Broadway Idol - An Interview with Jaclyn Huberman

Review By: Carey Purcell
CareyPurcell@TheCinemaSource.com

She may not have the crown jewels, but she does have a sense of humor. After being crowned the Broadway Idol, Jaclyn Huberman e-mailed her list of friends and family – about 415 total – to tell them of her victory. She ended the e-mail saying, “I’ll be wearing my crown,” then added a PS that said, “Just kidding - I don’t have a crown.”

Even though she’s not royalty, she is a performer, and a lively one at that. Following her victory at last year’s competition, Huberman performed two solo concerts on May 8th and May 13th, featuring songs from various shows and composers. Performing at the Ars Nova theatre, Huberman, decked out in a red dress and heels, was accompanied by Musical Director Andy Boroson on the piano, Dave Purcell on drums, and Tony Steele on bass.

Huberman said her success in the show is amusing to her, because she does not watch reality television and has never seen the show American Idol. While a fan of Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first season, she was not eager to compete in a similar competition and was reluctant to go to the auditions. At the urging of a friend, she tried out - and ended up the winner.

“It felt great to keep coming back,” she said of the three nights of performing, admitting that the competition between the performers was difficult because she had become friends with many of them.

Huberman is no stranger to singing onstage. The petite powerhouse has been singing since “forever,” and admits that she has always wanted to be a Broadway star. Her resume is filled with a variety of roles, including Judy Denmark in Ruthless and Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. She performed consistently throughout college while studying Psychology at Harvard University, a degree that she says has helped her a great deal in her acting.

“I know stuff about how people behave and why they behave that way from my training,” she said. “My degree was very liberal artsy – I gained a lot of knowledge on a lot of things.”

Huberman moved to New York after college to pursue acting, and she found the pursuit to be a long and challenging one. The work never ends, she said, and she is always striving to improve her skills.

“Train, train, train,” she said. “You have to always hone your craft and try to get better and better. I’ve been taking voice lessons since I got here and it’s changed my voice, changed my life, changed my outlook. It’s hard to realize that you have to work as much as everybody else, but you have to.”

Along with training, she said that the outlook of the actor factors greatly into his or her success.

“There’s a lot of luck involved,” she continued. “You have to ask people for help, and you have to have incredible tenacity. It just doesn’t ...