JESSE ST. JAMES SHINES AS BROADWAY'S NEWEST PHANTOM
He would always remember his excitement when he got the news; his performance of "If I Can't Love Her" that had clinched the audition, how he'd wanted to tell everyone he knew.
But, no matter how many he'd listen to the wannabe on stage with him and try to fake even one speck of the Phantom's professed love for Christine, he knew something didn't feel right.
To think that, "The Phantom of the Opera", in all its grand sweeping majesty, could ever compare to a simple performance of a Lionel Richie song in a small-town music store. That time he knew that the person singing with him was his musical soulmate. And then there was what that led to; New Directions, the first time he ever felt free to be himself as a singer, if even for that brief month. They had been the closest he had to family whereas Vocal Adrenaline just backed him up. And Rachel, her passion, her determination, her voice, she was the best part.
Screw plasticized blonde starlets. Screw big Broadway stages. Jesse St. James was the Phantom and Rachel Berry was his angel of music.