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Gregory
Calvin Stone
The
Paramount Theatre
Seattle,
Washington
December
14, 1999
Starring
as Chris in
Miss
Saigon

Gregory
Calvin Stone a.k.a. Greg Stone is a young man from Seattle, Washington, who
Merrill and I met on December 14, 1999 when he was appearing as Chris in
"Miss Saigon." It was his last night with the show.
It was mid-way through the Seattle run, but he planned to spend the
Christmas holidays with his family before heading to NYC as he felt it was
time to move on with his career, and had done quite enough touring for
awhile.
It
seems almost incredible to us now, when we think back on the road that led
us to this show on this particular night.
First
of all, we had seen Greg as "Jesus" in "Jesus Christ
Superstar" at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington several
years earlier - May 23, 1993 to be exact - and we were completely
captivated by his incredible performance. In those days we were
neither "Ballfesting" nor "Stage Dooring", so of
course, we never met him! It was, in fact, the first show we
had ever seen at this particular theatre, and we ordered season tickets for
the following year immediately!
In 1996 we had seen Greg as Brujon in "Les Miz" with Rob Evan as
Valjean and Brian Noonan as Enjolras. I was surprised when I recently
looked at that old program to find that Giles Chiasson (Armand in Scarlet Pimpernel
- OBC) was also in the cast.
Philip
and I had seen Greg as "Valjean" in "Les Miz" in
Vancouver. British Columbia in August of 1997 and a three weeks later
Merrill, Philip and I went to see the show in Seattle. "Les
Miz" was our Philip's favorite show, and we were all absolutely blown
away by Greg's performance in such a complex role, particularly given his
very young age at the time.
(In
fact, it was Philip who discovered Michael Ball in the "Les Miserables
Tenth Anniversary Concert" on TV one night...which led to - well
that's another story of course, but it is also another of those seemingly
uncanny "coincidences and connections" that have eventually led
me to today and to creating this web site.)
Recently, when Merrill and I went to see "Miss Saigon" with
another Ballfest pal, we were surprised and delighted to see Greg's
name on the cast board - especially since "Miss Saigon" was
probably Philip's second favorite show.
In any case, we had the opportunity to meet Greg and spend a few minutes
with him after the show. We exchanged email addresses, and have begun
what promises to be an ongoing friendship.
With Greg's consent and encouragement, Rachel Lindberg has put together a
Web site for Greg, and I've started a mailing list for fans who may want to
know where he is and what he is doing.
As Greg knows, my small contributions towards furthering his career will be
made in Philip's memory and will be therapeutic for me, as well as fun for
Rachel and I. Phil was certainly one of Greg's biggest fans.
Encouragement can be such a wonderful and powerful gift. It is the
only thing I can do to repay Greg for several very lovely evenings at the
theatre, and to do something for our Philip at the same time.
One show we didn't see Greg do, since he was in college at the time, was
"Pirates of Penzance" which just happens to have been Michael's
very first show too.
I am not always much of a believer in signs or omens, but I had to notice
that, for whatever reason, Merrill and I chose to see Miss Saigon on a
Tuesday night, instead of our usual Saturday, which is really unusual!
It turned out to be exactly 4 months since losing our Philip, and we
had purchased the tickets months before that. It almost seemed
to us that Philip had a hand in our finally meeting Greg and having such an
instant rapport with him.
Greg will always be "Chris" for me and for Merrill...as he would
have been for Philip, had he had the opportunity to see him in the role.
Greg is charming, friendly, outgoing, humble and drop-dead gorgeous.
He is a college graduate with a BA degree in English, has sung with the
Seattle Opera and has even done the Mikado, another of my all-time
favorites. Except for Colm Wilkinson, I have never heard anyone do
"Bring Him Home" and hit that extremely high note and hold
it...and in spite of Greg's youth, he was utterly fantastic and convincing
as Jean Valjean. I am so delighted to have already found several
others who have seen him do one or another of these roles, and who have
been equally impressed.
Our good friends, Diane and Rich Stangle, whose wedding we went to in
July,1999, have seen Les Miz a total of 20 times and 11 of those times
Greg was performing the role of Valjean. They were totally
impressed.
I also heard from Jennifer in northern California, who says the audience
held their collective breaths during "Why God Why?" in Miss
Saigon.
Joni writes from Virginia that he was "awesome" in his
most recent role - as Curly in "Oklahoma" which she saw in
Raleigh, North Carolina earlier this year
You
can read more about Greg on his official Website (see Links page). We are hoping to
launch "The Official Greg C. Stone Fan Club" later this year -
although Jay has already started his own "unofficial" branch in
Maine! :-)
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