Broadway Idol: Jaclyn Huberman

America’s getting more than one new Idol in May as New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) presents the solo concert debut of Jaclyn Huberman, winner of NYMF’s 2006 Broadway Idol competition. The show includes songs by Stephen Schwartz, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, and Ani DiFranco. The evening is directed by Jim Augustine. Musical director Andy Boroson is featured on piano, with Dave Purcell on drums and Tony Steele on bass.

Broadway Idol was created and produced by the New York Musical Theatre Festival last fall as a talent competition seeking to find the newest musical theater star. Approximately 175 people attended the open auditions in September, which were open to any performer who had not previously acted in a Broadway show. The 2006 competition was part of the NYMF @ Nite party series, with weekly elimination rounds presided over by a panel of professional musical theatre judges (including Lonny Price, Chip Zien, Marin Mazzie, the cast of [title of show] and Stephen Schwartz, among others). Similar to American Idol, the competition allowed audience members to vote through Verizon Wireless text messaging immediately after each week’s show.

A Harvard grad with a degree in Psychology, Huberman is hoping to make cabaret performance a big part of her career. In November of last year, Huberman presented a one-woman show entitled You Don’t Know Jac: An Evening of New Songs at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, and she has also performed at HERE Arts Center. Jaclyn was in the Off-Broadway musical I Love You Because in which she understudied all three women. For Inside Broadway she starred as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Regional credits include Rose in Gypsy, Bunny in Babes in Arms and Monica Lewinsky and Liza Minnelli (among others) in the The News in Revue. Other favorite roles include Judy Denmark in Ruthless!, Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, the Baker’s Wife in Into The Woods, Eve in Children of Eden, and Pitti-Sing in The Mikado. She is a native of Massachusetts.