept 25, 2007 19:31:08 GMT
This is from 2005, I only found it today but it makes interesting reading for those that saw CJ in Joseph
Christopher comes home as a star
By Michelle Fleming
Amersham-born Christopher Jay stars as Jacob in the smash-hit.
Christopher Jay grew up in Amersham. He returns to his roots starring in the smash hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He tells Michelle Fleming what it means to him to tread the boards on home turf.
EVERY Christmas as a boy, Christopher Jay, shuffled into his front row seat for the annual panto at the Wycombe Swan, which his gran took the entire family along to.
Many years later, I catch up with Christopher, now 27, as he prepares to step on The Swan stage starring as Jacob in the hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat next month.
Christopher says: "Wycombe is my local theatre, so I'd been there every Christmas. It's quite exciting, as I've never been backstage before, and I'm looking forward to finding out if it's what I imagined it would be, like the dressing room and all the other off-limits areas away from front of house."
Amersham-born Christopher, who graduated from the Royal College of Music more than a year ago, tells me when he first stepped on stage as Jacob he dedicated it to his panto-loving gran, who died last year.
"She was in hospital the month I got my first professional job but never saw me perform, so when I got my job in the West End I dedicated it to her she would have just loved it seeing me up there and I thought about her a lot."
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Christopher attended the Beacon School in Amersham, and later he went to New College Choir School, Oxford, where he became head chorister.
He smiles: "Some of the kids at the Beacon School are doing Joseph too this term, so they will be coming along to see it."
After Oxford, Christopher went on to Radley as a major music scholar, during which time he joined the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, singing in Laudibus until this year.
After a four-year masters degree course in manufacturing engineering at Nottingham, he decided on a stage career, and eventually attended a postgraduate certificate course in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music.
"I've always done a lot of music and was classically trained," reveals Christopher. "For a while I wanted to have my freedom from it, so I went away and did engineering at university. I really enjoyed it but when I left I didn't want to be an engineer. I tried different things like marketing but then realised what I wanted to do and got into acting.
"I'd always done musicals and never just plays, so at first I thought I couldn't do it but just after I graduated I got to work in Bridewell Theatre in Sondheim's Passion and it went from there."
Not long afterwards Christopher was snapped up by Bill Kenwright's team.
At first he was a "swing" at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, and more recently as Jacob in the Andrew Lloyd Webber family musical, which retells the Biblical story of Joseph, his 11 brothers and is packed full of popular songs including Any Dream Will Do, Close Ev'ry Door To Me and One More Angel.
"As the swing I had to learn the movements and about ten other parts and, then the part of Jacob came up."
Away from the West End, an entirely new team were being cast for a touring version and Christopher jumped at the chance.
He says: "It may sound strange but I prefer touring to the West End. When you're in London the audiences are a bit more cynical as they could have gone along to any number of shows so are harder to please, but when you go on tour the excitement of the crowd is just amazing wherever you go.
"When you're on tour you're in this bubble and it's only when you come off tour that you realise you actually have this other life."
When he is not working, Christopher has racked up a series of concerts at Amersham Community Centre the first to help him with his university course fees and the second in February last year to raise cash for the centre itself and another charity.
His gran won't be there when he comes to Wycombe next month but he's expecting a lot of home-grown support.
He laughs: "My mum has probably booked up half the theatre tickets by now. When I was in Nottingham all my mates from uni came and all my friends from here came to watch."
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Wycombe Swan.
Christopher comes home as a star
By Michelle Fleming
Amersham-born Christopher Jay stars as Jacob in the smash-hit.
Christopher Jay grew up in Amersham. He returns to his roots starring in the smash hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He tells Michelle Fleming what it means to him to tread the boards on home turf.
EVERY Christmas as a boy, Christopher Jay, shuffled into his front row seat for the annual panto at the Wycombe Swan, which his gran took the entire family along to.
Many years later, I catch up with Christopher, now 27, as he prepares to step on The Swan stage starring as Jacob in the hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat next month.
Christopher says: "Wycombe is my local theatre, so I'd been there every Christmas. It's quite exciting, as I've never been backstage before, and I'm looking forward to finding out if it's what I imagined it would be, like the dressing room and all the other off-limits areas away from front of house."
Amersham-born Christopher, who graduated from the Royal College of Music more than a year ago, tells me when he first stepped on stage as Jacob he dedicated it to his panto-loving gran, who died last year.
"She was in hospital the month I got my first professional job but never saw me perform, so when I got my job in the West End I dedicated it to her she would have just loved it seeing me up there and I thought about her a lot."
advertisement
Christopher attended the Beacon School in Amersham, and later he went to New College Choir School, Oxford, where he became head chorister.
He smiles: "Some of the kids at the Beacon School are doing Joseph too this term, so they will be coming along to see it."
After Oxford, Christopher went on to Radley as a major music scholar, during which time he joined the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, singing in Laudibus until this year.
After a four-year masters degree course in manufacturing engineering at Nottingham, he decided on a stage career, and eventually attended a postgraduate certificate course in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music.
"I've always done a lot of music and was classically trained," reveals Christopher. "For a while I wanted to have my freedom from it, so I went away and did engineering at university. I really enjoyed it but when I left I didn't want to be an engineer. I tried different things like marketing but then realised what I wanted to do and got into acting.
"I'd always done musicals and never just plays, so at first I thought I couldn't do it but just after I graduated I got to work in Bridewell Theatre in Sondheim's Passion and it went from there."
Not long afterwards Christopher was snapped up by Bill Kenwright's team.
At first he was a "swing" at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, and more recently as Jacob in the Andrew Lloyd Webber family musical, which retells the Biblical story of Joseph, his 11 brothers and is packed full of popular songs including Any Dream Will Do, Close Ev'ry Door To Me and One More Angel.
"As the swing I had to learn the movements and about ten other parts and, then the part of Jacob came up."
Away from the West End, an entirely new team were being cast for a touring version and Christopher jumped at the chance.
He says: "It may sound strange but I prefer touring to the West End. When you're in London the audiences are a bit more cynical as they could have gone along to any number of shows so are harder to please, but when you go on tour the excitement of the crowd is just amazing wherever you go.
"When you're on tour you're in this bubble and it's only when you come off tour that you realise you actually have this other life."
When he is not working, Christopher has racked up a series of concerts at Amersham Community Centre the first to help him with his university course fees and the second in February last year to raise cash for the centre itself and another charity.
His gran won't be there when he comes to Wycombe next month but he's expecting a lot of home-grown support.
He laughs: "My mum has probably booked up half the theatre tickets by now. When I was in Nottingham all my mates from uni came and all my friends from here came to watch."
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Wycombe Swan.