Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens don’t do anything for Cody Jones, Emily Prock, and Nathan Peterson. But the three Mesa State students, along with fellow musical theater majors Holly Longmore and Alena Ruiz, do have a few favorite things.
Free hair care products, a Skype session with a Broadway star, and a chance to sing at the world famous Radio City Music Hall, for example.
The five singers have gone on to become finalists in the Dove Hair Care Brush with Greatness Sing4All, a contest that has already awarded some amazing opportunities for the impromptu group.
Prock was simply surfing the web when she stumbled on a video of Broadway legend Idina Menzel,the star of “Wicked”, introducing the contest, which solicited videos of musical groups singing versions of “My Favorite Things”, from “The Sound of Music.” She found the video four days before the videos were supposed to be submitted.
Within two days, she had formed the group. Jones created an original arrangement of the piece in half an hour, and the group shot and re-shot their video until 2:30 in the morning, until they had the perfect piece edited, submitted, and approved by judges a mere 13 hours before the deadline.
A week later, they heard the good news. With the second-highest number of votes and excellent marks from the judges, the Mesa State group was one of four nationwide finalists and won an exceptional honor. Wednesday, the group will participate in a Skype session with Menzel, who will listen to and critique their singing.
“The four finalists all get to have a 30-minute session with her and she helps us with our singing, so it’s kind of like a personal voice lesson from Idina Menzel,” Prock said “She is a huge Broadway star—a legend. We love her so much. We got to see her live at her first New York City solo concert two years ago, so it will be really great to actually get to talk to her, because she’s so amazing and so funny.”
The contest is not over, however. The finalists are now competing with each other for a greater prize. Voters on Facebook choose the video they like best. The winner will be invited to select several Christmas songs and open for the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
“We get to go backstage and watch the rest of the show and get a gift bag from the Rockettes. The theater holds over 6,000 people. It would just be a dream come true for all of us to step foot on the stage that the Tony Awards are presented on every year. Some of the greatest performers have been on that stage,” Prock said.
“We’re going to be performing for Broadway people. It’s something so crazy to think of. We’re a group of kids from Grand Junction, Colorado,” Peterson said.
“It would be cool to represent Colorado and Mesa State in NYC and say, ‘This is what we have to offer. We have talent. Come check it out,’” Prock said.
The contest is entirely driven by votes from this point onward. The group has devised a strategy. Jones has been texting everyone he knows, and has organized a relatively large Facebook campaign. They attended Grand Junction’s Parade of Lights to pass out fliers explaining the contest and providing the web address for their video, called “MSC Things That Are Our Favorite.” They also plan on going door-to-door in campus residence halls to talk up the video and increase their votes.
The group members all wore blue for the video, so they’re easy to spot and even easier to vote for. Facebook users simply scroll over the video while it’s playing and click “vote” in the upper right corner. After they give the application permission to access their data to ensure the voting is fraud-free, their vote goes toward the Mesa State singers. Voters are allowed one click per day, and voting continues through Dec. 20. The link is http://apps.facebook.com/dovehaircare/?ref=mf.
ssummar@mesastate.edu
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