It may have been the longest callback in the history of auditions, but it just proves that sometimes it pays to wait.
Debbie Gibson, who has made a big name for herself as a pop-music recording artist and performer, first auditioned in 1987 for the role of Eponine in the musical ”Les Miserables” when it was about to open in New York.
She was 16 then. Someone else got the role.
Well, as the saying goes, that`s show biz. But fast-forward to the present. Debbie is 21 and she auditions for the role again. This time, there is no doubt. The role of Eponine, a lovesick young girl who dies on the barricades in the arms of the man she loves, was finally hers.
She opened in it Tuesday night at the Imperial.
”It`s a very emotional role,” she said, as she and her mother headed home after a long and grueling dress rehearsal. ”There`s a lot of intensity and a lot of light-heartedness. It`s interesting because that to me represents a real person.
”Most people`s lives have those extremes. But I think I`m more prepared to do it now than five years ago.”
Plenty has happened since the first audition. First of all, the year after she tried out for ”Les Miz,” the native of Merrick, N.Y., cut an album for Atlantic Records called ”Out of the Blue.” Almost immediately it went gold, then platinum, and at last count has sold more than 3 million copies.
Out of it came a No. 1 single, ”Foolish Beat,” then three more Top 5 singles. She became the youngest artist to have written, produced and performed a No. 1 single.
She has finished two more albums since then, ”Electric Youth” and
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”Anything Is Possible,” both of which have sold more than 1 million, and she has toured the world to support them.
But touring is over for now, while she and Eponine become one onstage.
”I`ve been doing musical theater since I was 5,” she said. ”Mostly on Long Island, but I was also in the Metropolitan Opera Children`s Chorus and other opera companies.
”There`s a lot of musical theater on Long Island,” she said. ”I`ve been in `Gypsy,` `Sound of Music,` `Annie`-not on Broadway, however, though I tried out for it.
”I did children`s theater, and was in Sheldon Harnick and Michel Legrand`s `Christmas Carol.` It was a professional company. I got my Equity card there.”
Gibson has long been intrigued with the role of Eponine. ”I love her song, `On My Own,` ” she said. ”When I did concert tours, I`d perform it as one of my numbers, though I never did record it. But people recognized it everywhere.”
Up to now, Gibson`s image has been that of a clean-scrubbed suburban type, a far cry from her ”Les Miz” role of dirt-poor revolutionary.
”I hope people forget that it`s me, pop singer, up there,” she said.
”I love pop music, but it allows you to show only one side of yourself. This will be much more of me.”
Gibson is one of four daughters of a father who worked for Trans World Airlines and sang in barbershop quartets (he even appeared once on Ed Sullivan`s show). Gibson says her mother is ”a great acting coach.”
She and her sisters often performed together.
”We were four of the Von Trapps in `The Sound of Music.` But my sisters have gone their own way. One is in the business end of music, one wants to be a director, the other is in art design.
”But I`m still here.”