Carrie St. Louis Accelerates Six Month Anniversary of Sterling's Upstairs

The combination of music (mostly Broadway and Great American Songbook fare) and California gourmet cuisine at this North Hollywood, NoHo Arts District hot spot, registers cool chic as Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal which - by its very mission - engages thoughtful sensibilities and the good taste of its namesake and producer Michael Sterling.  In other words, Sterling's offering of a west coast supper club with an east coast mentality translates to New York style cabaret planted smack dab in the middle of movie town, USA.  And to seal the deal, talent like Lainie Kazan, Tony Award winners Faith Prince and Daisy Eagan; Tony nominee Euan Morton; Broadway's Kim Huber, Beth Malone, Jason Graae, Melody Hollis, Kay Cole, Ilene Graff, Cortes Alexander, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland Records monthly salutes, and a host of other musical theatre A-listers from one side of the county to the have appeared on the stage at Sterling's.   But they're not the only performers who illuminate Sterling's Upstairs (formerly housed at Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City, CA) now in its 6^th year of operation, and 6^th month at The Federal.      

Each season at Sterling's Upstairs, Sterling and associate producer Tony Monsour present LA's Next Great Stage Star®, a unique musical theatre competition created by the duo in 2006 to discover new talent for the musical theatre stage.  Twenty contestants compete for the title during a six week run in front of a live audience and an overall panel of 15+ prominent regional theatre producers, artistic directors, directors, casting directors and LA's top Equity agents.  With no eliminations until the spectacle's final competition, the event (along with other prizes) offers a $1000 cash prize, private auditions at Southland theatres, and a headlining appearance at Sterling's stage for the winner and top four finalists.   

On Monday, October 8, Stage Star 2012's first runner-up Carrie St. Louis, a recent graduate from USC's Thornton School of Music, brought her wares to market in front of a near sell-out crowd ... the perfect pay off for a young woman whose career was jump started by LA's Next Great Stage Star which, in turn, got her agency representation, two co-starring roles in regional Los Angeles theatre: the West Coast premiere of The Fix, a hard-hitting, political rock musical at International City Theatre's Long Beach Performing Arts Centre; and the world premiere of Justin Love, a new hit "Hollywood Show Biz" musical currently playing at Hollywood's noted Celebration Theatre.  Substantial "here say" also says that St. Louis' next starring role will be as the female lead in a Broadway musical slated to sit down at a major Las Vegas hotel for a long term engagement beginning this December.  

Judging, if only by by her cabaret concert debut at Sterling's Upstairs, it is abundantly clear that this uber talented, blonde haired, blue eyed beauty will succeed on any stage, anywhere, any time.  She is made for the theatre and brings to it layers of brilliant color ... not only as an extraordinary singer, but a richly committed actress who is years beyond her young age.   Opening with more recently traditional musical theatre numbers such as Gimme, Gimme and Show Off (respectively from Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Drowsy Chaperone), St. Louis' 60 minute set was complimented by touching takes on the classics Edelweiss and Somewhere Over the Rainbow; and a delicate end-of-show encore of the seldom heard Mira from Carnvial.   However, the spirit of St. Louis took flight with an unexpected operatic turn to Le Charme and Si mes vers avaient des ailes by Reynaldo Hahn; a playful segment with original pop musical theatre compositions by her musical director Gregory Nabours (who dazzled at the piano); and an emotionally wrenching performance of See I'm Smiling from Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, the song that ultimately earned her the 1^st runner-up spot in LA's Next Great Stage Star.   St. Louis also delivered the rock hard goods necessary to cement her versatility with two retro pop tunes More Than Words and Harden My Heart as featured most recently in Broadway's Rock of Ages.  All in all... Miss St. Louis accelerated the sixth month anniversary of Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal; and if, ten months ago, she represented undiscovered Los Angeles talent waiting in the wings... suffice it to say that she's most definitely arrived down stage, front and center.