Mr. L

This long article has been published on the 28th of May 2009  in North County Times and has been written by Pam Kragen.

A long, but very interesting insight into the early life and beginning of the Adam Lambert’s almost 20-years long journey on stage until the American Idol breakthrough.

Some highlights for this wonderful written and researched article are below. Read the whole material under this link.

Those who know Lambert say that his seeming ease onstage and his effortless high notes didn’t come out of nowhere. He has been working diligently toward this goal for nearly two decades. He has invested his entire life in music and performing, and that means working at it.

Adam Lambert’s journey on the stage, short overview:

Metropolitan Educational Theatre, San Diego

According to Kathie Bretches-Urban from  Metropolitan Educational Theatre, a San Diego-based youth theater company founded by her late husband .

‘He’d just come out onstage, and it popped. You’d see that sparkle in his eye. That gift is a passion. It’s something in (his) soul that just exudes from every pore. You know that this child has discovered his chosen path, even if he doesn’t know it yet. He had the kind of talent you only see once in a lifetime.”
But his talent didn’t just happen overnight as some people think. (…) Music and performing were the only things I ever knew Adam doing. He was not a kid that did sports. That was just not his thing. I do know that he worked, much like an athlete would do, on his singing with voice lessons for his entire life.’

While enrolled in Metropolitan Adam Lambert made 3-4 shows a year, often as the star, but not always – and that was intentional as the Metropolitan credo is to develop talent, not create “stars” in order to tach the young performers humility and to keep them grounded. So he mentored younger actors and he was cast as often in the ensemble as in the lead. 

Adam truly is as genuine as he looks on television. His family gave him a great foundation, and I like to think we helped give him a lot of good values. Did you see on every ‘Idol’ episode how he thanked the orchestra or the band? Those are the things we still teach our kids today. You get what you give. What you put out there in the universe comes back to you. And you see that sense of kindness and generosity in Adam’s persona.”

However even if ‘Lambert was always humble, he never lacked for confidence. He had an innate comfort onstage, and he knew he had a voice that would one day take him places’.
San Diego’s Lyceum Theatre

His first role in 1991 was as Linus in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” at San Diego’s Lyceum Theatre.

Mt. Carmel High School

During his years in Mt. Carmel High School, Lambert sang in the choir, played in several school musicals.

Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista

 He also did several youth- and adult-cast shows at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista. One of his roles was Captain Hook in a youth-cast “Peter Pan” another- Doody in Moonlight’s 2000 production of “Grease.”

Joshua Carr, his director for both productions, remembers Lambert’s ‘laserlike attention to detail’.
“You could see the focus in his eyes and the drive to be the best he could be. He started with me in the youth theater program and immediately displayed commitment and drive even at that young age, and he quickly moved into the leading roles. About his future Carr adds: ‘He makes smart choices all the time; and regardless of the outcome of ‘Idol,’ this young man is going to be a superstar.”

Kathy Brombacher, Moonlight’s producing artistic director, remembers Lambert’s upbeat personality and exceptional voice.
“He is bright, friendly, funny, down to earth and grounded. Despite his talent, he doesn’t have an inflated head, and he’s so articulate and professional in the way he conducts himself.”

Cal State Fullerton, Hair,” band Citizen Vein, The Zodiac Show

In 2000, after graduating from Mt. Carmel, Adam Lambert attended California State UniversityFullerton, but dropped out in order to keep performing full time.

He did regional musical theater, toured with the musical “Hair,” fronted the rock band Citizen Vein and became a regular featured performer in the L.A. glam-rock stage spectacle “The Zodiac Show” —- where he honed his stage swagger and experimented with outrageous makeup, hair, costumes, jewelry and fingernail polish.

The Ten Commandments

In the 2004 he got a role in L.A. rock opera “The Ten Commandments” starring Val Kilmer. Even if the musical has been extremely criticized, Adam Lambert’s performance was the only one which made great impression thanks to his ’scene-stealing vocals’.

Wicked

In 2005 Adam Lambert joined the national tour of “Wicked” as the understudy for Fiyero (the male lead) and later in the L.A. production until it closed in the fall of 2008.

In an interview last week with the Associated Press, “Wicked” casting agent Bernard Telsey said of Lambert’s audition:

He came in and had that amazing voice —- or as I like to say, ‘instrument,’ because he has this incredible range. I literally remember saying, ‘Oh my God, this guy has the highest range.

American Idol

Performing in musical theater was great, but by 2007 Lambert admits that he was at a crisis point. In a teleconference last week, he said

“I was in the ensemble of ‘Wicked’ in LA. It was a great job. It was paying the bills, but I wasn’t satisfied artistically. I wondered, is this it? Is this my life? I want more. There’s more that I should be doing. Then this (American Idol) presented itself to me, and the timing was right’.

Photo by Nancy Hickey, source: nctimes.com

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