Six Jesus Christ Superstar Finalists Revealed

Updated 14th July:  This list has changed slightly since the finalists were revealed in tonight's show.  Find the final 10 in the line up here.

Today’s Daily Mail has revealed six of the finalists who have got through to the live ITV shows searching for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Photo above is courtesy of the Mail.

As already revealed, the first Superstar broadcast goes out next Saturday at 7:25 pm showing the audition process and whittling down to the final 12 contestants.  There is a TV special audience preview show on Friday 13th, and then live shows every evening for a week from 16th July so that the public can watch the chosen few perform and vote for their favourite to join the arena tour which kicks off at London’s O2 Arena in September. 

The six finalists who have been revealed today are Seamus Cullen who came ninth in the 2007 BBC series Any Dream Will Do.  Andrew Lloyd Webber was then looking for someone to play the lead in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which Lee Mead subsequently won.  Cullen went on to star as Che Guevara in a touring production of Evita, but is now back doing ad sales.

Jeff Anderson from Belfast is studying vocal production at university.  He got a singing award for playing Jesus in an amateur production of the musical in Belfast last November.

Roger Wright is the most experience professional having played Simba in the West End production of The Lion King for  three years. He was a fashion model for 10 years before becoming a musical theatre performer.

Simon Gordon is a law student from Dundee. The part-time wedding singer has performed in musical theatre since he was five years old. 

David Hunter was part of Indie group Reemer who toured with McFly.  The band split and David moved from Warrington to London to try and break into the theatre scene. He is a trained actor and understudied for Oliver Chris in the National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors.

Adam Weldon from Stourbridge won an episode of talent show New Faces in 1986 and has performed as a cruise singer for twenty years.

I suspect the other four finalists who have not been revealed will hold the real  surprises as I know a number of professional musical theatre performers who auditioned for this role and are sworn to secrecy over the outcome.