Greg Stone

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! :-)