Stacy’s Theatre Profiles

Yeah. Generally, I really love these Les Mis, Martin Guerre, these story shows, that are a lot of singing and acting.

Well, I heard something about a concert version of Martin Guerre that you might be involved in?

Yeah, that’s true, we had big plans for that, but we got a no from Cameron Mackintosh. Weirdly enough. I don’t understand why they’d say no to that. The thing was, they were re-writing this piece, over and over again, and they were supposed to have a premiere in Madrid, I think,
in Spain, with Martin Guerre, with a new version. And they didn’t want to let go of the old version, because we wanted to do the old version. I still that’s the best. Anyhow, it never worked out. But we’ll see. The musical conductor of Elisabeth is a good friend of
mine, and he’s still working on it. He’s speaking to everyone about it. So, it’s gonna happen sometime, I assure you of that. Sometime.

Would you ever like to perform in New York?

Yeah, I would love to, why not? I would love to. But no one calls me! I mean, my agent is there, he’s American. But of course I would like to. Also, West End would be nice, just to sing in English, I would like that. It was nice doing West Side Story in English. I mean,
Miss Saigon is bad enough as it is, I would prefer that in English as well. That style really needs it. Les Mis I could imagine doing in German. That’s not so bad.

With West Side Story, what was it like working on that huge stage there, and relating to the audience so far away?

Horrible. In a way, it’s horrible. You can not relate to 7000 people. I tried! I tried my best. But it’s almost a bit scary. And Tony’s the only character who’s actually alone on stage. My two songs, in the beginning of the show as well, “Something’s Coming” and “Maria”, he was
totally alone on stage. And 7000 people sitting there, you know? It’s really hard to try to be intimate with 7000 people. And outside, it’s not even inside. So everyone was pushing me to play everything out, everything that I wanted to play like normal, has to be huge. And I
understand that, because the people were having binoculars. So, artistically, it’s really just more of a spectacle. But it’s interesting, an interesting idea, and what they’ve done is amazing. You sit there and you have the whole lake, you see the horizon and the sun setting, and
then you have “Maria…”, the music starts, and it must be fantastic. If you consider that, you have to take those aspects in as well.

Do you have a favourite theatre that you’ve performed in, in terms of being able to relate to the audience?

I would say, I like the style of what we have here. Although the thing is, here, I’m not worked in yet. I can’t really say how I would compare it. I felt really comfortable in Essen too, I must say, I felt really comfortable with that stage. In Bregenz, I didn’t feel comfortable with
the stage and the size of it, it feels a bit unnatural to do that, but it kind of makes sense when you stand there, because you understand how small you are, and how big you have to be. But I kind of like these bigger houses, and St. Gallen as well was like a thousand, 1200, more like
real theatre, and everyone can see you, and it’s of course a lot easier to touch people that way.

Would you ever do a play or a film that didn’t involve music at all?

Yeah, a film would be cool. I would like to try that out. But, it’s like everything, you can’t do everything. But yeah, if the chance would be there, I would definitely go for it. I think I could do some straight acting as well. In Germany, it would be hard, because you always have a
slight tendency of accent, you know. And I don’t know how I would be in a film as well, if my English would be good enough. It would be cool to find out.

What do you wish that you have more time to do?

Oh! So much. Too much. First of all, my music. Really. But that’s why I’m here, and I’m going to do it. That’s why I’m here. So that’s the main thing. But I would also like to have more
time with friends, and with my parents and brother.

What do your parents do?

They’re actually in the business. Not in this business, but they’re into music as well. I come from kind of a music family. Although, my father studied law, but now he’s turned out, for the last years he’s the head of the Swedish Radio Symphonic Orchestra and the Radio Choir. Those two
have a concert house in Stockholm, it’s called Berwaldhallen, where he’s head of this. So he’s travelling a lot, and spending a lot of time with conductors, and with agents throughout Europe. We actually have an Austrian conductor in Sweden right now, who’s the head conductor of the
Radio Symphonic Orchestra, and he’s a good friend of mine as well. I met him in Bregenz, because he lives very close to Bregenz. Manfred Honeck is his name. He’s a super conductor. He’s been the head of the Wiener Philharmoniker for five years. So he meets with all these big-shot
conductors, which is cool. But it’s such a different world, from the classical, the musical, and the pop. And I kind of like the fact that musical lies in between. It’s a mish-mash. And these guys, they live for music. And they’ve made such a career and done so much, and they’ve never
been to a musical, more or less. So they’re like, “What is that? Sounds nice. Maybe I will try to come.” And you’re like, “Dude, go.” And the same thing with pop producers, and people in that industry – “Musicals? What’s that?” And it’s also a problem, because in that business you don’t
get taken seriously, being a musical singer.

Absolutely – a little off-topic, but it drove me crazy during the American Idol competition, one of the contestants, they kept telling him, “You’re singing too Broadway”. And it was like that was a bad thing!

Yeah. To them, that is a bad thing. I’ve worked with some producers as well, that say, oh, it sounds too musical. And I hate that, because musical consists of so much, and to use it as a label, that’s totally false. Because there’s anything from the rock – like John Farnham has also
done musicals. All the extremes are there. Like Quasimodo in Notre Dame de Paris.

And your mother is in music as well?

My mother is head of a school in Stockholm, an arts school, which has all genres, everything from film, photo, but mostly singing and instruments. But they do everything there, it’s amazing. It’s a big house in the centre of Stockholm where a lot of students go, a lot of young people.

And what does your brother do?

He’s a tennis player.

So he’s the freak of the family then!

Yeah. He’s coming next week, I’m so happy about that. He’s celebrating his 19th birthday next week with me here. That’s cool, I haven’t seen him in a long time. But he’s not – he has a great voice, but he’s not into it. He loves music, and he loves what I do, and he’s my biggest fan in that
way. I send him some stuff, and he’s also a critic, so if it’s not good… But some things he really likes, and then he listens to it the whole time, going on and on and on. That’s sweet.

Along with performing in both Vienna and St. Gallen this winter, Jesper is working on his CD, and will most likely be appearing in West Side Story in Bregenz again next summer. You can keep up-to-date on his activities at his official site,
fan club website, or my own fan site. But before you go…