JESUS, Gary! What would the BRO do without you?! Eleanor Ramsay is the woman responsible for staging Jesus Christ Superstar, and is also a close friend of Gary! I had a couple of questions to ask her, about working with G and about his future with the BRO...

RnS: Now that Gary has joined Van Halen, does he still plan to perform with BRO (in future productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, for example)?

ELEANOR: Gary would like very much to do JCS and possibly other shows with BRO in the future. Obviously everything is dependent on Van Halen’s touring and recording schedule which, of course, takes priority. (Their record is almost finished, tentatively out in March with tour to start in May (I think) in Europe). There are very, very, very tentative plans to stage JCS, with Gary, in December ‘97.

RnS: And what was it like working with Gary?

ELEANOR: Gary is very committed to the concept of BRO. He, as you can imagine, is easy to work with, very professional, fearless, serious and spiritual. He also has a great sense of humor which becomes more apparent the longer you know him. He enjoyed being one of the gang, didn’t want any special treatment and participated in the auditions, group exercises and vocal warm-ups. He also helped out on mundane tasks like strike (removing everything after the show is done) and, of all things, setting up the seating. It became sort of a joke, but he found it relaxed him. Every night before the performances he’d be out in the hall perfecting it. The guy whose job it was to handle the seating didn’t know what to think!

In fact, because Gary is such a down to earth person it’s easy to forget that he’s also a big star. It is always strange when we go into production and need security and such because during rehearsal he moves around unnoticed and unharassed. I’m afraid that with his new job in Van Halen he’ll lose that bit of anonymity that, I think, he cherishes. In fact, it’s already happening.

Gary has become a good friend of mine. He’s one of those people, that, when you become friends with him, you feel like you’ve known him all your life. I only met him in 1994, after he was a star, but I feel like part of his family, and he’s part of mine. I believe that this unpretentious honesty is one of the things that appealed to Eddie Van Halen. I don’t know him, but from what I heard from talking to Gary he’s also a straight-ahead guy who happens to be a rock star.

RnS: Are videos and merchandise from the show still available through Working Media?

ELEANOR: Generally [the] tapes are not available. They were made primarily as a keepsake for the performers. I have made them available to overseas fans, sort of on a case-by-case basis. The cost of the tape [$35 each] is considered a donation to BRO. There are a few t-shirts from 1996 available, they are US $20, until we run out, and posters (beautiful illustration of Gary) from the 1996 show are available for US $10. Boston Rock Opera is no longer operating through Working Media. Our new address is: Boston Rock Opera, 10 Cameron Ave, Somerville, MA 02144 USA. Anyway, good luck with the fanzine. The guys, sans Nuno, got together New Years Eve and jammed - Paul Geary on drums - so I’m sure they’ll put out more stuff in the future, although it may have to wait awhile!